So it is said . . .
Two thousand years ago, a band of
Roman soldiers were among the lone
survivors of a devastating battle against the
Parthians. The battle itself is a matter of
historical record: the
Roman army, led by
Marcus Licinius Crassus (part of
the First Triumvirate along with
Julius Caesar and
Pompey), was defeated by a Parthian army at
Carrhae, now
Haran, Turkey, in 53 B. C. E. Records suggest that 5500 of 6000 Romans fell to the Central Asian
cavalry and
archers. Roman
documents state that the
survivors were taken into
slavery by the
victors, and some were released in a
treaty thirty years later.
Now, in the
Han Dynasty records, we find some
fascinating entries. A
border patrol from China encountered a strange small
army that used
unusual tactics, including a "
fishscale" linked-shield defense (the famous
testudo?) and had
fortifications including a double ring of sharpened
stakes. Both
tactics,
military historians suggest, were then unique to the Romans.
This group surrendered to the Chinese, and settled in a
village that within a few
decades acquired the name
Liqian, the ancient Chinese name for
Rome. (China traded with Rome frequently--where do you think the Romans got all that decadent
silk, eh?)
Many villagers in today's town of
Zhelaizhai will tell you that they are the descendants of Romans. Physical evidence such as lighter hair and eyes may be meaningless, though, as
Turks and other
foreigners sometimes have been introduced into the
Chinese gene pool. But cultural and archaeological findings over the last few years are harder to argue with, such as Roman-style fortifications discovered surrounding the Liqian village site,
bronze medals that seem to indicate the
Emperor gave
amnesty to some foreign
soliders from Liqian, and still-surviving local traditions that seem to be related to
Etruscan-inspired
Roman bull-dancing and bull-
sacrifices.
It all reminds me of the
Jerry Pournelle sf novel,
The Janissaries. How must these Romans have felt, lost in
China, but alive and not fated to be
slaves? Did they learn the
language? did they
fall in love? What a
strange fate for these
men of Rome--and the
Han Chinese of
Zhelaizhai.