by Tony Grey
Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman senator and military figure. Having studied philosophy at Rhodes, he was considered a competent philosopher of the Epicurean school. When Crassus invaded Parthia, Cassius was his quaestor, a role responsible for logistics. Later he became the main instigator in the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar. While Brutus actually led the conspirators, it was Cassius who was the intellectual force behind the coup. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare has the dictator say, “Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.”
In the civil war that followed Caesar’s assassination, Cassius and Brutus fought Antony and Octavius at the battle of Philippi in Macedonia, and lost. Hearing of Cassius’ death by suicide after the battle, Shakespeare has Brutus say of him “The last of all the Romans.”
CRASSUS 115?–53 BCE
Marcus Licinius Crassus was known for his extreme wealth, acquired in some cases by unconscionable means. When Sulla seized Rome and confiscated the goods of those who had opposed him, Crassus purchased much of them at a fraction of their worth. Later, he made a fortune buying up houses in Rome which were destroyed by fire and rebuilt them with slaves bought for the purpose and skilled in architecture and building. He owned and operated extensive silver mines. One of the vestal virgins had a desirable property in the suburbs of Rome that Crassus wanted to buy. Seeking to get it at a cheap price he befriended her, an action that led to accusations of seduction.
He was, however hospitable and charming, always courteous and friendly. He was one of the best speakers in Rome, well read in history and schooled in Aristotle. He often lent money without interest to friends (at one time guaranteeing Caesar’s debts) but was hard and unsympathetic in collecting it. Of him Plutarch says “the many virtues of Crassus were darkened by the one vice of avarice.”
After defeating Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator who fomented a revolt among his fellows, Crassus joined Pompey and Caesar in the First Triumvirate in 55 BCE. He became pro consul of Syria and obtained the command of seven legions for the invasion of Parthia. He died at the battle of Carrhae.
GAN YEN-XU AND CHEN TANG
They were the Protector General of the West and military commander respectively. Their headquarters were at Gaochang in the Turfan depression situated in Xinjiang. By forging the Emperor’s signature (a criminal offence) and with the eventual co-operation of Gan, Chen called up military forces, crossed the Pamir Mountains and defeated Jir-Jir at the battle of the Talass River. The victory secured for both of them significant rewards and a pardon.
HAN DYNASTY
Founded in 206 BCE after the collapse of the Qin empire which had united China, the Han dynasty lasted 400 years and represented one of the greatest periods in Chinese history. Even today the ethnic majority in China call themselves “Han”. Under Emperor Wu di (141-87 BCE) China became a Confucian state (replacing Taoism) and pushed back the Xiungnu, opening up the Silk Road and gaining access to the heavenly horses of Sogdian Fergana.
JIR-JIR
Having led his people to the Talass River, Jir-Jir conquered various tribes, including the Wusun, and brought the Sogdian kingdom, centred in Samarkand, under vassalage. His rise threatened to cut the Silk Road off from international trade, alarming the Han. In 41 BCE he built a fortified town in the Talass valley and made it his capital. The empire he founded collapsed when an invading Han army defeated him in a major battle. Chinese sources claim Roman soldiers fought with his army.
LEGEND OF THE ROMAN LEGIONARIES
People in the village of Zhelaizhai (formerly called Liqan) near Yongchang in China’s far western province of Gansu have believed for years that they are the descendants of Roman legionaries who migrated across the Silk Road and settled there, marrying local women. Their features bear certain Caucasian characteristics- light coloured and sometimes curly hair, large straight noses, blue or green eyes. The remains of a rammed earth wall said to be part of Roman fortifications stand at the edge of the village.
Testing has confirmed that 56 per cent of their DNA is of Caucasian origin. While this doesn’t prove they are of Roman descent, it adds some credibility to the local peoples’ belief, particularly when supplemented by Chinese historical evidence.
Currently the local Buddhist monk says prayers for the souls of the Romans who, he says, visit his temple. The people of Yongchang have erected a statue of a Roman on the main street, for the area is being developed as a tourist attraction. Parades of residents dressed up in Roman uniforms are held periodically. They march up a hill to a small Roman-like temple built of concrete, with tourists lining the way.
Support for the legend lies in an account contained in the Chinese History of the Former Han Dynasty written by Ban Gu (32 BCE–220 CE). It inspired an article in 1955 by Homer Dubs, an Oxford history professor. Recounting the battle of Carrhae and Pliny’s statement that Roman prisoners were taken to guard the eastern frontier of Parthia, Dubs cites the passage in the Chinese text that speaks of paintings depicting the battle at the Talass River.
The first scene is of “More than a hundred foot-soldiers, lined up on either side of the gate in a fish-scale formation.” Dubbs concludes that this most probably refers to the Testudo. In the third scene, the account states “Outside the earthen wall was a double palisade of wood.” This was a standard Roman defensive structure and was not used by others, certainly not in Central Asia.
While painting was common in Han China, Dubbs points out there was no precedent for it to record a contemporary event, except this one. He says “The use of pictures in a Roman triunphus is well known.”
MAGI
The term (singular, magus) was used by the Greeks in the Hellenistic period to denote followers of Zoroaster, who they thought had the ability to read the stars. Because the magi were noted for not only astrology but also various other forms of wisdom (which some Greeks thought was trickery) the word meant the practitioner of magic as well. From magi we get magic in English. It is thought possible that one or more of the Three Wise Men in the Bible were Sogdian magi.
ORODES 11
King of the Parthian Empire from 57 BCE to 37 BCE. He deposed his brother, Mithridates, who fled to Syria and later returned to Parthia with an army. The civil war thus caused ended with Orodes’ general, Surena, defeating him at Seleucia in Southern Mesopotamia.
Orodes invaded Armenia while Surena fought the Romans at Carrhae. His purpose of dividing his army in two was, on the one hand, to force the Armenian king to abandon his Roman alliance and submit to him, and on the other, as Plutarch says, to let Surena “first run the risk of battle and draw the enemy on”.
He was eventually murdered by his second son, Phraates, who first had him poisoned.
PARTHIAN EMPIRE 247 BCE–224 CE
Founded by an ancient Central Asian tribe of Iranian nomads it extended from what is now south eastern Turkey to eastern Iran. Located on the Silk Road, Parthia was a centre of trade and commerce between Rome and the Han Empire. Its army consisted largely of horse archers with composite bows which were capable of greater thrust than those common further west. Their troops were famous for feigning retreat, shooting while they rode away – the “Parthian shot”.
SILK ROAD
This was a complex network of trade routes stretching 6500 km from Rome to Chang an, the capital of the Han Empire (near modern Xian). From the Mediterranean it went through Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, over the Pamir Mountains and across Xinjiang, and Gansu to Shaanxi province. The term was coined by Ferdinand von Richthhofen, the uncle of the Red Baron, who was a frequent traveller to China in the latter part of the 19th century.
No one knows when it began to carry traders, but nephrite jade is known to have been traded along it from the 2nd millennium BCE. Around 130 BCE the Han emperor Wu di opened a route across the Tarim Basin (encompassing the Taklamakan desert) and Gansu province of China, which had been interdicted by the Xiung nu for years. The emperor wanted secure access to the so called heavenl
y horses of Fergana, a Sogdian region (called Dayuan by the Han). These steeds were bigger than the Han variety and ideal for war, a near constant state at the time.
SOGDIANS
They were an ancient Iranian people inhabiting Central Asian lands roughly where Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan are today (known in literature as Transoxiana). Sogdiana lay between the Oxus (Amu Darya) and Jaxartes (Syr Darya) rivers. Samarkand and Bukhara were its major cities. A province of Achaemid Persia, it was conquered by Alexander the Great and subsequently incorporated into the Hellenistic Graeco-Bactrian kingdom. The Fergana valley lies in it east of Samarkand.
The Sogdian language, of eastern Iranian origin, was the linga franca of the Silk Road. Sogdian merchants played a key role in the movement of culture – philosophy and religion, as well as goods. Their religion was Zoroastrian, based on the teachings of Zoroaster (born in either North Eastern Iran or South Western Afghanistan in the 5th century BCE) which essentially postulated a single god and the eternal battle between Good and Evil. Archaeologists have uncovered impressive examples of Sogdian architecture and painting, suggesting a thriving cosmopolitan civilization of high sophistication.
SURENA
Surena, of a noble family, was considered the second most prominent figure in Parthia, after the King. He was a courageous and gifted military commander who conquered Seleucia and defeated Crassus in the battle of Carrhae. Plutarch says “for bodily stature and beauty no man like him.” Orodes, the Parthian King, had him executed out of envy. The King himself was ultimately assassinated by his son, Phraates.
XIUNG NU
The Xiung nu, of Turkic origin, were nomadic people who ranged across the steppes of Central Asia, including Xinjiang and Mongolia. They are known in the West as Huns. Constantly raiding China from the north, it was to defend against them that the Chinese built the Great Wall (beginning near Jiayuguan in the western province of Gansu). While of the same race as the Han, their language is entirely separate. Their encounters with the Han over the centuries exemplify the classic clashes between nomadic and sedentary peoples. In 54 BCE the Xiung nu empire split in two. The western part migrated to Sogdiana and established a new empire at the Talass River.