Melvadius Posted November 22, 2010 Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 I know that it mentions 'Roman' in the banner of this story from Newstrack India however in my view the claims for a 'lost Roman legion' in China are currently so much moonshine without much basis in fact. New Delhi, Nov 21 (ANI): Experts at the newly established Italian Studies Center at Lanzhou University in Gansu province are looking into the possibility that some European-looking Chinese in Northwest China are the descendants of a lost army from the Roman Empire. They will conduct excavations on a section of the Silk Road, a 7,000-kilometer trade route that linked Asia and Europe more than 2,000 years ago, to see if a legion of Roman soldiers settled in China, said Yuan Honggeng, head of the center, reports China Daily. "We hope to prove the legend by digging and discovering more evidence of China's early contact with the Roman Empire," said Yuan. ...continued I will reserve judgement until they can provide something a bit more Roman sounding than 'Western-looking people with green, deep-set eyes, long hooked noses and blond hair' Chinese as the basis of this theory. There were innumerable different tribes and racial groupings along the Silk Road several of whom seem much more likely candidates as the origins of this particular enclave. In my view what this group of 'anthropologists' really need are some 'archaeologists' to find and scientifically excavate a group of dateable burials that they can carry out isotope analysis on to see where the occupants grew up. Ideally these should contain something provably Roman in origin like some nice Italic pottery and more importantly some phalerae as these would indicate the burial of a centurion - something unlikely for a civilian merchant to have been lugging about China. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Neil Posted November 22, 2010 Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 Hmm... Tadjiks, Uighurs and Kyrgiz all look western/mediterranean in appearance. They reside on the edge of China and inside china itself. From the ancient world, Tocharians Greeks and Scythians probably contributed to their ancestry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhostOfClayton Posted November 22, 2010 Report Share Posted November 22, 2010 I really, really doubt anyone would march an entire legion THAT far into relatively unknown and hostile territory with no idea of the distance involved, whether they could get there and back in a season, etc. And what would they have to gain? Nipping over the border to occupy and/or plunder is possible, but to occupy distant and non-adjacent teritory? Plunder only what could be carried back? No way Jos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Neil Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 I really, really doubt anyone would march an entire legion THAT far into relatively unknown and hostile territory with no idea of the distance involved, whether they could get there and back in a season, etc. And what would they have to gain? Nipping over the border to occupy and/or plunder is possible, but to occupy distant and non-adjacent teritory? Plunder only what could be carried back? No way Jos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted November 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 Wasn't the legion supposed to have enslaved by the Parthians, and set to work at the opposite end of their empire? Yes this is the 'theory' which has been trotted out on an irregular basis since the original article about this group since the 1950's when Homer H. Dubs, a professor of Chinese history at Oxford University first mooted it. BTW I like the Wikipedia comments on Dubs: He did pioneering work on ancient Chinese astronomy, in particular the observance of eclipses. But the breadth of his education and interests combined with a fertile mind to lead him into curious directions. .......Another direction Dubs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crispina Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 Well, this would make a great plot for a novel that's all I can say. Roman legion gets lost and ends up in China. Title? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhostOfClayton Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 (edited) Well, this would make a great plot for a novel that's all I can say. Roman legion gets lost and ends up in China. Title? Falco in Huaxia "Last heard of having a hard time with the locals in Parthia, the Legio XXXV Magna Victrix seems to have vanished from the face of the known world, and the Emperor Vespasian isn't happy at all. And when the Emperor isn't happy, he usually calls for Marcus Didius Falco, Imperial Agent, and Rome's foremost investigator-for-hire. So Falco has a mission like none he's undertaken before. Risking dragons, Monkey Gods and strangely androgynous holy men, he must travel the mysterious Silk Road in search of oriental wisdom and an entire Roman Legion. Oh, . . and silks for Helena Justina." Edited November 23, 2010 by GhostOfClayton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Neil Posted November 23, 2010 Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 Well, this would make a great plot for a novel that's all I can say. Roman legion gets lost and ends up in China. Title? How about THIS?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted November 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2010 Alternatively according to at least one author if something similar to these event's in Gaul they may have ended up even further away than mysterious Cathay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crispina Posted November 24, 2010 Report Share Posted November 24, 2010 Well, this would make a great plot for a novel that's all I can say. Roman legion gets lost and ends up in China. Title? How about THIS?! Oh my gosh. There goes my idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crispina Posted November 24, 2010 Report Share Posted November 24, 2010 Well, this would make a great plot for a novel that's all I can say. Roman legion gets lost and ends up in China. Title? Falco in Huaxia "Last heard of having a hard time with the locals in Parthia, the Legio XXXV Magna Victrix seems to have vanished from the face of the known world, and the Emperor Vespasian isn't happy at all. And when the Emperor isn't happy, he usually calls for Marcus Didius Falco, Imperial Agent, and Rome's foremost investigator-for-hire. So Falco has a mission like none he's undertaken before. Risking dragons, Monkey Gods and strangely androgynous holy men, he must travel the mysterious Silk Road in search of oriental wisdom and an entire Roman Legion. Oh, . . and silks for Helena Justina." :lol: :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted November 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2010 From my current PC I can't see any authorship information on this item on the 'Discover' website but IF the apparently unattributed genetic marker information quoted is accurate it does make the Roman attribution of the Liguan people even more unlikely No Romans needed to explain Chinese blondes Every few years a story crops up about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted December 3, 2010 Report Share Posted December 3, 2010 I remember watching a documentary (on History or Discovery channel) about this a couple of years ago. To expand on what Melvadius has already written above, I remember that Dubs's work entitled "A Roman City in Ancient China" was mentioned throughout the programme. According to him, somewhere in the annals of the Han dynasty, there is record of the capture of a Hun city named Zhizhi (located near Tashkent in Uzbekhistan) in 36 BC by the Chinese army. There the Chinese observed that the city defences were made of palisades of tree trunks and that the enemy fought in something similar to the testudo battle formation. Many prisoners were taken by the Chinese and apparently moved further east to a garrison town named Li-Jen (which sounds like "legion" is Chinese and is apparently the name the ancient Chinese used to refer to Rome). I'm not sure how plausible this theory is though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted December 3, 2010 Report Share Posted December 3, 2010 (edited) Well, this would make a great plot for a novel that's all I can say. Roman legion gets lost and ends up in China. Title? A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Parthia Strangers in a Strange Land The Eagle and the Dragon The Dragon Legion And my personal favorite: Scutum and Silk Edited December 3, 2010 by Ursus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viggen Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 A Roman Legion Lost in China? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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