once i read a novel written by valerio massimo manfredi, a famous italian historical writer, on a town founded in the ancient china by some ancient romans..that novel was based on some historical facts,according to Manfredi and nowadays someone livin in that chinese area would have some mediterranean phisical features not some chinese ones....
i've just found a link in english : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/02/wroman02.xml

i really loved that novel, and who knows, maybe there's some truth in that wonderful legend

Interesting article, Valentina. While it is possible that the Chinese people are descended from Romans I think it is more probable that they are descended from Varangians. The Varangians were known to have traveled to Russia where under Rurik they became the Rus and the forebears of the modern Russians. They also used the river systems of Eastern Europe and Western Asia to travel far south into Constantinople. Since they were traders who traveled widely and extensively it is very likely that they made it as far as China. Blond hair and tall bodies are more indicative of Scandinavian ancestry than Roman. The Romans tended to be darker of skin and hair and far shortere than the Scandinavians. They would not have had blonde hair and green eyes, something quite common among Scandinavians.

Interesting article, Valentina. While it is possible that the Chinese people are descended from Romans I think it is more probable that they are descended from Varangians. The Varangians were known to have traveled to Russia where under Rurik they became the Rus and the forebears of the modern Russians. They also used the river systems of Eastern Europe and Western Asia to travel far south into Constantinople. Since they were traders who traveled widely and extensively it is very likely that they made it as far as China. Blond hair and tall bodies are more indicative of Scandinavian ancestry than Roman. The Romans tended to be darker of skin and hair and far shortere than the Scandinavians. They would not have had blonde hair and green eyes, something quite common among Scandinavians.

well when marcus crassus lost against the parthians there were some hundreds of germans among his troops , thats why, maybe, some their chinese descendants have blond hair..however some time ago i found some italian sites where there were the descrptions of some ancient chinese battles (that are in some chinese chronicles) where some unknown troops had the same fields, tactics (the famous "testudo")and so on of the roman legions at the time of caesar, pompeus and crassus...according to the myth, those roman troops who lost against the parthians were carried on the eastern part of the ancient Parthia and just some hundreds of them escaped and got to the ancient china..i wish my eng was better to talk a bit more about this wonderful part of unknown history

Your English is extremely good, Valentina. Had you not told me you were from Italy I would not have known.

I don't know if there were German troops in Marcus Crassus' army. Foederati usually fought in a body and not as part of Roman armies but you may be correct. I haven't read enough on the subject to state anything with certainty.

In any case it is a very interesting article and thank you for posting it.

Say hello to Gianni Chiodi th e next time you see him.

nope, those germans weren't foederati at all, crassus took some german cavalery (dunno if it's the right eng word) because parthian cavalery was very strong and so he had to have a cavalery to save the wings of his troops..i'm impressed, my whole family voted for Chiodi some yrs ago, he's the best political man of my city in my opinion,how can ya know him?

I have a cousin who comes from the town of Catallano in Abruzzi. He and his twin brother were born on the day commerating the foundation of Rome and are named Romolo and Remo. Your home town is an ancient and well known place and it was easy to find the name of your mayor.

Question:

I notice you place the number 88 after your name. Is that the year of your birth? If the picture is of you, you look like you are about nineteen years old.

In any case ciao bellissima.

I am impressed by you knowledge of history. Most people find it to be a boring subject. You would probably enjoy posting with Dark Fantasy and Rendova, two more of our history fans.

I doubt is Crassus' German cavalry would have been of much use against th e heavily armored Parthian Cataphracts. The Partian cavalry was the Panzer Division of its time and there were few who could stop one of their charges. The German cavalry was more a harassing force that was meant for quick in and out manuevers. It could not have withstood a charge by the Cataphracts.

I have a cousin who comes from the town of Catallano in Abruzzi. He and his twin brother were born on the day commerating the foundation of Rome and are named Romolo and Remo. Your home town is an ancient and well known place and it was easy to find the name of your mayor.

Question:

I notice you place the number 88 after your name. Is that the year of your birth? If the picture is of you, you look like you are about nineteen years old.

In any case Cao bellisama.

I am impressed by you knowledge of history. Most people find it to be a boring subject. You would probably enjoy posting with Dark Fantasy and Rendova, two more of our history fans.
i'll be 19 in a few days' :) well one of my interests is the ancient history, especially the greek and the roman one, but my ex b/f usually said i wasn't well in my head when i started talkin about history to him :D nevertheless i have normal interests also, no worries...and yes that girl in my avatar is me :)

"ciao bellissima"? grazie ma non so se sei sposato, ma se lo sei è meglio che tua moglie non sappia che fai dei complimenti alle ragazze incontrate nei forum :)

I doubt is Crassus' German cavalry would have been of much use against th e heavily armored Parthian Cataphracts. The Partian cavalry was the Panzer Division of its time and there were few who could stop one of their charges. The German cavalry was more a harassing force that was meant for quick in and out manuevers. It could not have withstood a charge by the Cataphracts.

yea u are absolutely right..i'm really impresse
..but crassus wasn't a great general, and roman legions usually didn't use cavalery at all and maybe he thought :it's better to have a ridicolous cavalery (ridicolous in front of the Cataphrats) than nothing...but that's why crassus' army was defeated

Wow, that's so interesting! I can't wait to hear about the results of those DNA tests. It would be pretty amazing if recessive genes like light hair and green eyes had lasted so long!

Wow, that's so interesting! I can't wait to hear about the results of those DNA tests. It would be pretty amazing if recessive genes like light hair and green eyes had lasted so long!

i'm glad to see there are other people who find interesting these things :)
i've read on the net (i don't remember where, but it was the official site of "La Repubblica" or "il corriere della sera" 2 of the most popular italian newspaper) that some roman ruins,some old latin phrases on 2 of those ruins and some typical roman swords (the "gladius") were found in that area at the end of 1992

Interesting, I wonder if there will be any follow up data, or will the story just die?

Of course in addition to fighting there was trading and other peaceful communication between the Romans and the Far East. Both Empires were in the Indian Ocean at the same time.

Along the same lines as the story; there are many tales of groups of soldiers becoming lost in strange lands and remaining to form enclaves of their homelands.

I found this on the web:

There does indeed seem to be something in it,tho maybe 'northern mercanaries'working for the romans would explain things.

http://www.archaeology.org/9905/newsbriefs/china.html

I found this on the web:

There does indeed seem to be something in it,tho maybe 'northern mercanaries'working for the romans would explain things.

http://www.archaeology.org/9905/newsbriefs/china.html
i can't join that link dunno why :( by the way the germans that were in the crassus' army were something like mercenaries, even if the word "mercenary" isn't so correct if related to facts of the ancient roman world

The link is coming up for me,try it again.


Or,type 'Romans in China'

on Google.

The link is coming up for me,try it again.


Or,type 'Romans in China'

on Google.
lol well i'm at my pocket pc right now, i'll try again tomorrow by my laptop (i'm not at home right now :) )

cool

paulc: i've just seen that site, there's a short article there nevertheless it seems to be quite correct :) thanks for having found it