L’ambassade romaine envoyée dans l’Empire des Han en 166 : une expédition maritime fructueuse sur les plans économique et diplomatique ?

• Main Author: Christophe Burgeon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Fabio D'Angelo 2019-03-01
• Series: Viaggiatori
• Subjects: Rome; China; Han; expedition
• Online Access: http://www.viaggiatorijournal.com/cms/cms_files/[e-mail]

In 166, at the initiative of Marcus Aurelius, a diplomatico-commercial deputation crossed the Indian Ocean to bypass the Malay Peninsula in order to reach the Gulf of Thailand and then land in the South China Sea. She was received by the Emperor Han himself. Hou Hanshu gives only minor importance to the Roman-Chinese encounter in 166, despite the fact that the Roman delegation of Autun was escorted to the court of Luoyang, where it was received by the emperor Han himself. Indeed, the author of this Chinese source did not consider it necessary to make a detailed account. This event was, however, for the two empires who gave themselves to the center of the world, an opportunity to exchange information of commercial, military and cultural, while trying to establish bits of diplomatic cooperation. Still, if he were to lay the foundations for a transcontinental trade that would not have been stopped by wars, the crises of the regime, or the random and expensive competition of intermediaries, he did not at all help to strengthen Roman-serum relations. Chinese officials, who regarded the gifts offered by Roman merchants as negligible, were convinced that Rome was not as rich or politically and militarily powerful as their foreign informants had claimed.