Romans on the Silk Road

  Romans on the Silk Road

  By Brian McElney and Andrew Hoste Primrose

  ISBN-13: 978-988-8552-26-9

  © 2018 Brian McElney and Andrew Hoste Primrose

  Cover design: Jason Wong

  FICTION / Historical

  EB114

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in material form, by any means, whether graphic, electronic, mechanical or other, including photocopying or information storage, in whole or in part. May not be used to prepare other publications without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information contact info@earnshawbooks.com

  Published by Earnshaw Books Ltd. (Hong Kong)

  Note

  Readers may well want to know the extent to which this story accords with history, and the authors have decided to make a few comments to help the reader appreciate the background.

  The extant Roman sources for the history of the final days of the Roman Republic are quite prolific and detailed insofar as the lives of the great Romans of the time are concerned. (Gaius) Julius Caesar, (Marcus Licinius) Crassus, and Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus) were not only the triumvirs but the leading players at the time, and their actions, recorded in this novel, follow very closely the facts recorded about them. Not only was Crassus the richest Roman of his day but despite his years he had an overweening ambition for military glory. Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars, a contemporary record, describes in detail the events leading up to the revolt of the Veneti and the involvement of Publius Crassus (younger son of Marcus Licinius Crassus). Caesar also describes the building of ships at the mouth of the Loire to combat the Veneti at sea and the battle in which the Veneti were crushed and its aftermath. The manoeuvre involving the cutting down of the sail and the calm that occurred appears in that report. The situation in Rome and the meetings of the triumvirs at Lucca and Ravenna as described and the ensuing results are historically recorded.

  The actions of the tribune Aetius, Crassus’s eastern adventure and the bad omens that dogged Crassus are drawn from historical records; as are the various phases of the famous Roman defeat by Surena at the battle of Carrhae. The battle and its aftermath, including the gruesome method by which the victory was announced to the Parthian King, when he was entertaining the King of Armenia at a performance of the Euripedes’s play ‘The Bacchae’, are much as described in the ancient texts (see notably Plutarch’s Lives). The Parthian commander known as Surena (Surena is probably a title rather than a name but his real name is unknown) was later assassinated by the Parthian King shortly after Carrhae.

  Under the Shanyu Zhi-Zhi, the vast Xiongnu territory stretched across the steppes from Western Manchuria, across Mongolia, the Pamirs and as far as the Lower Volga and the Ural foothills. The Xiongnu territory was a loosely-connected federation of tribes who were united under one leader. It required a powerful and assertive Shanyu to unite the different factions and tribes for any concerted aim, the tribes spent most of their time raiding and fighting amongst themselves. The various nomadic Turkic tribes were first unified into a powerful federation under T’ou-Man who was the leader of the Xiongnu (ruled c.225-209BC) and Zhi-Zhi was a descendant of that great leader. The linking up of various walls to create the Great Wall of China by the First Emperor Huang Ti (221-210BC) had been primarily been designed to keep these nomad tribesmen out of China. The construction of the Great Wall was a drawn-out process, with work continuing for many decades as different sections were built, re-enforced and connected to form a composite barrier. With the Great Wall blocking them to the east, T’ou Man and his successors had turned to the west and driven the Yuezhi, another powerful nomadic people of Turkic origin, further west. The Yuezhi had in turn conquered the Bactrian Kingdom (c.130BC) which had been established by Alexander’s successors. Following this conquest, the Yuezhi lands bordered Parthia, and some Yuezhi are recorded as having served under Surena at the battle of Carrhae.

  The tombs of the high nobles of the Yuezhi have revealed that they practised head-binding at this time. During the attacks on the Yuezhi by the Xiongnu, the Xiongnu killed the Yuezhi ruler and in accordance with Xiongnu custom made a cup of the Yuezhi ruler’s skull. We have mentioned this cup being used at Marcus’s meeting with Zhi-Zhi. The Yuezhi appear to be the same people referred to as the Tokharians and as Kushans in later history. The Xiongnu practice whereby a warrior who recovered a dead colleague’s body from the battlefield inherits the dead warrior’s wife and property is one of the strange customs recorded of the Xiongnu by the Chinese.

  It is also a historical fact that a decree of Ptolemy III Euergetes confiscated for the Great Library at Alexandria the original of any book that arrived in the port of Alexandria, not represented in the Library. These books were marked in the Library’s index “from the ships”. (Official scribes replaced the original with a copy given to the owners.)

  Interestingly it is also recorded that this Ptolemy borrowed from Athens the official copies of all three tradegians (Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripedes) in order to correct the texts in the library. He had put up a considerable deposit for this loan, yet once he had his hands on the originals, he decided to forfeit his deposit and keep the originals.

  Lucretius died c. 55BC but the bequest of the manuscript of his famous work to Crassus has been invented for our story, though the paying off of lifetime favors (in this case the putting out of the fire at Lucretius’s house by Crassus’s fire brigade is also invented) by legacies was very common at the time.

  It was also a fact that many Roman soldiers, captured at Carrhae (recorded to have been 10,000 in number and to have included 500 of the Gallic cavalry), were settled at Merv, then known as Antiochus Margiana, but history does not record what became of them. The legionary standards captured at the battle were later recovered diplomatically by the Emperor Augustus.

  Roughly contemporary Chinese historical sources record the career of the Chinese General Gan Yan Shou, and his successful expedition against the Xiongnu Shanyu Zhi-Zhi, in 36BC. The Chinese account states that Chen Tang was the deputy commander, and it provides the reasons for the expedition, namely the murder of the Chinese envoy Guji. The Chinese histories record the attack on the town of Zhizhi, a city which only started to be constructed in 46BC and was entirely destroyed by the Chinese in 36BC, so it was a somewhat ephemeral city. The Chinese sources tell how the Xiongnu Shanyu, Zhi-Zhi, was beheaded by a Chinese soldier named Du Xun. The Chinese account also records the capture of 145 soldiers, and their ultimate settlement at Li-qian (otherwise spelt Li-chien or Li hsien) now in the county of Yongchang, in the Kansu corridor. In 9AD the town of Li-qian was briefly renamed Jie-lu by the Emperor Wang Meng. ‘Jie-lu’ means “prisoners taken in storming a city”. A skeleton exhibiting European features has been dug up at the site. The skeleton came from a very tall man, quite unlike a Han Chinese.

  The exact location of the city of Zhizhi is unknown but working from the Chinese records it appears to have been near Taraz in Southern Kazakhstan on the west bank of the Talas River.

  The identification of these 145 captives as Romans relies on;

  The description of the wooden palisade protecting part of the wall at Zhizhi, described in the Chinese texts; this palisade is similar to that normally erected to protect a Roman camp.

  The description in the Chinese records of the maneuver performed by the troops later captured. The Chinese description suggests that the troops formed up in a testudo, a distinctive Roman infantry formation.

  The fact that Li-qian was the only town in China where bull-baiting was practiced, and this w
as the town where these prisoners were settled confirmed by the name given by the Emperor Wang Meng as mentioned. Bull-baiting was a known Gallic practice in Transalpine Gaul and this fact lends weight to the possible Gallic origin of some of the prisoners.

  A small number of the inhabitants in the area of Li-qian still exhibit markedly European characteristics, such as straight big noses, light eyes and curly hair. These people are thought to be the descendants of the original Roman captives. Limited DNA testing suggests that 20% of the persons tested show traces of European ancestry.

  The original name Li-qian uses the character ‘li’ in its name, the Chinese character was also the name given to the Roman empire and all things Roman during the Western Han dynasty.

  Joseph Needham in his great work ‘The History of Science and Civilization in China’, took the view that these captives were Romans, (see volume 5 Abridgement page 14.)

  The Oxford Professor, Homer H. Dubs in his lecture to the China Society in 1955 suggested that these captives were escaped Roman prisoners from Carrhae. Other commentators, however, have suggested they were Parthian mercenaries but have not advanced any evidence for this idea. At this distance in time whether they were Romans is probably impossible to prove but, from the recorded facts, their identification as Romans seems a reasonable supposition.

  We must emphasize, however, that this book is a historical novel and should be treated as such.

  1

  Transalpine Gaul,

  Mediterranean Sea and Rome, 64 BC

  Some winds have names; Marcus could feel the familiar hot gusts against his back as he stood on the prow of his father’s galley, and he knew that is was the Mistral breathing down his neck. He had grown up with the Mistral and he knew that today it was only blowing gently, despite this the wind was strong enough to stir up the waves and make the deck buck beneath his feet. He resisted the urge to reach out and hold his father’s toughened hand for support. He was a young man now, well into his fifteenth year, and he must behave like one. This was his first proper voyage at sea and they were going all the way to the port of Ostia, and then on to Rome. The prospect of seeing the famous city known as Caput Mundi or the ‘Head of the world’, made Marcus’s youthful heart pound with excitement. Marcus and his father were on the Albatross, a new trading galley owned and built by his father. It was the finest of his galleys and it was on this sleek craft that his father, Lucius Frontinius Marcellus, ship-builder and timber merchant, had decided to make the journey to Rome. Lucius was nearly three times as old as his son, yet he noted with a wry smile that Marcus was almost as tall as him, although he did not yet possess the powerful build and muscular arms of his father. Both father and son shared the unruly blond hair, which was a family trait, although Lucius had begun to develop grey tints which lent an air of gravitas to his affable countenance. Father and son also shared similar piercing blue-grey eyes; both pairs of which were now focused intently on the horizon and the approaching wonders of Rome. The clear blue of the Mediterranean surrounded them and cast flickering reflections of sunlight across the galley as it cut through the waves.

  Lucius had begun life in the family trade as a timber merchant, felling the white oaks from the family forests in the Luberon region of Provence and then transporting the timber to the flourishing shipyards in Massalia. The busy port was an important Greek city famed all around the Mediterranean as a cultural and legal center. After the Greeks of Massalia had aided the Romans in the Second Punic War, the city was recognized both as an independent colony and as an ally of Rome. Roman forces had first arrived as allies, in response to a request for support from the Greek colony. For three years from 125 BC to 122 BC, a Roman force had fought alongside the Greeks against the Ligurian tribe of Salian Franks. After their victory the Romans had settled and remained in the area. The Romans went on to found the colonies of Aquae Sextiae and Narbo Marius in the new province of Transalpine Gaul which was created from their newly conquered territories, and introduced the Pax Romana to the region. Roman influence soon spread through the whole region, and the city of Massalia was no exception. The weight and power of the expanding Roman world played an important part in the life and politics of the city, although Massalia still retained its Greek heritage.

  As a young lad accompanying his father on the deliveries to the shipyards Lucius had displayed a marked interest in the practical details of ship-building. A friendly ship-wright had shown the young lad around the yard, and impressed by his enthusiasm he had suggested Lucius stay on as an apprentice over the summer. The summer was a quiet period for Lucius’s family; they did all the logging in the winter months when the trees were not burdened by the enormous amounts of foliage that doubled their weight. So Lucius was permitted to remain in Massalia and earn his keep by helping at the shipyard. Under the ship-wright’s guidance Lucius had worked hard, exulting as the crafts of carpentry and ship-building were slowly revealed to him. It ceased to be a mystery to Lucius how the long cumbersome oak logs from the family forests were transformed into the graceful galleys which filled the port and ploughed the seas with such ease.

  As Lucius’s understanding and skill increased he had moved to Massalia permanently and left the forests to be managed by his cousins. It wasn’t long before Lucius set up in the ship-building business for himself. Using his family connections and first-hand knowledge he always managed to buy top quality seasoned timber at favorable prices. With the best raw materials it was no surprise that his business flourished and he acquired something of a reputation as a masterful shipbuilder. His skill and efficiency also brought him to the attention of the Roman praefectus who commanded the local fleet. Lucius worked with extra care and attention to fulfil a minor order for the praefectus to produce two small delivery launches for the fleet. The other carpenters had scoffed at him, pointing out that such detail was wasted on mere launches, and with the amount of effort he spent on the order it would not prove profitable. In one sense their comments were accurate; Lucius calculated that he made a net profit of ten asses, not even an entire denarius, a paltry sum for ten weeks hard work; but in another sense it had proved the most profitable venture of his career, for when the praefectus came to commission a new fleet of twenty galleys it was to the maker of such fine launches he decided to award the contract.

  Lucius had worked with the same level of attention to fulfil this larger order and the final result had greatly impressed the praefectus. In gratitude he had recommended Lucius to the Governor of Transalpine Gaul for the award of Roman citizenship. So it was that Lucius became a Roman citizen in addition to receiving the large payment for the order. The rank of Roman citizenship was hereditary and it conferred a number of important privileges. Roman society was divided into the three strata of slaves, freedmen and citizens; this honor had elevated Lucius to the highest class. Freedmen were subjects rather than citizens of the Roman Empire, and as such were only able to join the alae or auxiliary regiments rather than the ranks of the famed and feared Roman legions. The alae received half the pay of the legions and upon completion of their service the auxiliaries did not receive the grant of land which provided the legionaries with a secure retirement. Serving in the legions was the surest way of securing social advancement, for the constantly expanding Empire rewarded those who protected it, and the scope for advancement within the Army was considerable. Thus it was with some pride that Lucius was able to reflect on the inheritance he would leave his two sons; thanks to Lucius’s efforts both Flavius and Marcus were born as Roman citizens and wealthy ones too.

  Some seventeen years earlier, with his newly acquired status of citizenship and flourishing shipyard, Lucius had found himself one of Massalia’s most eligible bachelors. It had been with a mixture of awe and pleasure that he had agreed to marry Eugenia, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy Greek merchant, when the latter had suggested the match. The marriage had not been a success, for Eugenia took offence that her father had not found her
a husband from amongst the established Greek upper class and she had found comfort only in the excessive quantities of wine she consumed. She withdrew into self-imposed isolation where she nursed her resentment and fed her wrath to keep it warm. Despite this, her new husband treated Eugenia with honest affection and tender concern, so it was only in isolation that Eugenia could remain disdainfully aloof and embittered. Refusing to be won over she had, however, provided him with two sons who were as different in temperament as could be. The first was Flavius, tall, graceful and elegant with black hair like his mother; he had also inherited her stubbornness and haughtiness. The second was Marcus, who resembled his father both in his blond hair, blue eyes and rugged features as well as his friendly demeanor. Finally frustrated by the rebuffs of his embittered wife, Lucius had eventually ceased trying to win her over. They had settled into an uneasy relationship in which they avoided each other and Lucius feigned ignorance of her worsening alcoholism. The young entrepreneur found emotional comfort in the company of his sons, and he spent as much time with them as he could. Eugenia had brought her personal slaves with her to run the household and so both boys had grown up speaking Greek as well as Latin. Flavius, with his grace and elegance was a source of pride to the ship-builder who marveled at his eldest son’s refinement and sophistication; yet Flavius also displayed traits of excessive pride and greed. He disdained manual work and only ventured into his father’s shipyards when he needed funds to settle the bills at his fashionable tailors. In contrast Marcus was a firm favorite at the shipyard, known and loved by all the carpenters and shipwrights. The laborers and craftsmen had adopted him as a mascot and they indulged his interest in archery by fashioning him simple bows and arrows in their spare time.

  The current voyage was to deliver a cargo of timber to the port of Ostia, where the Tiber reached the sea some twenty miles from Rome. Lucius could quite easily have sent a subordinate, but he had chosen to combine business with pleasure as he wanted to see Rome in all its splendor. Although he claimed that it was to show his sons around Rome, the boyish gleam in his eyes revealed that the excitement and pleasure would not be only theirs. One astute carpenter had observed with a laugh, that Lucius had promised to take the boys to the Games, before they had even thought of asking him! Lucius wanted to see the capital of the Roman world, to which he and his family now belonged as full citizens. He had also hoped the trip would impress on his two sons the world of opportunities, which lay open to them as Roman citizens.