Chapter 6 Section 4 The Ancient Mediterranean World's Search for the Road to the East

When China's Zhang Qian, Ban Chao and Huangmen translators trekked hard in the boundless desert, sailed in the boundless ocean against wind and waves, and opened up the land and sea Silk Road leading to the west, in the far west In the Mediterranean world, people are also trying their best to open up a line of communication with the "silk producing country". In the 1st century A.D., a Greek-speaking merchant (or captain) living in Alexandria, Egypt, wrote in his "Return to the Red Sea", which described that Western merchant ships often traveled between the Red Sea, Persia, and the east and west sides of the Indian subcontinent. "Return to the Red Sea" records China, which is called the "Qin" country, and points out that when Qin is reached, the ocean ends here.It is also said that there is a large city in the north of Qin State called "Qinni" (probably referring to Chang'an). The silk thread and satin produced by Qinni came to Daxia by land, or were transported westward by the Ganges waterway.

Archaeological discoveries have proved the efforts of the Western Mediterranean world to open the sea route to China from the east at that time. Since 1945, an ancient international trade port has been discovered in Alikamedu, three kilometers south of Pondicherry on the east coast of South India.In this commercial port, there are many warehouse firms that may be directly operated by the Romans and merchants from Syria, Egypt and other places under Roman rule.During the excavation of the site, a large number of Aridine pottery from Italy, Greek jugs and coins of the Roman Empire were unearthed.According to research, Alikamedu, an ancient commercial port with a strong Roman flavor, flourished in the first and second centuries AD.This situation is quite consistent with the description in "Return to the Red Sea".It can be seen that merchants in the Mediterranean world at that time were able to use the east coast of India as a transit base to extend their tentacles of trade exchanges to China from the sea.

People in the western Mediterranean world also naturally hoped to establish a direct connection with China by land.Moreover, they are no strangers to the land route leading to China.In the 2nd century A.D., the Greek scholar Ptolemy (90-168 A.D.), in his book "Geography", described the history from the mouth of the Euphrates River, through Mesopotamia, Parthia (rest), Bakke Tela (Big Xia), Shita (now Tashmilik in the southwest of Shule), the route to China.This is the first Western scholar to record the route of the ancient silk road by land.Ptolemy himself had never been to China.His information is based on the records of another Greek geographer Marin Russ in the early 2nd century.A Greek businessman named Maes Titianus, who has been engaged in the Seris (silk) trade for generations, often sends caravans to China.His firm has detailed information on trade routes.The records of Ptolemy basically coincide with the records of the Southern Silk Road in the history books of our country.According to the records in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of the Western Regions", although Gan Ying's goal of directly communicating with the Great Qin Dynasty was not achieved when he traveled westward, after he was sent as an envoy, the distant countries "Mengqi and Doule all came to surrender and sent envoys to contribute."Scholars have verified that Monchi is Macedonia (now the central and southern regions of the Balkan Peninsula), and Dole is Thrace (now the southeastern part of the Balkan Peninsula) or Adullis, the great port of the ancient country of Axum (now the Eritrea Red Sea region). Along the coast), Doule is the antiphonal of Adulis.These so-called envoys may be the business agents sent to China by families like the Greek merchant Maes mentioned above.

However, just as Gan Ying's westward journey was obstructed by Anxi merchants in every possible way, the direct communication between the Roman Empire and China was also hindered by Anxi.At that time, the land route from the eastern border of the Roman Empire to China, whether it was from Alexandria across the Sinai Peninsula to Mesopotamia, or from the Mediterranean Sea through Aleppo, and then along the Euphrates River, had to pass through Sabbath.In order to protect their huge interests in the silk intermediary trade, Anxi merchants have always been reluctant to communicate directly between the Han Empire and the Roman Empire.In order to overcome the numerous obstacles set by Anxi, as early as more than a century before Gan Ying's westward journey, that is, in 53 BC and 36 BC, the Roman Empire used troops against Anxi twice in an attempt to open the passage, but all failed.After that, the Romans tried to open a road north of Parthia from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea, and then around the Caspian Sea and the northern shore of the Aral Sea to China, but they were unsuccessful.With about the same purpose, the Chinese side tried to open the northern grassland road north of the Tianshan Mountains and directly to the Black Sea, but it did not achieve the expected results.In the 2nd century A.D., in order to compete with Anxi for the control of the overland silk road, the Romans used troops many times and captured Taisifeng (the winter capital of Anxi, located on the east bank of the Tigris River) at the head of the Persian Gulf several times, but none of them worked.

It was under the circumstances that land transportation obstacles were difficult to overcome, and the Romans were more deliberately operating the Maritime Silk Road. We know that as early as the ancient Egyptian era, the Egyptians carried out their voyages in the Indian Ocean.During the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt nearly 5,000 years ago, the Egyptian Pharaoh Sahrei sent a fleet to the Pent Kingdom on the southern coast of the Red Sea to obtain items such as gold, silver, ebony, and myrrh. In 1954, a solar ship from the Sahere pharaoh period was discovered in a sealed stone pit near the Great Pyramid of Egypt.The restored solar ship is 43.4 meters long, 5.9 meters wide and 6 meters high at the bow.Later, Queen Hatshepsut of the Eighteenth Dynasty sent a fleet of eight ships to the Pentland for trading.

In his immortal book "History", Herodotus described the story of Pharaoh Neko (reigned from 609 BC to 593 BC) who sent a fleet to circumnavigate Africa.Regardless of the veracity of this story, there was a canal between the Nile Delta and the Red Sea in the time of Nico.In the era of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, the Egyptians became more active in the Red Sea trade.They not only sailed to Cape Guadafui, but also sent envoys to the Mauryan Dynasty in India.Shipping and trade in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean became increasingly important to the prosperity of the Egyptian economy, so that the Ptolemaic dynasty began to set up Indian Ocean and Eritrean generals under the governor of Thebes, as well as special management of Indian Ocean trade affairs, similar to ancient Chinese city ships. nature of the office.

After the Romans ruled Egypt, the trade with the Indian Ocean entered a new era.The main feature of this new period was the opening of regular air routes between southern Arabia and India.In the past, most of the sea traffic between South Arabia and India was completed by small boats making multiple voyages along the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf of Oman.However, the wind and waves on the Indian Ocean are dangerous, and sailors regard them as treacherous.In fact, monsoons blow all year round in the western part of the Indian Ocean.The southwest monsoon blows from March to September; after that, it is the northeast monsoon period.This alternation of monsoons facilitates the round-trip traffic on the ocean between the Arabian Peninsula and the west coast of India.Around the middle of the 1st century BC, a legendary figure—the Greek captain Hippalus—had learned the secrets of the monsoons of the Indian Ocean from countless senior Arab and Indian sailors.This discovery marked that the Romans had mastered monsoon navigation technology.The Romans owned stronger and larger ocean-going sailing ships, stored sufficient supplies, loaded a large amount of cargo, extended the cruising distance, got rid of the limitations of offshore navigation, and avoided the trouble of multiple transfers of cargo. From Yemen to the ports on the west coast of India.The famous Roman writer Pliny divided the voyage from Egypt to India into four stages.The first stage departed from the Egyptian port and arrived at Aden via the Red Sea; the second stage took the westerly wind from Aden and crossed the Gulf of Oman to Batala; the third stage opened a direct flight from Aden to Siegles south of Mumbai; the fourth stage It was around AD that ships from Egypt sailed straight from the port of South Arabia to Moshiri (now Klang Noor) in South India.In this way, in the era of Augustus in Rome, the fleet sailed from the port of Egypt, sailed south in July, arrived at the southern end of the Red Sea 30 days later, and then sailed directly with the wind. After 40 days, it could berth at Moshiri in September.In November of that year, these ships could return to their voyage, and in February of the following year they would return to the ports in the northern Red Sea, or go straight to Alexandria.After the opening of the Alexandria-Mosili route, it became very convenient for the Romans to come to China by sea.In 166 A.D. (the ninth year of Yanxi Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty), a messenger who claimed to be sent by King Andun of the Great Qin landed in Rinan in central Vietnam, went to Luoyang to meet the Chinese emperor, and offered ivory, rhino horn, and tortoise shell.Anton, King of Great Qin, was Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antony (reigned 161-180 AD).Judging from the gifts presented by the envoys of the Great Qin Dynasty, all of them were special products in Somalia, Northeast Africa, indicating that these gifts may have been purchased in Egypt (which was controlling the Red Sea trade at that time).According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", the envoy arrived in Luoyang in September.It seems that the time for the ship to reach Rinan, Jiaozhou should be between June and July.Therefore, the messenger probably came from the mouth of the Red Sea by the southwest monsoon that started in March.Apparently, regardless of whether the mission was sent by the government or faked by businessmen, it all came to China from Egypt or via Egypt. This was the first direct contact between the West and China in written records.After this envoy, the Romans came to China to do business gradually.Most of them followed in the footsteps of the envoys of Andun, and arrived at Funan (now Cambodia) and Jiaozhi (zhizhi) (now northern Vietnam) by sea by boat.In 226 A.D. (the fifth year of Sun Quan's Huangwu reign), a Roman businessman named Qin Lun arrived at Jiaozhi and was sent to meet with Sun Quan. He answered many questions about the customs and customs of the Roman Empire raised by Sun Quan in more detail.Sun Quan was also interested in making good deals with Rome directly, so he specially sent Liu Xian to send Qin Lun back home.Unfortunately, Liu Xian died of illness on the way.Lost the honor of the first person to visit the Roman Empire in Chinese history.

However, long before Liu Xian, records of Chinese arrival in Rome can already be found in Roman historical records.Florus, a Roman historian who lived from the end of the 1st century to the beginning of the 2nd century, recorded in his book "The History of Rome" that when Augustus was in peace and prosperity (27 BC-14 AD), the faraway land For example, the Cyres and Indians also sent envoys to offer pearls, gems, elephants, etc., and asked for a treaty of friendship with Rome.The Seres people here refer to the Chinese.However, even if this account is not exaggerated by historians, it probably refers to some middlemen on the Silk Road who pretended to be Chinese envoys.