Roman soldiers in China

Entering China from the depression of Mongolia, the modern visitor is in for a remarkable surprise. High on top of a Corinthian column stand two bronze figures, a Chinese and a Roman soldier greeting each other. Behind it, two rows of white columns line up in sharp contrast with the cloudless blue sky. 

A short distance away, a group of eleven, life-size Roman legionaries is immortalized in bronze. Behind it is the entrance gate to a Roman world in the style of Disneyland. The monument is a mixture of a Buddhist and a Roman temple with Ionic columns holding a pediment. A unique way to attract tourists to the Chinese frontier! What happened here? What triggered this staging? What is the truth behind this story? 

We must go back to 60 BC when Rome’s First Triumvirate was formed between Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. Pompey is envious of Caesar’s successes in Gaul and recent friendship with Crassus. They were three very different men who came together to achieve their own goals. Once they agreed to their role in this new form of government, Caesar returned to Gaul, Pompey stayed in Rome and Crassus went east.

Crassus was the richest man in Rome but he was not a military man. Still, he sought glory on the battlefield similar to that of his co-rulers, and decided to attack Asia Minor. His army was defeated by the Parthians and Crassus was killed at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC (see: Harran, better known under its Roman name Carrhae). Some 20,000 soldiers died on the battlefield and 4,000 returned to Syria. 

Yet 10,000 of his troops were taken prisoner by the Parthians (see: Who were the Parthians?) and sent to Margiana to man the frontier. In 36 BC, the Parthians forced the Roman prisoners to participate in the Battle of Zhizhi, Kazakstan, against the Chinese. The victorious Chinese of the Western Han Dynasty were so impressed by the fighting skills of their opponents that they took them to the city of Liqian or Li-chien – maybe a transliteration of Alexandria or the Roman word Legion - in the region of Gansu in western China. 

A number of inscriptions discovered in the Kara-Kamar caves on the border between eastern Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were written in Bactrian, Greek, Arabic, and Latin. The latter one was composed of three lines and was left by the Roman soldiers of the Pannonian Legio XV Apollinaris around the 2^nd century AD (see: First contacts with China). A proof that the Romans had been there? 

It is a fact that about 50% of the population of Liqian has green and blue eyes and a Roman aquiline nose. This may be wishfully attributed to the Roman presence some 2,000 years ago. Another theory circulates that the Chinese mingled with people from Siberia. As so often, it is unclear where history and legend start or end.

[top and bottom pictures from That's Mags]