Rome’s Creation of a Mediterranean Empire, 753 b. c.e.-330 c. e.
The Origins of Imperial China, 221 b. c.e.-220 c. e.
Comparative Perspectives
Diversity and Dominance: The Treatment of Slaves in Rome and China Environment and Technology: Water Engineering in Rome and China
According to Chinese sources, in the year 166 c. e. a group of travelers identifying themselves as delegates from Andun, the king of distant Da Qin, arrived at the court of the Chinese emperor Huan, one of the Han rulers. Andun was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the emperor of Rome. As far as we know, these travelers were the first “Romans" to reach China, although they probably were residents of one of the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, perhaps Egypt or Syria, and they may have stretched the truth in claiming to be official representatives of the Roman emperor. More likely they were merchants hoping to set up a profitable trading arrangement at the source of the silk so highly prized in the West. Chinese officials, however, were in no position to disprove their claim, since there was no direct contact between the Roman and Chinese Empires.
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We do not know what became of these travelers, and their mission apparently did not lead to more direct or regular contact between the empires. Even so, the episode raises some interesting points. First, in the early centuries c. e. Rome and China were linked by far-flung inter-
National trading networks encompassing the entire Eastern Hemisphere, and they were dimly aware of each other’s existence. Second, the last centuries b. c.e. and the first centuries c. e. saw the emergence of two manifestations of a new kind of empire.
The Roman Empire encompassed all the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea as well as substantial portions of continental Europe and the Middle East. The Han Empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the oases of Central Asia. The largest empires the world had yet seen, they managed to centralize control to a greater degree than earlier empires; their cultural impact on the lands and peoples they dominated was more pervasive; and they were remarkably stable and lasted for many centuries.
Thousands of miles separated Rome and Han China; neither influenced the other. Why did two such unprecedented political entities flourish at the same time? Historians have put forth theories stressing supposedly common factors—such as climate change and the pressure of nomadic peoples from Central Asia on the Roman and Chinese frontiers—but no theory has won the support of most scholars.
World History
