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Evidence for Rome establishing relations/ contact with China
#16
Yes, marsvigilia, we know that. I'm looking for the specific name that would distinguish Chinese barbarians from other barbarians.

What did the Romans call China?
Ross Martinek

Insert clever and pithy comment here.
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#17
Quote:Yes, marsvigilia, we know that. I'm looking for the specific name that would distinguish Chinese barbarians from other barbarians.

What did the Romans call China?

The Greeks and Romans called the Chinese "Seres" and China "Serica".


~Theo
Jaime
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#18
Quote:Yes, marsvigilia, we know that. I'm looking for the specific name that would distinguish Chinese barbarians from other barbarians.

Doormats in waiting?
>|P. Dominus Antonius|<
Leg XX VV
Tony Dah m

Oderint dum metuant - Cicero
Si vis pacem, para bellum - Vegetius
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#19
Quote:
Triarius:d77xgp51 Wrote:Yes, marsvigilia, we know that. I'm looking for the specific name that would distinguish Chinese barbarians from other barbarians.

What did the Romans call China?

The Greeks and Romans called the Chinese "Seres" and China "Serica".


~Theo

Both many times "Seres" actually seemed to refer more to the Indians, for example in the context of the use of elephants and also the import of silk, which often came from India rather than China. In some cases, one cannot attribute Seres to any known tribe or peoples. It is just the case that the Romans were making observations on the very edge of their known world, and at the outer limit of experience judgments are always fuzzy, so are Roman references to the Seres.
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
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#20
That's the problem with asking a question of academically oriented folks… There is always the risk that there will be more answers than you need…and none of them quite fit :roll:

:lol: Been there, done it myself, got the T-shirt.

So here it is more specifically:

If a Roman of the early Principate (reigns of Augustus through Claudius) wanted to refer to China, specifically, what name would he/she use?
Ross Martinek

Insert clever and pithy comment here.
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#21
The Romans called Eastern Asia, Serica. And the Chinese called the Roman Empire, Daqin.
Nicholas De Oppresso Liber

[i]“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.â€
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#22
Quote:If a Roman of the early Principate (reigns of Augustus through Claudius) wanted to refer to China, specifically, what name would he/she use?

I suspect that China and the Chinese simply did not play a significant enough of a differentiated role. Suppose someone where to ask the current American English term for a resident of the northern suburbs of Beijing.

OR maybe no one thought to write it down on one of the surviving documents.

OR once again I may be completely wrong. It seams to be happenning with greater frequency. Just ask my kids.
>|P. Dominus Antonius|<
Leg XX VV
Tony Dah m

Oderint dum metuant - Cicero
Si vis pacem, para bellum - Vegetius
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#23
Quote:If a Roman of the early Principate (reigns of Augustus through Claudius) wanted to refer to China, specifically, what name would he/she use?
Which begs the question, how on earth would a Roman of the early 1st C even have heard of China?! Educated men like Vergil knew that there was a Land of the Silk People, but they hadn't the foggiest idea where it was.
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#24
Looks interesting. But beware, the download is monstrous! Confusedhock:

Les Romains et la Chine, réalités et mythes
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
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#25
Stefan, that would be nice—but I don't read French. Sad
Ross Martinek

Insert clever and pithy comment here.
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#26
Quote:Stefan, that would be nice—but I don't read French. Sad

Wouldn't life be so much easier if we all just spoke Latin?
>|P. Dominus Antonius|<
Leg XX VV
Tony Dah m

Oderint dum metuant - Cicero
Si vis pacem, para bellum - Vegetius
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#27
Quote:
Triarius:3pum49mb Wrote:Yes, marsvigilia, we know that. I'm looking for the specific name that would distinguish Chinese barbarians from other barbarians.

What did the Romans call China?

The Greeks and Romans called the Chinese "Seres" and China "Serica".


~Theo

The "Seres" (or what we think of as Chinese) were to the Romans merely people living to the east of the easternmost people the Romans ever had contact with. It's true that the Romans just knew them as the people that produced silk. The Chinese word "Daqin" represented to the Chinese the land that consumed their silk, which was to the Chinese, the area west of the westernmost people the Chinese ever had established contact with. The two empires knew little else of each other.
Ethan Gruber
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