What Did The Roman Empire And The Chinese Empire Know About Each Other?

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  • Опубликовано: 15 ноя 2024

Комментарии • 141

  • @Maiorianus_Sebastian
    @Maiorianus_Sebastian  2 месяца назад +4

    🤗 Join our Patreon community: www.patreon.com/Maiorianus

  • @florinivan6907
    @florinivan6907 2 месяца назад +35

    Getting from China to Rome was probably the ultimate challenge for explorers circa 100 AD.

    • @genovayork2468
      @genovayork2468 2 месяца назад +2

      Not really. They were close to max expansion to the west and east respectively.

    • @spikespa5208
      @spikespa5208 2 месяца назад +2

      Still enough relatively vague and unruly space between where all kinds of s___ could happen to a traveler.

    • @genovayork2468
      @genovayork2468 2 месяца назад +1

      @@spikespa5208 No lol, there were only two countries between them, both civilized empires: Kushania and Parthia.

    • @floridaman318
      @floridaman318 Месяц назад

      You'd be surprised. Once you know the way, it's much easier.

    • @ericsonhazeltine5064
      @ericsonhazeltine5064 26 дней назад +1

      @@spikespa5208yes indeed. Probably dangerous.

  • @gregorylittle1461
    @gregorylittle1461 2 месяца назад +37

    Had no idea that China and Rome knew each other so well. Excellent presentation!

    • @TheRezro
      @TheRezro 2 месяца назад +1

      Yup. They did.

    • @Anonymous------
      @Anonymous------ 2 месяца назад +1

      A Roman army deflected to China and lived there ever since, there are descendants of those Roman men still living in China today. Those Roman men all married Chinese women so all their descendants look more like Chinese with subtle European biological features.

    • @TheRezro
      @TheRezro 2 месяца назад

      @@Anonymous------ China border Russia. Mering white woman isn't anything anything particularly weird there.

    • @onisimcraciunescu1407
      @onisimcraciunescu1407 2 месяца назад

      @@Anonymous------ bro this is from a movie its fiction

    • @Anonymous------
      @Anonymous------ 2 месяца назад

      @@onisimcraciunescu1407
      It is true history, there is at least one documentary made about this, DNA tests show those people carry European genes related to Romans. Those people have oral history of their ancestors came from the ancient Roman Empire.

  • @Muramasa1794
    @Muramasa1794 2 месяца назад +61

    The Great Han Empire or “Da Han.” The empire was so influential for Chinese society that even today in China the people are called “Han Chinese”

    • @eodyn7
      @eodyn7 2 месяца назад +2

      Some call them ChiComms.

    • @Fatherofheroesandheroines
      @Fatherofheroesandheroines 2 месяца назад +1

      Actually no. The Han are just one ethnicity in China. China has multiple ethnicities that make up the country.

    • @Muramasa1794
      @Muramasa1794 2 месяца назад +4

      @@Fatherofheroesandheroines well that’s my point they are called “Han”

    • @Vickzq
      @Vickzq 2 месяца назад +1

      ​@@Fatherofheroesandheroines
      While that is true, almost every dynasty, even with different name, were Han... pretty much with only exceptions of first, last and mongol invasion.

    • @TheRezro
      @TheRezro 2 месяца назад

      And don't forget that Hans symbolically ruled most of Asia, as title of local rulers was Khan.
      As representative of the "Han". More you know 🌈

  • @erniegutierrez2288
    @erniegutierrez2288 2 месяца назад +9

    Stefan Milo covered this topic a few months ago. He came across a local museum while in Vietnam and saw a Roman coin from the time of Marcus Aurelius. he also has an excellent channel. Great Video Great topic! "Like"

  • @justinianthegreat1444
    @justinianthegreat1444 2 месяца назад +14

    The last interaction between Rome and China was when Zhu Yuanzhang or the Hongwu Emperor sent a diplomatic letter to the Emperor John VIII Palaialogos

  • @RadiAsenov3
    @RadiAsenov3 2 месяца назад +9

    Hello, Sebastian! I am a fan of Roman history and study history at university. I would like say my congratulations to you for your work. It is great what you do and I am delighted from knowledge, which you have.
    I would like to ask you if you could make a video about Roman colonies (colonial trade towns) in modern-day South India. I also would like ask were they Roman trade-towns or outposts easter than India in today's Malaysia or and in other countries in Southeast Asia?
    Thank you.

  • @emil3f
    @emil3f 2 месяца назад +67

    Fun fact: the chinese thought that to make the world stable, in both extrems there should be one empire, in the east, China (Qin), in the west, the Roman Empire, or also called "Anti China", or Da Qin. When the spanish arrived in the phillipines in the XVI century, they made contact with the chinese, and thought that the empire of Phillip the II was that old Da Qin but with another dinasty, because they thought the roman empire would have had a similar fate to the Han dinasty. In some places of China today Spain is still called DaQin

    • @arx3516
      @arx3516 2 месяца назад +9

      The chinese would have bene disappointed from learning that It was just a Splinter of the old empire.

    • @emil3f
      @emil3f 2 месяца назад +11

      @@arx3516 well, lets not forget that a lot of chinese dinasties started as rump states or even non chinese states. For sure they would have known that experience

    • @markmuller7962
      @markmuller7962 2 месяца назад +6

      There are many discussions on the real meaning of "Da Qin". Chinese sources are starting to leak in saying that the correct translation is "Western Kingdom" so no reference to a twin (glorious and advanced) empire of the Chinese one

    • @emil3f
      @emil3f 2 месяца назад +6

      @@markmuller7962 oh, thanks for the information! As far i know, they also called with a different name to the eastern roman empire

    • @gomahklawm4446
      @gomahklawm4446 2 месяца назад

      You must think education in China is what your western propaganda has told you. No one think that. You'd have to be a propagandized moron to think Chinese people think this....just.....wow.

  • @patrickmizelle9001
    @patrickmizelle9001 2 месяца назад +12

    In the later Middle Ages there were numerous embassies and letters back and forth between the successor to the Western Empire, the Vatican, and the Mongol Court at Karakorum

    • @genovayork2468
      @genovayork2468 2 месяца назад +1

      Successor 😂

    • @raduraducu2668
      @raduraducu2668 Месяц назад

      @@genovayork2468 it was the last latin instituion ,and the popes were latin patricians.

    • @genovayork2468
      @genovayork2468 Месяц назад

      @@raduraducu2668 No.

    • @raduraducu2668
      @raduraducu2668 Месяц назад

      @@genovayork2468 after the fall of the west only one intitution was not tered down by germanics :the latin church .
      The hole elite was killed or disinherid and the latin democratic institutions were replaced by tyranical feudalisem , but some latins mageg to got rich as tenants in chief for the illiterate lords and the bishops with the Pope being the most powerful western roman and then managed to convert the invaders and then controled them.

    • @genovayork2468
      @genovayork2468 Месяц назад +1

      @@raduraducu2668 An institution is not a successor of a country.

  • @drraoulmclaughlin7423
    @drraoulmclaughlin7423 2 месяца назад +5

    Great to see this important subject brought to wider attention 🙂 And amazing visuals!

  • @lerneanlion
    @lerneanlion 2 месяца назад +11

    Had the Great Han embassy go through a little more and did not believe of the words of the Parthian Empire, they will actually the Roman Empire's eastern borders at Syria for real.

  • @harpoen7358
    @harpoen7358 2 месяца назад +11

    Very interesting video you made. Maybe a good idea to make a video of explorations the Romans made outside the Roman Empire to discover new places and why they made those explorations. I know that during the reign of Nero an exploration was made to Denmark.

  • @liberatumtaiwanae3580
    @liberatumtaiwanae3580 2 месяца назад +12

    Love from Taipei. As a student of history who love both Roman and pre-Sung history, I actually read the original Han-shu-s (2 series btw). Someone else commented before something like that the Chinese believed in balance in both sides of World so must be another huge empire across the flat world. Ok, not really. This is probably based on later Chinese common saying until today "4 sides and 8 corners" represents the World. Or maybe a revisionist historian view? But none of Han dynasty cared of the "balance empire" because for the Han, their own empire is the CENTER of the World. When a decree or envoy be sent by Han imperial court, it or he would mention "if you on the far end of the world" so relative to the Han emperor SITTING AT CENTER. Now the reason was Han worldview believed that the Heaven (somehow like gods in Rome, just more ambiguous) has the invisible hands that manage the rightful claims of controlling the world. In another word, the Heaven already CHOSE the Han emperor to control the world, so as long as the Han governance would not betray the Will of Heaven, he should be the ultimate ruler of the World. The balance of the World was done through the Han emperor, not any other entity or competing empire.

    • @Jediben001
      @Jediben001 2 месяца назад

      So would they have seen the Romans as just another group of barbarians?

  • @RadiAsenov3
    @RadiAsenov3 2 месяца назад +7

    Could you make a video about Roman expeditions southern Sahara desert? Were there actually were Romans (military units, traders or another people), who could managed to reach Equatorial Africa? Were Roman outposts or trade been established in Sahara desert or south of it?

  • @jamescaan870
    @jamescaan870 2 месяца назад +9

    It's my understanding silk worms were most likely brought from central Asia. This is more likely because by that time silk had already spread to central Asia and was no longer a Chinese monopoly

    • @elha7982
      @elha7982 2 месяца назад +1

      Yeah there's a tale from a chinese princess hiding silk worms in her hair when she was married off to a foreign tribe. Thus ending the monopoly.

  • @krissaberhagen
    @krissaberhagen 2 месяца назад +3

    cool armor dudes. right back at you dude

  • @morgan97475
    @morgan97475 2 месяца назад +2

    Great video. Thanks for this.

  • @ale_s45
    @ale_s45 2 месяца назад +2

    Very interesting as usual

  • @ALTAJR-07
    @ALTAJR-07 2 месяца назад +4

    The large and considerable BLUE and WHITE Chinese PORCELAIN Collection in the TOPKAPI PALACE MUSEUM in Istanbul TURKEY was a Surprise to me the first time I saw them. I had no idea till then that the Eastern Roman Empire and their Successors the BYZANTINES had been Trading with Ancient China for over a THOUSAND YEARS!

    • @John-qd5of
      @John-qd5of 2 месяца назад +1

      The Ancient Romans traded indirectly with China. They got silk from China, but through middlemen. So by the time it reached Trajan and Hadrian, it was extortionately-priced.

    • @groscolisdery1158
      @groscolisdery1158 2 месяца назад +1

      the blue and white porcelain of the Topkapi arrived with the Mongolian domination over Asia. Mongols were great to China as they secured trades through land roads.
      BRICS is a modern successor of the Mongolian empire. Just don't tell it to Chinese.

  • @magnushorus5670
    @magnushorus5670 2 месяца назад +2

    Great channel, interesting topic, would make for a good historical fiction movie

  • @carlosfilho3402
    @carlosfilho3402 2 месяца назад +3

    An interesting video!

  • @jonnmiller8045
    @jonnmiller8045 2 месяца назад +4

    You rocked 😊

  • @RadiAsenov3
    @RadiAsenov3 2 месяца назад +1

    Hello, Sebastian! I am a fan of Roman history and study history at university. I would like say my congratulations to you for your work. It is great what you do and I am delighted from knowledge, which you have.
    I would like to ask you if you could make a video about Roman colonies (colonial trade towns) in modern-day South India. I also would like ask were they Roman trade-towns or outposts easter than India in today's Malaysia or and in other countries in Southeast Asia?
    Thank you.

  • @issaelynuma9001
    @issaelynuma9001 2 месяца назад +1

    Good video

  • @Erewhon2024
    @Erewhon2024 2 месяца назад +1

    I always thought of it as 3 world powers: Rome, Parthia/Persia, and China.

  • @TheRezro
    @TheRezro 2 месяца назад +1

    Chinese were actually close to establishing direct contact with Rome. But Chinese ambasador was scammed in Arabia and forced to return. He didn't even know who close he was! He was directly on the border.

    • @PsychoGemini
      @PsychoGemini Месяц назад +1

      That was Gan Ying. He did indeed get very close. What is ironic is that maybe 20 years later Emperor Trajan would stand almost exactly where Gan Ying stood at the Persian Gulf. Voices of the Past did a great video on this. The mention is at this point in the video. ruclips.net/video/CO3senO4JZ0/видео.htmlfeature=shared&t=3741

  • @LordWyatt
    @LordWyatt 2 месяца назад +2

    I think when the southernmost people become blacker, and the Indians and Persians had darker skin, I’d bet seeing the first oriental people would be a shock with their skin and eyes. Doesn’t surprise me if they thought they came from another world. I wonder if they had similar feelings about the Huns…

  • @davidlosadasoler
    @davidlosadasoler 2 месяца назад +1

    Great!

  • @lipingrahman6648
    @lipingrahman6648 2 месяца назад +2

    I don’t know why but these AI generated images creep the fuck out of me when they move.

  • @carlosfilho3402
    @carlosfilho3402 2 месяца назад +1

    Could you talk about the relationship between Rome and Japan?This theory is more recent, so much so that coins of Constantine were found in Japan.

  • @gula_rata
    @gula_rata 2 месяца назад +23

    The Romans, Persians and Chinese should have had a more international vision and formed a solid alliance against the Northern Barbarian tribes and Southern Islamic cult, which was a threat to their civilizations.

    • @ZxZ239
      @ZxZ239 2 месяца назад +10

      Islam during the time expanded as far as Central Asia and was stopped there by China, battle of Talas was the direct conflict between between the 2 power, and China actually lost this battle, but it inflicted horrible causality on the Arab armies and with it, the Islamic force never made any more attempt at Eastern expansion.
      Before this, Central Asia was almost the same culture as China, for example the most famous Chinese Poet Li Bai was born in modern day Kyrgyzstan.
      The battle of Talas wasn't actually a devesting defeat for China, which was the Tang dynasty at the time, and it was very possible for them to reinforce their military and push Islam out, BUT then China went into the most devastating civil war soon afterwards (An Lushan rebellion) and Cental Asia for them was too far to spend their limited resources on, and eventually Central Asia became Islamic.
      Also the last Persian royal family flet into China and they were given important title and posts, they kept lobbying China for the reconquest of their homeland, but nothing came out of it, and eventually their descendent became Chinese and are lost to history. Google Peroz III, his wikipedia page is a good read.
      I think this is as far as China did in its interaction with the inital wave of Islam.

    • @iplay3d952
      @iplay3d952 2 месяца назад

      No, that is not what happened. China was very far for the Arabs to try it's conquest​@@ZxZ239

    • @eonthinker100yrago8
      @eonthinker100yrago8 2 месяца назад +1

      @@ZxZ239Central Asia was never like China. The people of Central Asia had Turkic and Iranic culture and still do despite their religion.

    • @genovayork2468
      @genovayork2468 2 месяца назад +1

      Islam was a boon to trade and China respected the Caliphate much more than Iran and Rome.

  • @skull99crusher16
    @skull99crusher16 2 месяца назад +6

    Please make a video on Indian and Roman Empire trade and relation

  • @patnor7354
    @patnor7354 2 месяца назад +2

    Goods do not equal roman traders. The goods may have arrived through intermediaries.

  • @piedmontatl
    @piedmontatl 27 дней назад +1

    Thanks for not calling it the Byzantine Empire, which never existed.

  • @georgepapatheofilou6118
    @georgepapatheofilou6118 2 месяца назад

    Thumbs up lad 👍 .

  • @genovayork2468
    @genovayork2468 2 месяца назад +1

    Beijing did not exist, it was Dadu.
    The monks' expedition went north of the Caspian and Caucasus, not through them lmao.

  • @gregorylittle1461
    @gregorylittle1461 2 месяца назад

    Thanks!

  • @warrenfranklin7062
    @warrenfranklin7062 2 месяца назад +2

    I loved this episode! Fascinating! For some reason, I was very moved when I learned the Byzantine Romans actually intermarried with Kublai Khans granddaughters! The meeting and merging of the descendants of two fraternal civilizations at opposite poles of Eurasia!

    • @justinianthegreat1444
      @justinianthegreat1444 2 месяца назад

      Kublai Khan and his family are mongols, invaders, and barbarians. Just like the Manchu Qing dynasty.

    • @Maiorianus_Sebastian
      @Maiorianus_Sebastian  2 месяца назад

      Hi Warren, yes, this is really fascinating, I didn't know this as well prior to making this video, it is indeed a very beautiful thing. The friendship between the Romans and the Chinese grew ever stronger, it is a pity though, that this was then brought to an end by the Fall of Constantinople :(

  • @josemuzquiz7146
    @josemuzquiz7146 2 месяца назад

    Also the Mexican emipire that was thrivimg at this time

  • @TimesFM4532
    @TimesFM4532 2 месяца назад

    If i where the empoper my priority assuming stability would be learning about the world

  • @kaloarepo288
    @kaloarepo288 2 месяца назад

    One could continue the saga by talking about the incredible embassies to China sent by the Roman Catholic church, in particular members of the Jesuit order, in an attempt to convert the emperor and therefore of China to Christianity. These priests and monks who were immensely learned and cognisant of the latest European scientific discoveries especially in astronomy, almost succeeded but the unwillingness of the papacy to allow a Chinese expression of Catholicism using Confucianist terminology, doomed the enterprise. But in the mean time the Jesuits brought the Chinese up to date with the Copernican and Keplerian cosmological discoveries even reforming the traditional Chinese calendar and that is still used today. The missionaries even introduced the Chinese court to European music and opera -the emperor is reported to have been so delighted with the style of music (baroque) that he insisted his own musicians learn the techniques. European styles of painting were also introduced especially the high degree of realism in European painting which the Chinese were not familiar with. Father Castiglione, an Italian priest, even did a series of scrolls in the Chinese style of painting .

  • @markc1234golf
    @markc1234golf 2 месяца назад

    Why are we surprised why wouldn't they not have been in contact with 😉

  • @andrewlankford9634
    @andrewlankford9634 2 месяца назад

    (They didn't directly)

  • @TWOCOWS1
    @TWOCOWS1 2 месяца назад +1

    Sebastien, if I may: the name "Silk Road" is an invention of the 18th century French. The road had no name since no particular item was associated with it. It is not a "sign of Chinese silk" whatever. Silk was produced in Khotan/Xinjang/East Turkistan, Central Asia and Persia, as much as in China. The Byzantines got them from the Khotanese producers. Anywhere that mulberry trees grow, you can have silk worms: they susbsist on the leaves. And those "blue eyed" worshippers seen in fabrics and frescoes in Xinjian ("Khotan") are the local Scythians, Sogdians and the Saka people, not the handful of "Greek' immigrants. Those people were all IndoEuropeans and their well preversed natural mummies are found today, going back to 4000 years ago who have blonde hair and wear kilts and tartans!

    • @genovayork2468
      @genovayork2468 2 месяца назад +1

      Xinjiang is in Central Asia, bar maybe only the south if considered South Asian.

    • @augustuscaesar8287
      @augustuscaesar8287 2 месяца назад

      Buddy, you're going to make some PC imbeciles very mad with your comment. But, veritas est.

    • @TWOCOWS1
      @TWOCOWS1 2 месяца назад

      @@genovayork2468 Yes it is, but it is also the only part of Cent Asia that is ruled today by the Chinese. I did not want Sebastien to take issue with that

    • @genovayork2468
      @genovayork2468 2 месяца назад +1

      @@TWOCOWS1 Inner Mongolia and Gansu are also partly in Central Asia.

    • @TWOCOWS1
      @TWOCOWS1 2 месяца назад

      @@genovayork2468 Not all of them. Just the western portions. Inner Mongolia goes into Manchuria, and Easter Gansu has been Han for 2200 years

  • @Don_Stanislao
    @Don_Stanislao 2 месяца назад

    Not true, the last independent Greek state was Ptolemaic Egypt.

  • @igetblow123
    @igetblow123 2 месяца назад +3

    Love your videos! Great channel 😊

  • @akuljbaba5914
    @akuljbaba5914 2 месяца назад +1

    Lez goo

  • @AlexVictorianus
    @AlexVictorianus 2 месяца назад

    Europe 🇪🇺 must rise and unite, to form a „Middle Kingdom“ in the West again.

  • @henkstersmacro-world
    @henkstersmacro-world 2 месяца назад +1

    👍👍👍

  • @josephphoenix1376
    @josephphoenix1376 2 месяца назад

    Likely slot more Contact... Undocumented!🤔😡

  • @paul1780
    @paul1780 2 месяца назад

    Comment for the algorithm.

  • @Marqk-
    @Marqk- 2 месяца назад

    Several instances where Roman representatives came to the Chinese court , dude show a source for one (not a vague mention of knowledge of, actual source) , this whole channel makes people dumber, this guy doesn’t know what a primary source is

  • @ZxZ239
    @ZxZ239 2 месяца назад +4

    I think Chinese empire still stands till this day, the empire at the time is gone and it has been replaced by a dozen newly established empires that were just as powerful and they too also rise and fall. However the continuous traditon of Chinese dynasty NEVER ended, modern day China is litearlly just another dynasty in the history of China, and I personally think they are going to make their mark on the human history, but this time with much more impact.
    Sadly once Rome fall, there was never anyone poweful enough to replace it and continued its history, however its history, culture continue to influence many subsequent culture that tries to reclaim the title of Rome, there were a few that came very close but it never happened. I think the cloest to Rome is literally modern day America, but in a way it also isn't.
    What I'm tryign to say is that the Chinese empire at the time of Rome, Han, Tang dynasty are FAR close to modern day China than Rome to America today.

    • @GRY890
      @GRY890 2 месяца назад +1

      Winnie the Pooh

    • @genovayork2468
      @genovayork2468 2 месяца назад +1

      Rome must have fallen.

  • @timo4463
    @timo4463 2 месяца назад

    Hello mr failed Phsyics student :)

  • @diakritika
    @diakritika 2 месяца назад

    There was a Roman legion who was defeated in Persia and finally ended up as Chinese mercenaries. They even describe their testudo formation.

    • @genovayork2468
      @genovayork2468 2 месяца назад +1

      Myth.

    • @diakritika
      @diakritika 2 месяца назад

      @@genovayork2468 Oh, sorry. Yes, myth: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liqian

    • @genovayork2468
      @genovayork2468 2 месяца назад

      @@diakritika Yes, myth.

  • @daylightliving8929
    @daylightliving8929 2 месяца назад

    but the chinese new the persians the persians knew the romans very well