Book review: Rome and China: points of contacts

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Rome and China: Points of Contact book cover

Authors: Hyun Jin Kim, Samuel N.C. Lieu, Raoul McLaughlin                                       ISBN 9780367684129 134 Pages   Paperback USD $43.99                                        Published September 25, 2023 by Routledge

Reviewed by: Punsara Amarasinghe

The interest in Silk Routes and Eurasia in the academia seems to be a rejuvenated one in the scholarship as there have been ample publications since the celebrated work authored by Peter Frankopan’s “The Silk Roads: The New History of the World” in 2015. If one asks what elevates “China and Rome: points of contacts “for a review above the dozens of other works, my answer can encapsulate in one phase: “the novelty”. Indeed, the work authored by Hyun Jin Kim, Samuel N.C.Lieu and Raoul McLaughlin is a stimulating work for the reader to glimpse at the interconnectivity between two great powers in the antiquity, namely Rome and China. As it was acknowledged by Hyun Jin Kim in his concise introduction, the very objective of the edited volume reaches beyond the parameters of the scholarship in the past by adopting a wider Eurasian perspective. (p.1).

The first chapter begins by providing an abridged account in the topographical and trade contact between imperial Rome and Han China. The chapter tries to examine the challenges that encompassed the physical distance between China and Rome as the real setback between the two empires. The general content in the chapter is akin to a more descriptive analysis trying to provide more historical and chronological details about the dynasties, kingdoms, provinces that impeded Rome and China from connecting each other, but, it further unfolds the several attempts made by Hun dynasty in making contacts with Roman empire, which were mostly sabotaged due to the military engagements that China faced from other rivals’ powers in Central Asia. One of the most important findings that emanates from the first chapter is that its especial emphasis on how human contacts affected on building the relationship between two empires. In particular, the chapter unfolds how Han authorities learnt about the sophistication of Rome through their contacts with Iranian and Indian merchants which paved the path for Chinese to develop their curiosity on Rome. Rome’s maritime link with India dates back to the epoch of Augustus and the coins, relics of the vessels excavated by the maritime archaeologists recently prove that there was a considerable Roman presence in Indian Ocean albeit Indian mainland never fell under the orbit of Rome. However, regardless of all these elaborations, the first chapter suffers from one major pitfall as it fails to observe how any possible link could have emerged between Roman and Chinese merchants. The works of South Asian scholars such as DPM Weerakoody and Osmund Bopearacachi suggest that the Romans and Chinese maintained certain commercial acquaintances as traders from both states visited Sri Lanka known as Taprobane by the Romans in the Anuradhapura period. Authors seem to have not given any attention to those two non-Western scholars, who came up with crucially important findings.

The astute analysis provided by Kim in the second chapter regarding the expansion of Xiongnu Huns as a mighty tribe is vitally relevant in understanding how it became a threat to both Romans and Hans. The rise of the Huns was a real geopolitical calamity for both empires, which altered their domination over Eurasia through a series of onslaughts. The second chapter aptly describes the geopolitical outcomes that erupted from the Hun invasions by installing their quasi-feudal system, firstly in the Germanic tribes and then in the Roman provinces, which ultimately laid the foundations of the new political order of the European Middle Ages.

Perhaps it is not an exaggeration to describe the next chapter as the culminated one in the whole volume as it properly elucidates the diplomatic and commercial encounters through the silk routes for the attainment of commercial profits. The chapter gives equal importance to both Chinese and Byzantine sources in presenting the heroic adventures and bizarre moments in the silk routes, which makes the reader’s mind with awe. On the other hand, authors make a more intellectually persuasive effort beyond a mere fascination by tracing more complex historical incidents such as the emergence of Gokturk Khanate and the cunning diplomacy practised by the Sasanians in Persia. Especially, authors depict the rise of Gokturks as an unparalleled development of world history as it created a unified and coherent political system for the Eurasian steppe from the frontiers of China and this novel political unification gave birth to a new Eurasian network to connect the economies of China as a connecting point. Besides the Eurasian connecting point, chapter draws another analysis on the state of Indian Ocean network that provided a strong connecting juncture for Romans and Chinese in the eve of late antiquity. The case of Sri Lanka has been well captured by the authors as a midpoint meeting place and central market for Indian Ocean commerce. The chapter quotes Byzantine merchant Cosmos ‘ “Christian Topography”, which suggests that the island nation was frequently visited by Roman, Chinese and Persian ships.

The last chapter of this compelling work is devoted to exploring the links developed by the Nestorian Christians and Manichaeans as a solid connecting point between the two empires.  Authors acknowledge the legacy left by both religious movements as enduring ones that lasted beyond all the attempts of the Tang and Song dynasties and would persist in China as a minority religion. The cardinal question that this book presents to its readers is whether Sino-Roman relations survived in the annals of human history and the obvious answer that this work shows is all the official contacts initiated by the Roman imperial government and Han China were transitory and finally faded into oblivion. Notwithstanding the official contacts largely ended up in failure, the sustained contacts based on the Eurasian mainland paved the path for significant geopolitical changes. For instance, this work takes the influx of Eurasian Huns on the northern borders of the Roman empire as a turning point in European history as it detached Western Europe from the Mediterranean based Roman rule. In my view, the biggest contribution made by this work “Rome and China: Points of Contacts” lies in its careful analysis focused on those sustained contacts that lasted between two ancient world powers for the entirety of Eurasia. In his concluding remarks, Lin raises some challenging questions on the entangled, obscured contacts that existed between Rome and China as pertinent ones to be re-examined in the modern Western approach to fathom China as those questions would be valuable lessons.

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