There is a very popular story out there about how, supposedly, in the first century BC, a group of Roman soldiers inadvertently wound their way across the Asian continent, fighting as mercenaries for various peoples and being captured by others, before eventually settling in China. It is a truly fascinating story, but, unfortunately, there is probably no truth to it.
The story of the so-called “lost Roman legion”
Let’s start out with the part of the story that we know really happened. In the 50s BC, the late Roman Republic was extending its influence into the Middle East. Much of the Middle East at that time, however, was ruled by the Parthian Persian Empire. This naturally brought the Romans and the Parthians into conflict. In around early May 53 BC, the Roman forces under the command of the general Marcus Licinius Crassus faced off against the Parthians at the site of Harran in what is now southeast Turkey in the Battle of Carrhae.
Everything that could have possibly gone wrong for the Romans went wrong. The Romans’ allies deserted them before the battle, taking with them nearly all the cavalry they had. The Parthian army they found themselves confronted by was made up of around 9,000 horse archers and around 1,000 cataphracts. Even though the Romans had vastly greater numbers, they were utterly trounced. Around 20,000 Romans were killed and around 10,000 more were captured. Crassus himself was beheaded. All in all, the battle was a humiliating defeat for the Romans.
ABOVE: Roman marble portrait head of Marcus Licinius Crassus, the Roman general who led the forces in the Battle of Carrhae. Crassus was beheaded by the Parthians. Those of his forces that survived and were captured were transported to the eastern borders of the Parthian Empire.
The Roman legionaries who survived the battle and were taken as prisoners by the Parthians were sent to the far eastern end of the Parthian Empire. No one knows for certain what happened to them next, but, in 1941, the American Sinologist Homer Dubs (lived 1892 – 1969) proposed an extremely audacious and speculative hypothesis.
In 36 BC, roughly seventeen years after the Battle of Carrhae, Chen Tang, the deputy commander to the governor of the Western Regions of Han Dynasty China, led a strike force a thousand miles west of the Han Dynasty’s borders to attack and kill the Xiongnu leader Zhizhi, who was at the time in the kingdom of Kangju, located in Central Asia in what is now Uzbekistan.
The History of the Former Han, a history of the Han Dynasty from 206 BC to 23 AD compiled in around 111 AD by the historian Ban Gu (lived 32 – 92 AD) based on earlier sources, records that, during Chen Tang’s raid on Zhizhi’s stronghold, “more than a hundred” of Zhizhi’s soldiers lined up “in a fish-scale formation.” The History of the Former Han also records that the city gate had a double palisade.
Dubs noticed the striking similarity between the “fish-scale formation” made by Zhizhi’s soldiers during Chen Tang’s raid as described in The History of the Former Han and the famous Roman testudo (i.e., “tortoise”) formation in which a group of Romans would overlap their shields both on the sides and the tops to give themselves complete shield coverage from the enemies. The mention of a double palisade also reminded him strongly of the Romans.
Dubs speculated that maybe the Romans who had been taken prisoners after the Battle of Carrhae could have been traded by the Parthians to Zhizhi or perhaps escaped the Parthians and joined Zhizhi. He proposed that, maybe, the soldiers who did the “fishscale formation” during Chen Tang’s raid actually were Roman soldiers.
The History of the Former Han records that, after Chen Tang’s raid, 145 enemy soldiers were captured and around a thousand surrendered. The prisoners were divided up as slaves among the various kings who had supported Chen Tang’s expedition. Dubs speculated that, maybe, the Romans were among those captured.
Dubs noticed that a Chinese census from around 5 AD records the existence of a town in the Gansu Province of northwest China called “Líqián” (驪靬), which was one of several Chinese names for the Roman Empire. Dubs speculated that this city might have been founded by the Romans whom he believed had been captured by the Chinese after the raid on Zhizhi’s stronghold.
ABOVE: Depiction of Roman soldiers in testudo formation from the Column of Trajan, which was constructed between c. 107 and c. 113 AD.
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of modern reenactors recreating a Roman testudo
Modern rebranding of Liqian (formerly Zhelaizhai)
When Dubs was writing, there was a city in Gansu Province at around the same location as the ancient city of Liqian known as Zhelaizhai. Many people in Zhelaizhai have features that are traditionally seen as European, such as high noses, pale skin, brown, red, or even blond hair, and blue or green eyes. Many people saw these physical features as proof that they were descended from members of the lost Roman legion that supposedly settled Liqian.
Over the past few decades, the city of Zhelaizhai has come to enthusiastically embrace the idea that some of the people there might be descended from members of a lost Roman legion. In effort to attract tourists, the city officially renamed itself “Liqian” after the ancient city. The city has also constructed a number of public monuments promoting the idea of its people’s Roman heritage.
For instance, Liqian erected a monument depicting a Hui Muslim woman, a Han scholar-official, and a Roman soldier. They erected another monument which included conventional representations of Roman soldiers alongside replicas of famous Roman sculptures, including the Augustus of Prima Porta and the Ludovisi Gaul. At least at one point, the city of Liqian was even talking about building a full-scale replica of the Colosseum.
At the Yongchang Museum, they even have an official video that they show to visitors explaining the thrilling tale of how Liqian was supposedly founded by Roman soldiers. Hilariously, though, the video uses footage from the 2007 fantasy action film 300—which is ostensibly about the Battle of Thermopylai, which was fought between a coalition of Greeks against the Achaemenid Persians and their allies in 480 BC—to represent the Battle of Carrhae, fought between the Romans and the Parthians in 53 BC.
Apparently the people who made the video cannot tell the difference between Greeks and Romans or the difference between Achaemenid Persians and Parthians. It is also apparent that no one told them how horribly inaccurate 300 is, since, as I discuss in this article I wrote in November 2019, the film is almost pure fantasy with very little basis in historical fact.
ABOVE: Monument in Liqian of a Hui Muslim woman, a Han man, and a Roman soldier
ABOVE: Photograph of the monument in Liqian with conventional representations of Roman soldiers alongside copies of various famous Roman statues, including the Augustus of Prima Porta and the Ludovisi Gaul
The “lost Roman legion” debunked
It is easy to see why Dub’s hypothesis has caught on. Who wouldn’t want to believe that there was a group of Roman soldiers who were captured by the Parthians, who fought as mercenaries for a Hunnic warlord, who were captured by the Han Chinese, and who ultimately settled down in a city in northwest China that they named after their homeland?
Unfortunately, Dub’s hypothesis is almost certainly incorrect and the evidence supporting it is almost comically flimsy. Let’s start out by looking at Dubs’s evidence for the presence of Roman soldiers at the raid of Zhizhi’s stronghold. First of all, we cannot even be sure that the “fishscale formation” mentioned in The History of the Former Han is even something that would resemble a Roman testudo at all; the reference is simply too vague to make any kind speculations based on it.
Even if the “fishscale formation” were indeed a Roman-style testudo, there is no reason to assume that the soldiers at Zhizhi’s stronghold were Romans themselves. Although the testudo formation and double palisade are characteristic of Roman-style warfare, these are ideas and tactics that someone else could have easily come up with independent of the Romans.
Furthermore, even if we assume that the “fishscale formation” was a Roman-style testudo and that the ideas for the testudo and double palisade did indeed come from the Romans, this would not necessarily mean that the soldiers at the battle must have been Romans themselves. In fact, it would actually make far more sense to assume that Zhizhi’s soldiers simply learned these tactics from the Romans.
We have no historical records that could possibly explain how a group of Roman soldiers captured by the Parthians could have wound up fighting as mercenaries for Zhizhi and, frankly, it sounds rather implausible. On the other hand, it is not entirely unreasonable to think that some of the forces fighting for Zhizhi could have encountered the Romans captured by the Parthians at some point and adopted some of their tactics. Certainly, a double palisade would have been easy to adopt. The testudo formation would have been more difficult, but we do not know if the “fishscale formation” was really a testudo anyways.
As for the existence of the town by the name of “Liqian,” this really means absolutely nothing. I personally do not speak Chinese, but I have consulted with someone who does and they have told me that the name Líqián literally means something like “Black Horse.” It is perfectly understandable why a town that was not founded by Roman soldiers might have a name like this.
Now, it has been pointed out that, in 9 AD, the name of the town of Liqian was changed to a phrase meaning “A Prisoner Raised Up,” but this does not really mean anything either, since there were lots of “prisoners” who were “raised up” in antiquity. None of this proves that the town was founded by Roman soldiers who had been captured during Chen Tang’s raid of Zhizhi’s fortress.
There are also serious problems here. No artifact of Roman origin has ever been found in the immediate area of Liqian—no Roman coins, no Roman weaponry, no Roman armor, no Roman anything. Furthermore, a genetic study conducted in 2007 on modern-day natives from the immediate area failed to detect any evidence of Italian ancestry in any of them. The study did detect some evidence of Indo-European ancestry in some of them, but, as I shall get to in a moment, this is hardly surprising and certainly does not constitute evidence of Roman ancestry.
Only a die-hard romanticist could fail to see the serious flaws in Dubs’s hypothesis here. Dubs builds speculation on top of speculation with only a few tiny tidbits of evidence tossed in along the way. The only reason why Dubs’s hypothesis is so popular is because it makes for such a thrilling story. The tale of a small group of Roman soldiers from Italy fighting and being captured all the way across Asia before eventually settling in northwest China in a city named after their homeland has all the making of an epic poem or a Hollywood film. Unfortunately, it probably never happened.
The real reason why so many people from Liqian look European
Many people are probably wondering, “Well, if they probably don’t have Roman ancestors, then why do so many people from Liqian look European?” The answer is that the reason why so many people from Liqian look European is because many of them probably have distant ancestors who ultimately came from Europe. Those European ancestors, though, probably weren’t Romans, but rather members of another nation—a nation that has been practically erased from history.
One thing that is often left out of the discussion over whether the Romans actually went to China is the fact that Liqian is not the only place in western China where you can find large numbers of people with features that we normally think of as “European.” There are actually people all throughout northwestern China with blond hair, blue eyes, pale skin, and other traditionally “European” features.
To find the reason why so many people in western China have features that are normally seen as European, we have to go back long before the Romans. Sometime around the fifth millennium BC or thereabouts, millennia before the Roman Empire was even an idea in someone’s head, there was a people known as the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The Proto-Indo-Europeans were nomadic herdsmen who probably lived in the steppes north of the Black Sea in what is now eastern Ukraine and southwest Russia. They spoke a language which linguists have termed “Proto-Indo-European.”
ABOVE: Map from Wikimedia Commons showing the migrations of various Indo-European groups out of the Indo-European homeland or Urheimat and across much of Europe and southwest Asia
Sometime perhaps around 3,500 BC or thereabouts, the Proto-Indo-Europeans began to migrate out of their homeland in the steppes north of the Black Sea across Europe and much of western Asia. As they spread across Eurasia, they brought their language and their culture along with them. The vast majority of European languages, along with many Indian and Iranian languages, are directly derived from Proto-Indo-European.
There was one group of Indo-European people who went further east than any of the others. These people settled in the Tarim basin in what is now the Xinjiang region of northwest China. We do not know much about these early Indo-European settlers of the Tarim basin, because they did not have written records at first, but we do know that many of them bore features commonly associated with northeastern Europeans because a large number of mummies have been found in the Tarim basin dating between c. 1800 BC and c. 200 AD bearing obviously European features.
By around the second century BC, numerous city-states of people speaking Indo-European languages had arisen in the Tarim basin. In around the fifth century AD, the Indo-European peoples of the Tarim basin began writing in their native languages, which linguists have dubbed “Tocharian.” There are three known Tocharian languages: Tocharian A, Tocharian B, and Tocharian C. The people who spoke these languages are known as “Tocharians.”
Many Tocharians had European features. Chinese sources describe the Tocharians as predominately light-skinned, blond or red-haired, and blue or green-eyed, with high noses and full beards. A Tocharian fresco from the Qizil Caves in the Tarim basin depicts Tocharian men with pale skin and blond hair.
ABOVE: Sixth-century AD Tocharian fresco from Qizil Caves in the Tarim basin depicting Tocharian men with pale skin and blond hair
ABOVE: Wooden tablet dating to between c. 400 and c. 800 AD with writing in Tocharian B
In 640 AD, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty began a campaign against the Tocharian city-states of the Tarim basin. The Tocharians were conquered and brought under the rule of the Tang Dynasty. Later in the eighth century AD, the Uyghur Turks settled in the Xinjiang. The Tocharians largely assimilated into Uyghur culture and intermarried with the Uyghurs. To this day, many Uyghurs have still pale skin, blond or red hair, and blue or green eyes.
The Uyghurs are not the only ones in northwest China who probably have Tocharian ancestors, however; the Tocharians have left a significant genetic footprint on northwestern China as a whole. Thus, many people who live in northwestern China have distant ancestors who lived in the steppes of Ukraine and southwest Russia many thousands of years ago.
Ancient Tocharian features such blond hair, pale skin, high noses, and blue eyes still occasionally resurface in the native populations of this region of China. That is probably the reason why so many people from Liqian look European. It is probably not because they have Roman ancestors; it is far more likely because they have Tocharian ancestors.
Honestly, Roman ancestors don’t make especially much sense as an explanation for why some people in western China have blond hair and blue eyes anyway, since the Romans were Italian. The population of Italy hasn’t changed drastically since ancient times and, back then, blond hair and blue eyes were just as rare in Italy as they are now. Obviously, there are some people in Italy who do have blond hair and blue eyes, but these features are not nearly as common in Italy as they are in, say, southwest Russia or Ukraine.
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a blond-haired, blue-eyed Uyghur girl from Turpan, Xinjiang, China. To this day, many Uyghurs still have blond hair, blue eyes, and other features traditionally seen as European.
Conclusion
In the end, Homer Dubs’s hypothesis has effectively became a modern legend. There is really no evidence to support it, but many people go on believing in it anyways because it makes for a good story. In much the same way that Vergil’s Aeneid furnished a founding myth for the Roman people by claiming that the Romans were descendants of Aeneas, a hero who fought for Troy in the Trojan War, Dubs’s hypothesis has provided a founding myth for the city of Liqian by claiming that the people of Liqian are descendants of Roman soldiers, captured first by the Parthians and later by the Chinese. I expect that, with future generations, the legend will probably only be further elaborated until perhaps it gets an epic of its own.
Ultimately, there was some contact between the Roman Empire and the Han Empire, but it was largely limited to a handful of merchants and embassies. In ancient Roman sources, Chinese people are referred to as “Seres.” The Roman historian Lucius Annaeus Florus (lived c. 74 – c. 130 AD) records in his Epitome of Roman History 2.34 that “Seres” and Indians came from the far east to the court of the Roman emperor Augustus (ruled 27 BC – 14 AD), bearing gifts of precious gems, pearls, and elephants. Here is what he writes, as translated by E. S. Forster:
“Now that all the races of the west and south were subjugated, and also the races of the north, those at least between the Rhine and the Danube, and of the east between the Cyrus and the Euphrates, the other nations too, who were not under the rule of the empire, yet felt the greatness of Rome and revered its people as the conqueror of the world.”
“For the Scythians and the Sarmatians sent ambassadors seeking friendship; the Seres [i.e., Chinese] too and the Indians, who live immediately beneath the sun, though they brought elephants amongst their gifts as well as precious stones and pearls, regarded their long journey, in the accomplishment of which they had spent four years, as the greatest tribute which they rendered; and indeed their complexion proved that they came from beneath another sky.”
The History of the Later Han records that, in 166 AD, a group of emissaries arrived at the court of Emperor Huan claiming to have been sent by “Andun” (安敦), the king of “Daqin.” “Daqin” was the most common Chinese name for the Roman Empire. The “Andun” mentioned in The History of the Later Han is most likely the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (ruled 161 – 180 AD).
The History of the Later Han states that the arrival of this embassy was the first time there had been direct diplomatic contact between the Chinese and the people of Diqin, which suggests that the “Seres” at the court of Augustus mentioned by Florus were probably independent merchants and not an official embassy sent by the Han emperor.
ABOVE: Chinese impression of a Daqin (i.e., Roman) man, from the Sancai Tuhui, an encyclopedia published in 1609 during the Ming Dynasty
There is one story that I would like to check out, and it does seem to be true. There was trade between the Roman Empire and China. Obviously not necessarily direct trade, but trade. Such things as silk showing up in places linked to Rome…
There was definitely trade between the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty of China. Numerous ancient Roman artifacts, such as Roman glass vessels, have been found in parts of China. Nevertheless, this trade was almost entirely indirect. Roman merchants would frequently trade goods with people in the Near East. Those people would then trade the same goods further east and, in some cases, those goods would eventually make it all the way to China. It was extremely rare for any one person to travel all the way from the Roman Empire to China or vice versa.
“It was extremely rare for any one person to travel all the way from the Roman Empire to China or vice versa.”
You do realize both cultures had ships capable of oceanic voyages? You are nailing all trade to overland routes and voyages. Mankind has had boats for over 50,000 years. Your article shows bias and assumptions while selling mankind short.
Yes, it’s true that the ancient Romans and the Han Chinese both had ships… but that doesn’t mean that it was common for individual people to sail from the Roman Empire all the way to China or vice versa.
In any case, nearly all travel between the Roman Empire and Han China in antiquity took place primarily over land, since travelling from Rome to China by sea would have required sailing around nearly the entire coast of Asia and would have been a much longer journey. The Periplous of the Erythraian Sea suggests that it was fairly common for merchants from Roman Egypt to travel along the coasts of the Indian Ocean, but they don’t seem to have travelled into the Pacific. Meanwhile, China at the time was not really much of a seafaring nation. The ancient Chinese did, of course, have ships, but travel by sea was far less common in ancient China than it was in the Mediterranean world and ancient Chinese ships tended to stay fairly close to home. It wasn’t really until the Ming Dynasty that Chinese ships started travelling the world more broadly.
Thank you for the reply and the time it took to do so. This is an interesting topic. Several of the maps I’ve worked have shown evidence indicating a possible Chinese origin. I have also found Greek and some languages I’m unfamiliar with. One famous map in particular not only has hidden Chinese writing, it contains a CENSORED representation of Virgo as the Virgin Mary which looks more like her Buddhist/Hindu identity…Tara. It will likely take someone paying for professional Multispectral Imaging to prove it to the world. Some of my poor man’s version of multispectral imaging is currently in the top 1% on Academia. I’m the anonymous guy going only by “Anthony”. I have absolutely no desire to be professionally stalked by photographers.
I really appreciate your bringing together so many different figures/pictures/illustrations together. Many of which are extremely helpful in attempting to convey the Celestial/Astrological/ Astronomy meanings. You seem very close to putting it together for yourself in many instances. You just need a gentle nudge. In other cases you are so off base, by the time I finish reading, I don’t know where to begin a rebuttal that doesn’t sound like a rambling mystically inclined nut. I’ve already done a good job of that while figuring out obscure mythologies used by cartographers. I discovered my college Mythology professor was a Joseph Campbell preaching QUACK. I thought he was at the time, I just didn’t possess the knowledge yet to refute him. There were multiple other misidentifications by my Professor as well as other sources I’d come across in public and private. Some of the worse are those twisting these stories and taking them all literally.
I’m not sure which ads I dislike more. The incessant ones on Academia or the Religious and “Booty Call” ads on your site. Everyone’s got to pay the bills, I suppose. Many of these ads seem to fly in the face of the values you profess. Especially the Booty Call Dot Com.
Interesting