17:
128:. They were given Han silks as diplomatic gifts and then sent back on their long way back to Syria. It would take them 12 months to return home, totalling two years for the whole round-trip. When they returned, knowledge of their experience spread around the Roman world and for the first time Romans in Egypt and Syria knew of a superpower in the Far East that produced large quantities of
161:, Parthian cooperation could be expected only after the termination of their war with Trajan, 117 CE, too late for Marinus to incorporate the new information, at the close of their war with Nero, 65 CE, during the Kushan interruption, or, the date Cary offers for consideration, after their settlement with Augustus, 20 BCE.
143:
However, a brief article by Max Cary teased apart some probabilities, notably that the purpose of the expedition was to organize the import of
Chinese silk by controlling or eliminating some of the middlemen through whom trade goods were passed, among whom the least dependable were the
124:. (However, p.36, states that "Whether the journey was noted in Chinese historical accounts remains a matter of speculation.") As was standard protocol the Maes merchants offered tribute to Emperor He by giving rewoven Syrian silks and imperial gold coins that bore the image of
156:
ca 50 AD blocked
Chinese access to the West, but conditions improved ca. 75; consequently the window in which, Cary suggests, Maës found his opportunity lay either before or after the Kushan irruption. At the western end of the
180:
in 31 BCE, and through whose hands the
Parthian princes passed to Rome for their education, acted in some way as a patron to the enterprise (Cary 1956:132-34), thus dating the expedition to the time of his governorship.
78:"Marinus tells us that a certain Macedonian named Maen, who was also called Titian, son of a merchant father, and a merchant himself, noted the length of this journey , although he did not come to
46:
culture. He was a Greek speaker who came from a family of merchants who had both Syrian and Roman identity. Maës sent an expedition that is recorded as having travelled farthest along the
108:. The travellers spoke Greek and were with Parthian merchants and so did not identify themselves as Roman. Thus, the Chinese did not realise they were dealing with subjects of
392:
50:
from the
Mediterranean world. In the early 2nd century CE or at the end of the 1st century BC, during a lull in the intermittent Roman struggles with
136:. Maes Titianus wrote a full account of the journey taken by his merchants but only a brief summary of his work survives in the writings of
32:
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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321525391_Imperial_Rome_and_China_Communication_and_Information_Transmission
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The mainstream opinion, noted by Cary 1956:130 note 7, based on the date of
Marinus, established by his use of many
467:
168:
were a family documented in Italy and Sicily, ca. 150-210, and Cary considers the possibility that the governor of
245:" origin may betoken no more than his cultural affinity, and the name Maës is Semitic in origin (Cary 1956:130).
152:, the westernmost province over which the Chinese periodically attempted control. The incursion of the nomadic
169:
117:
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297:, leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 220 BC. The Greek historian
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In
Antiquity, other unnamed Greeks may have gone further east before the formal establishment of the
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close to the border with China. Nothing is known of him, apart from a brief credit in
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writes of the Greco-Bactrians that "they extended their empire even as far as the
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intercepted the group and ensured they were taken eastward to the
Chinese capital
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The Stone Tower: Ptolemy, the Silk Road, and a 2,000-Year-Old Riddle
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When Maes' expedition reached the Pamirs, the
Chinese general
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He is described as a
Macedonian by Ptolemy, but his "
343:. Delhi: Penguin Viking. pp. 130, 154–55.
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363:J. Oliver Thomson located the Stone Tower in
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216:foundation names but none identifiable with
454:.3/4 (July–October 1956), pp. 130–134.
104:. They were brought before the Han Emperor
367:(Cambridge University Press) 1948:179–180.
430:.3/4 (July–October 1956), pp. 130-134,
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120:state that the encounter took place in
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404:The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes
255:The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes
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432:https://www.jstor.org/stable/636905
285:may have led expeditions as far as
446:Max Cary, "Maes, Qui et Titianus"
277:: there are indications that from
116:). Chinese records written in the
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148:. The Stone Tower was located in
376:Trans. Edward Luther Stevenson,
82:in person but sent other there"
54:, his party reached the famous
422:Cary, "Maes, Qui et Titianus"
1:
58:, somewhere in or around the
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20:Maes Titianus went as far as
365:History of Ancient Geography
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448:The Classical Quarterly,
424:The Classical Quarterly,
325:led conquests as far as
24:in the Pamir (in blue).
473:Ancient Greeks in Asia
317:). Also in India, the
232:This is Cary's dating.
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87:Claudius Ptolemy, I-XI
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478:Roman-era Macedonians
406:, Raoul McLaughlin,
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257:, Raoul McLaughlin,
191:Sino-Roman relations
339:Dean, Riaz (2022).
488:1st-century people
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56:Stone Tower
462:Categories
441:References
412:1473833744
323:Menander I
263:1473833744
243:Macedonian
118:Hou Hanshu
98:Han Empire
44:Macedonian
22:Tashkurgan
483:Silk Road
275:Silk Road
174:M. Titius
146:Parthians
68:Geography
48:Silk Road
295:Xinjiang
214:Trajanic
185:See also
150:Xinjiang
94:Ban Chao
85:—
287:Kashgar
218:Hadrian
102:Luoyang
96:of the
64:Ptolemy
52:Parthia
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321:under
311:Strabo
307:Phryni
299:Strabo
291:Ürümqi
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154:Kushan
122:AD 100
110:Da Qin
303:Seres
197:Notes
134:steel
112:(the
408:ISBN
378:ISBN
345:ISBN
289:and
281:the
259:ISBN
164:The
132:and
130:silk
80:Sera
313:,
309:" (
293:in
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66:'s
33:fl.
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225:^
205:^
106:He
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36:c.
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220:.
31:(
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