Rome & China.

This is coolbert:

Here are some web sites that discuss Roman legionnaires in China, circa 2000 years ago.

Sound weird, doesn't it? That the Romans could have gotten that far. Well, read for yourself:

click here and click here.

Comments:

* Crassus, who led the Romans in battle against the Parthians, the latter of who which were victorious, was at the time reputed to be the richest man in the world. From his name comes the English world "crass".

This Crassus is the same man who defeated Spartacus and crucified the remaining slave rebels.

Chinese dominion at the time of the Han Empire extended as far west as what is now Lake Balkash.

So it would not be beyond the realm of possibility that Roman mercenaries and Chinese soldiers would have fought in combat in this area.

* It should be possible to see if these persons who claim descent from the Romans are actually what they claim. DNA testing could solve this riddle in a real hurry. And we should not dismiss any genealogy that the locals claim either. It is a fact that in India, peasants can chant their lineage back over one hundred generations to that Aryan invader who originally set foot as a conqueror in the sub-continent.

* There is another possibility for Roman mercenaries in China. It is also chronicled in the Chinese annals of the Han Empire of men raiding coastal cities of southern China that in appearance, tactics, and weaponry, resembled Romans.

Seems someone during the Vietnam War researching foreign military involvement in the Indo-China region came across this fact. This could possibly have been mercenaries sailing from India and raiding the coastal cities that they would have heard existed.

It is known that Rome did have established trading colonies in India during the time of the Caesars and there were Romans resident in these trading stations. It is not beyond reason that legionnaires heard of the easy and opulent pickings eastward and formed expeditions to conduct what would now be called piracy. Research into this history could be provide some interesting developments.

coolbert.