08-08-2006, 11:12 PM
Quote:There are two questions - how far individual Greek or Roman merchants physically travelled, and how extensive the overall network was. One item which was of great importance to the trade network was silk; but although the silk travelled all the way to Rome, no individual traders actually made the whole journey (in either direction) as far as I know.
Actually, some Roman merchants did arrive in China. The first actual contact between Romans and Chinese is in AD 166. The travellers claimed to have been sent from the court of Marcus Aurelius, but were most likely merchants dropping the name to give themselves credence in the Han court. The occurrence was detailed in the Hou Han Shou, the annals of the dynasty, I believe.
Other merchants probably travelled there in the same time frame. They didn't travel over the silk road through Parthia, but rather bypassed it by going to India via sea and sailing eastward from there. Roman glassware has been found as far as Korea, although it most likely changed hands many times and was not traded directly to the Koreans from the Romans.
Ethan Gruber
