08-09-2001, 07:18 AM
Some time ago, on this same thread, I too brought up the romans-in-china story. According to the theory many Crassus legionaries that were captured by the Parthians were sent east to defend that part of their domains (this distant placement of prisoners on remote frontiers as on option to roting in prison was frequently used by the Parthians and the later Sassanians). The theory goes that the romans made a run for it. They couldn't go home so they went in the only direction they could: even more East. If you look thru the WEB with a flexible search engine like google you can find some info, but basically it is all speculation. To my knowledge they never did find any tomb with roman-like utensils of these original soldiers or their descendants. Maybe DNA testing could tell us something. It is unfortunate that there isn't any surviving Parthian documentation of what happened to the roman prisoners. Maybe one day some archeologist will find a tomb in some remote place with some engraving in Latin.<br>
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If the chinese inhabitants of the location had Celtic-like features you still mustn't jump to conclusions automatically assuming that the Roman Legionary was short, olive skin and dark hair. As a matter of fact the roman soldiers in the later Republic came more and more from parts of Italy where there were plently of Gaulic genes. Pompey the Great was blonde and even Ceasar wasn't dark (reddish hair?). Just go to a musuem with busts of Republican romans and early empire and you will find plenty of facial types of people that if alive today would have little chance of getting a part on the SOPRANOS. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/ugoffredo.showPublicProfile?language=EN>goffredo</A> at: 8/9/01 12:11:17 pm<br></i>
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If the chinese inhabitants of the location had Celtic-like features you still mustn't jump to conclusions automatically assuming that the Roman Legionary was short, olive skin and dark hair. As a matter of fact the roman soldiers in the later Republic came more and more from parts of Italy where there were plently of Gaulic genes. Pompey the Great was blonde and even Ceasar wasn't dark (reddish hair?). Just go to a musuem with busts of Republican romans and early empire and you will find plenty of facial types of people that if alive today would have little chance of getting a part on the SOPRANOS. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/ugoffredo.showPublicProfile?language=EN>goffredo</A> at: 8/9/01 12:11:17 pm<br></i>
Jeffery Wyss
"Si vos es non secui of solutio tunc vos es secui of preciptate."
"Si vos es non secui of solutio tunc vos es secui of preciptate."
