China and Ancient Rome

[Stravo]

I recall reading somewhere an interesting story that there are references in Han Chinese records to soldiers who were taken as slaves somewhere along the Silk Road and that they were assigned to defend a province close to where they were taken prisoner and the description of how they fought and their dress makes people believe these may have been Roman Legionaires.

There was also a related story of a Han Emperor (sorry can't recall the name) who may have ordered a military expedition to either attack Eastern Roman provinces or just assert Chinese authority. It never happened because of logisitical issues IIRC.

I find the concept fascinating of a meeting militarily and culturally between the great empire of the East and the one in the West at that time. Unfortunately I can't remember my source for these tales but if anyone has similar sources they can point me to I would love to read up on it.

What would a military conflict have looked like between China and Rome? I automatically assume that logistics and distance would adversely effect both empires in such a conflict but if they were determined to have at each other what sort of outcomes would we be seeing? I have very little knowledge of Chinese military technology or strategy at that time so I can only imagine from the movies I've seen which I'm sure are woefully inaccurate.

[ray245]

I recall reading somewhere an interesting story that there are references in Han Chinese records to soldiers who were taken as slaves somewhere along the Silk Road and that they were assigned to defend a province close to where they were taken prisoner and the description of how they fought and their dress makes people believe these may have been Roman Legionaires.

This is based on an article written by H.H. Dubs entitled "A Roman city in Ancient China" , although some of the follow up articles to this has disproved the theory that those people referenced are actually Romans.

Article written by Dubs.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/642135

Article disproving the theory.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2050695

[Thanas]

It is not disproved, but disputed.

As to the question, no military conflict was ever possible, due to there being a few empires in the way and logistics.


EDIT: We covered this in a large number of threads already.