Chapters
The history of the world is full of meetings – and sometimes even clashes – between completely different civilizations. The most famous examples of such interactions are the colonization and conquest of the so-called New World, i.e. both Americas by Europeans, starting from the very end of the 15th century, invasions of nomadic Mongols from the 13th century, reaching as far as Central Europe and the Balkans, or the long expeditions of the Vikings approximately 1000 CE, which took them as far as North America, where they encountered natives – skraelings.
The greatest warriors of the ancient world – the Romans – also fought wars with exotic opponents, such as Nubians, Berbers, Arabs, Picts and finally Huns. On the other hand, however, intercultural contacts had a peaceful face: it is enough to recall the stories of many generations of merchants and travelers traversing Eurasia from antiquity to the modern era along various routes, which in the 19th century became known under the collective name of the Silk Road. Contrary to popular opinion, the most important routes of this trade system in ancient times led through the waters of the Indian Ocean: spices and other luxury items (such as the famous figurine) reached the Roman Empire from India through the cosmopolitan port in Alexandria, Egypt. goddess Lakshmi found in the ruins of Pompeii), from here also masses of silver flowed in the opposite direction, which had an impact on the course of the so-called crisis of the third century. In this article, however, we will go even further, to China, to see how inhabitants of such distant places as the Middle Kingdom and the Roman Empire contacted each other, what they thought about each other, as well as when and in what circumstances there could have been a direct meeting between them.
[ramka_z_zdjeciem img=”134975″ alt=”Ivory figurine of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi discovered in Pompeii” cloud=”Wikipedia” imgw=”250″ float=”right”]Ivory figurine of the Hindu goddess discovered in Pompeii Lakshmi, 1st century CE[/ramka_ze_zdjeciem]
China and Rome – powers at the edge of Eurasia
Despite the enormous distance and obstacles in the form of steppes and wastelands separating Roma from the Middle Kingdom, the history of both empires is similar in some respects. Both flourished at a similar time, in the 3rd century BCE: Rome, still a republic, in the years 241-238 BCE, after its victory in the First Punic War against Carthage and the annexation of Sardinia, Corsica and most of Sicily, which were its first non-Italian possessions. , China, however, shortly later, in 221 BCE, after the semi-barbarian Qin state subjugated the country of Qi, the last of several kingdoms into which the Middle Kingdom had been divided since the 8th century BCE, and which stood in the way of Qin expansion in the 3rd century BCE However, both emerging powers did not stop there and later experienced years of their greatest glory.
[photo_frame img=”134967″ alt=”The Empire of the Western Han Dynasty (206/202 BCE-9 CE) at its greatest extent,” cloud=”Wikipedia” imgw=”250″ float=”right”]The Empire of the Western Han Dynasty ( 206/202 BCE-9 CE) at its greatest extent, around 60 BCE[/ramka_ze_zdjeciem]
When, in the second half of the 2nd century BCE, the armed forces of Emperor Wu (Chinese: Wu-di) of the Western Han dynasty (206/202 BCE-9 CE), reigning in the years 141-87 BCE, reached the borders of Hellenistic Bactria located in Central Asia ( 256-ca. 120 BCE), the Romans were still far to the west, uncertainly setting foot in Asia Minor. And although over the course of the century they added to their achievements, among others: Gaul, Seleucid Syria and Ptolemaic Egypt, the position of the Hans decreased rapidly. Moreover, in the dying Roman republic of the 1st century BCE, it was marked by three great internal conflicts. However, with the advent of the new era, the power of China and Rome became essentially unchallenged again: in the Far Eastern Empire the old ruling family regained power, now ruling as the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE), while in the Eternal City the principate reigned (27 BCE -284 CE).
Both extremely distant powers had one more thing in common: the struggle with various peoples who were considered barbarians by the inhabitants of both Qin and Han China, as well as the republic and then the Roman Empire. In principle, every alien deserved this name, but in practice, both the Romans and the Chinese used different measures for different, more or less developed cultures. For the Sons of the She-wolf, the barbarians were primarily the Celts, whom they called Gauls, Germans, Iberians, Picts and Huns in Europe, as well as the Isaurians and Arabs in Asia or the Blemmias and Garamantes in Africa. The Chinese, in turn, competed with the Mongoloid Xiongnu, Xianbei and Rouran people living in the Great Steppe (and later also with the Kitans, Tanguts, Jurjans and Mongols), as well as with the proto-Vietnamese Yue people and the Tibeto-Burmese Nanzhao people from the subtropical zone.