I've been researching on this topic for some time - it's for a fiction contest I'm planning to enter, you see... Anyway, I've been reading some primary Chinese sources, and here're some facts (all Chinese names romanised in Pinyin):<br>
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1. Around 130BC, Zhang Qian, Han emissary from Emperor Wudi, reaches the Kushan Empire ("Dayueshi"). He fails to talk them into beating the Huns ("Xiongnu", those who destroyed the Roman Empire in the 4th Century AD), but opens a trade route with them. It was here when the Han Empire first heard of Parthia ("Anxi") and Alexandria ("Liqian"; mistaken as the Roman Republic). The Silk Road comes into being.<br>
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2. 53BC, Battle of Carrhae between Rome and Parthia (as we all know) It is from here that the legend of lost Roman legionaries stems.<br>
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3. 36BC, Han generals of Chen Tang and Gan Yanshou destroy the rebellious Hun chief, Zhizhi. According to a primary Chinese source: Han Shu (The Book of Han Dynasty), the Han soldiers saw soldiers practising with their shields interlocked together, and there was a wooden fort outside actual stone city. Some think this relates to the Roman testudo and the way Romans built their temporary wooden forts.<br>
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One supporting evidence that Romans were in China was that how two counties laid down in modern Gansu around 30BC have names that relate to the Romans: Hefan ("pacifying the barbarians") and Liguang (no actual meaning, but the Cantonese way of reading "Liqian" sounds like "Liguang")<br>
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But one problem is that the book states that any and all captives were distributed to the allies of Han in the Western Region ("Xiyu", modern Xinjiang). But there is always a possibility some slipped through the net.<br>
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Anyway, sliding a little off track: "Daqin" was the name of the Roman Empire during the Later Han Dynasty (20 - 220AD). The name originates from the Qin Dynasty in China, because the Chinese think that the Roman Empire resembles China (from "Hou Han Shu"; Book of the Later Han).<br>
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In 96AD, Ban Chao, emissary of the Later Han Dynasty, sends Gan Ying to try to establish relations with Daqin, but were warned of stormy seas in "Tiaozhi". "Tang Tong Dian", the Encylopedia of the Tang Dynasty, states that Tiaozhi is the western border of Parthia (modern Iraq), but an atlas drawn up in the Qing Dynasty states that Tiaozhi is in current Ukraine.<br>
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According to Hou Han Shu, in 196AD, Emperor "An Dun" from Rome sent an emissary by way of Vietnam to Loyang, capital of China at that time, and offered gifts such as ivory, horn of rhinocerous and tortoise shells. In return the Emperor of China gifted the emissary with an Imperial letter, gold and silver, and colourful cloths and silks. A Roman glass bottle has been unearthed from a royalty's tomb in Loyang.<br>
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Tang Tong Dian has several paragraphs about Rome. Some entries include:<br>
- Rome's palaces were made with crystal<br>
- Rome's emperors were very wise, and they were fine with being deposed when disaster strikes<br>
- Rome's products include glass, precious stones, weird creatures, and woollen cloth<br>
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It also talks about other colonies and dependencies of Rome, for example Judaea ("Molun") <p></p><i></i>
