In 55 BC, crassus, the ancient Roman consul and Syrian governor, led 40,000 people on an expedition to Paltia (Chinese name: Rest in Peace, now Iran). In the summer of 53 BC, the Soviet troops in Kela were lured into the depths of the Mesopotamian desert by Palladian cavalry, and 6,000 vanguard troops were wiped out by Palladian main forces in the area of Calais. Its commander, crassus's youngest son, Publi uz, committed suicide. The remaining Roman troops retreated in Amin's direction, surrounded by Parthians, crassus was captured and killed, Vandoro Ma Shibing was captured, and a cavalry team broke through. In 52 BC, Uhaanyehe, a Hun, joined the Han Dynasty, and his brother Zhi Zhi Khan developed the Western Regions and built Zhi Zhi City in Chambul, Kazakhstan, as an enemy of the Han Dynasty. In 36 BC (the third year of Zhao Jian, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty), Gan Yanshou, the commander in charge of the Western Regions, and Chen Tang, the vice captain, recruited more than 40,000 soldiers from fifteen countries and cultivated land in the Western Regions in the Han Dynasty to attack Zhi Zhi City. Zhi led a great army to hold on, hundreds of cavalry galloped at the gate, and hundreds of infantry lined up at the door, spreading out the fish scales. The Han army fired arrows and crossbows, the enemy rode and the infantry returned to the city. At night, the Han army set fire to Zhi Chongmu City and attacked Tucheng. At dawn, the Han army broke into the city and died of intellectual injury. The Han army was killed 15 18 by the prince and famous E Shi, captured 1450 alive, and defeated 1000. Uhaanyehe and his relatives in Han Dynasty. According to the Records of Geography of Hanshu, there was Li Gan County under Zhangye County in the Western Han Dynasty. The above three isolated historical events have become the material of repeated media hype in the past two decades. On September 29th, 1989, Reference News published AFP news, saying that David Harris, an Australian, discovered a city called Li Jian in Yongchang, Gansu Province, where the defeated soldiers of the Roman Empire settled in 36 BC. In 65438+February 15 of the same year, People's Daily published a report by Li Yongnian and Sun, saying that "through joint research by historians of China, Australia and the Soviet Union, it is believed that the city established in the Western Han Dynasty and Yuan Di era was used to hold Roman prisoners of war, and this city is in Yongchang County, Gansu Province today. This discovery not only solved the historical mystery of the defeat of a Roman army of more than 6,000 people in Persia in 53 BC, but also was of great significance to the study of the history of Sino-foreign relations. This incident attracted the attention of local leaders, and monuments, pavilions, statues and remaining city walls were erected as local tourism resources for publicity. In the past ten years, local newspapers have published more than 100 newsletters, filmed many TV feature films, published novels and plays, and publicized the "legendary history" of Li Gan. Under the repeated bombing of the media, the readers believed that an ancient Roman legion did return to Yongchang County, Gansu Province more than 2,000 years ago.

In fact, what Harris and others said is nothing more than picking up the case of Homer H. Dubs, a professor at Oxford University.

H.Dubs) is just the wisdom of a tooth. 1957, Homer H. Dubs published the article "A Roman City in China". (

Qu Zhimin, Dunhuang Studies, No.2, 200 1.

), it is speculated that after the defeat of the Roman crassus Corps in Calais in 53 BC, more than 10,000 captured soldiers were forced to guard the border in the rest of the east, and some of them fled eastward to become Xiongnu mercenaries, and participated in the defense of the Khan City of Zhi Zhi in 36 BC. After the defeat, they were captured by the Han army. The Han Dynasty placed them in the south of Yongchang County, Gansu Province, and named them Li Gancheng.

The four historians of the Three Kingdoms mentioned in the report have not published any relevant research papers or monographs so far. Among them, Chen Zhengyi's The Last Song of Li Gan-The Last Mystery of the Ancient Romans (Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House, 2002)

), although it is known as "written with reliable historical materials", it is perfunctory at key points and unconstrained style, which is not a serious historical work at all.

Since the 1960s, scholars such as Yang, Wang Shoukuan of Taiwan Province Province and Lanzhou University, Mo Rennan of Hunan Normal University, Ge of Fudan University, Yang * * * Le of Beijing Normal University, Huang of Gansu Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Zhang Xushan of Tsinghua University have published articles in succession, questioning the statement that the Roman Legion has returned to the east of Licheng.

Based on the reasons given by Homer H. Dubs and others that the Roman Legion belongs to Li Gan in the East, the following are summarized as eight comments:

First, after the war in Calais, the eldest son of Calais, Publi Wusi, led an army to break through and fled to Central Asia to join Zhihan. According to Roman history, crassus had two sons. The eldest son Marcus (Crassus, Marcus.

Licinius) fought Caesar in Gaul in 53 BC, led the troops to burn Mennai villages and houses, plundered their livestock and population, and forced them to come to make peace (Caesar's Battle of Gaul, Commercial Press).

, 1982)。 Publi uz, his youngest son, fought with crassus.

Licinius) committed suicide at the beginning of the Battle of Calais. The escaped cavalry was commanded by the finance official Gaius Gaius Cassius Longinus Langjinus LangGirnus. In 5 1 year BC, they also suppressed the Jewish uprising in Jerusalem and crossed the Euphrates River to defeat the rest (

Carvalho's History of Ancient Rome, Commercial Press, 1957). Three people can't lead the team fled to Zhi Dou khan.

Second, the Huns, as nomadic people, could not build cities, while Zhi Zhi Khan's heavy wooden city could only get technical assistance from the Romans.

Zhi Zhi's process of building a city is recorded in the biography of Hanshu Yanshou Chentang: "People build a city, and 500 people a day. When they were two years old, they were already. " No Roman soldiers took part. Although Huns are nomadic people, they will build cities very early. According to the biography of Han Xiongnu, in 123 BC, Zhao Xin, the general of the Han army, surrendered and the Xiongnu built Zhao Xincheng to live in. Later, after Wei Lu surrendered to the Huns, he suggested "building a city by wells, managing buildings and hiding valleys, and staying with the Qin people." In the 1940s and 1950s, archaeologists from the former Soviet Union discovered more than a dozen Xiongnu city sites in Outer Mongolia and Lake Baikal. Huns have decades of experience in building cities, so Zhi Zhi Khan did not need to seek guidance from Roman soldiers in building cities. Lang Zhonghou in the story of Xiongnu in Han Dynasty said: "Since the beginning of filial piety ... more than 100 years ago, it was not all based on earth walls, or because the mountains were stuck with stone and firewood, the water gate in the valley was slightly flat and it was built for a long time." Obviously, the walls of the Han Dynasty were not only rammed with mud, but also made of stone, wood and water. The Chinese characters for "frontier fortress" and "city village" mean "earth" and "wood", which also shows that the ancients built cities with earth or wood. Any important city or frontier fortress is a so-called heavy city with Guo outside the city. Heavy wooden cities were not unique to the Romans.

Third, in the battle of Zhi Zhi City, more than 100 infantry were arranged in a fish scale array, which was the tortoise shell needle of ancient Rome. They must be Roman soldiers. "Arranging battle formations like fish scales requires a high degree of training and discipline, which is beyond the reach of any nomadic tribe such as Xiongnu."

Zhi Zhi Khan's fish scale array outside the city is like the The Mermaid array in Zuo Zhuan, which means that the infantry are arranged in an orderly and easy-to-move array. According to the records of world military history, the Tortoise Shell Array is a shield array for the Roman army to intensively protect the fighting teams, which "can effectively block arrows". It is recorded in The Biography of Han Gan Yanshou Chen Tang that when the Han army shot arrows, the infantry fled into the city with a fish scale array. Where is the tortoise shell array? Even if the fish scale array is really a tortoise shell array, it is not only used by the Romans, but also has a similar array in ancient China. As "Lu Chunqiu Guizhi" said, "When I attacked Wei and attached Guo, I became a soldier myself. Fight, stand far away, and live under the screen of rhinoceros. " The so-called rhinoceros shield is a cowhide shield that is densely arranged in front of the army to shield the arrows. Therefore, the fish scale array cannot be used as evidence that these infantry are Roman soldiers.

Xiongnu fought Qin and Han dynasties for a long time, with well-organized troops and superb tactics. For example, Biography of Xiongnu in Historical Records records the battle of Deng Baishan in 200 BC: "Emperor Gao (Liu Bang) used his own troops ... so he pretended to be defeated and lured the Han soldiers. Han Xi soldiers, many infantry, 30,000 to 20,000 went north to chase them. Gaudi arrived in Pingcheng first, but the infantry was not finished. In modu chanyu, 400,000 soldiers rode around Deng Bai Gaudi. On the seventh day, Han soldiers were not allowed to rescue soldiers at home and abroad. Xiongnu rides, its west is white, its east is green, its north is black and its south is black. " I would like to ask, the Xiongnu army was well-trained when it was in Morton, but why was it lacking in training and discipline when it was in Morton, Zhi Zhi?

Fourth, the "prisoners" of the Han army 145

People, compared with "hundreds of people alone outside, can be sure that this is the same army", "these Romans may have voluntarily chosen to follow Gan and Chen to China".

There is no historical basis for describing the 145 people captured alive by the Han army as more than 100 infantry who were becoming fish scales during the war. Even if these 145 people were really Roman soldiers, they were not brought back to the mainland. After the war, Gan Yanshou and Chen Shang will "give birth to 145 people, drop more than a thousand people, and give them to all countries in the city of fifteen kings" (

Hanshu Gan Yanshou Chen Tang Biography

)。 On the way back from Gan Yanshou and Chen Tang's victory, someone reported that Chen Tang coveted the seized property. A captain in Li Si ordered officials along the way to "be inspected by officials". Shu protested: "Ministers and officials * * * punished Zhi Zhi Khan ... refused to accept it today, which is the wisdom of revenge!" (

"Han Gan Yanshou Chen") clearly shows that the accompanying officials who have made meritorious deeds in the western regions are the people who entered the customs. Where are the Roman soldiers who volunteered to follow China?

5. "The Romans who arrived in the Han Dynasty were placed in a town specially built for them on the border and named Li Gan, the Chinese name of Rome". "The beginning of The Biography of the Great Qin State in the Later Han Dynasty reads" A Plough of the Great Qin State ",which shows that this is an indisputable fact.

In the second year of Emperor Pingdi in the Western Han Dynasty (AD 2), there were 24,532 households in Zhangye County 10 County with 8873 1 person, with an average of 8,000-9,000 people in each county. Even if there were 145 Roman prisoners of war, how could the Han Dynasty set up a county to build a city for them? Recently, it was reported that the number of Roman soldiers who came to Li Gan was "thousands". Is it possible to talk nonsense about history without any basis? Han bamboo slips unearthed in the 20th century mentioned the county many times, such as "Long live a man who becomes two Cang, thirty years old, seven feet two inches long, dressed in black, a sword, a centurion, and an ox cart or two" (

"Juyan Han Bamboo Slips A and B" 334.33). "■ He Yi, 33 years old, surnamed Wu, was a miser in his hometown. He was Geng Yin in March of Shenjue and moved twice" (Jin Guan

73EJT4.98). The chronology of bamboo slips shows that there was a county before 60 BC (the second year of Emperor Jue), which was never established for captured Romans. "Biography of the Western Regions in the Later Han Dynasty" said: "It is extremely difficult to rest in the Western Regions. From then on, I went to the sea in the south and led to Daqin. " It is said that the state of Daqin is in the southwest of rest. And "Historical Records of Dawan Biography" Zhang Qian said: "Rest in peace ... There are Chae Yeon and Li Xuan in the north." Li Xuan (Li Gan) is resting in the north. He is not in the same place as Daqin. He is not a country. Guo Songtao, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, pointed out in Volume 5 of Notes on Historical Records that it was wrong to call "the plowshare of Daqin" in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. According to scholars' research, Li Xuan mentioned by Zhang Qian is the opposite of Alexandria, especially Alexandria in Marguillard. At that time, there were no diplomatic envoys in Rome in the Han Dynasty, and they knew nothing about it. How can it be used as the name of the newly established county?

6. Ancient cultural relics such as copper coins, iron pot, iron ding, iron smashing and porcelain pots have been unearthed in Zhelaizhai Town, Yongchang County, indicating that the city is related to ancient Roman soldiers. A log more than ten feet long was dug up in nearby Xinghua Village, which may have been used by Roman soldiers to build a heavy wooden city. "An oval object with the words' Zhaoan' was unearthed in the nearby Hetan Village. Experts believe that this may be the top cover of the Roman military cap. " The epitaph of Lingcheng Meng in Li Gan County of Sui Dynasty unearthed in Wuwei City "also plays an important role in further revealing the settlement of ancient Roman troops in Hexi Corridor of Gansu Province."

All the unearthed copper coins are unaccounted for, which cannot explain the problem. Unearthed iron pots and other cultural relics, the overseas edition of People's Daily reported that "all belong to the Yuan Dynasty". The logs in Xinghua Village are definitely not the only ones in Chongmu City. 1. Zhi Zhi Khan is very close to Yongchang and Wan Li, so what is the need to have it transported to Hexi? Second, the ancient city walls were generally as high as 15 meters, and the wooden city beyond them could not be only 5-6 meters high (more than a foot long). The word "Zhaoan" began in the Five Dynasties and was widely used in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. What is the basis for saying that the objects with the words "Zhaoan" were used by soldiers who surrendered to Rome in the Han Dynasty? As for the epitaph of Li Gan County Order in Sui Dynasty, it can only be used as physical evidence that Li Gan County did exist in ancient times. What does it have to do with the problems of the Roman legion?

Seven,

"In several villages around Li Gan, there are still 10 or 20 families with typical Mediterranean appearance characteristics: high nose bridge, deep eye socket, blue eyes, naturally curly hair, golden beard, hair and hair, strong body and fair skin". "They are descendants of the lost Roman Legion."

The research shows that Saka, an early resident in the west of China, and Yueshi and Wusun, an ancient resident in Hexi, are also "blue eyes, red beards and apes" (

Notes on Yan Shigu's History of the Western Regions

), the Han Dynasty was established in Hexi, which was inhabited by subjugated nations, including many Europeans. After Zhang Qian's voyage to the West, Hexi Corridor became the main corridor of the overland Silk Road. From the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, countless Western envoys, businessmen, monks, students and tourists crossed the corridor to pay tribute, trade, education, study and travel to the Central Plains Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, there were Semu troops stationed in Yongchang area, and some of them stayed and settled down because of things, married and had children, and became local residents. It is not surprising that some people here have European national characteristics.

Moreover, the residents of Apennine Peninsula are southern Europeans with black hair and eyes, and yellow hair and blue eyes are the symbols of northern Europeans. If the local residents are really blond, it proves that they are not descendants of ancient Rome.

In recent years, some scholars have measured the so-called descendants of ancient Romans in Yongchang through DNA technology. According to the media, "the appraisal results show that 9 1 whole blood samples submitted by Zhelaizhai villagers, who are descendants of the Roman Legion, are all of Central Asian and West Asian descent". What is the relationship between ancient Rome and Central Asia and West Asia? Besides, even if the DNA of these people is exactly the same as that of Italians today, can we be sure that they are descendants of the ancient Romans who came to China before 2040? Why can't it be said that it came from the Tang Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty or other times?

Eight, the local people have the custom of steaming bull's-head-shaped steamed bread for sacrifice. "This may have been passed down from generation to generation in ancient Rome", and there is also "the legacy of ancient Roman bullfighting" in the local area.

Sacrificing cows and bullfighting are common customs of farming people. In the early Spring and Autumn Period, Qin Wengong built the Niute Temple to worship the cow god. In the Song Dynasty, there was the Niuwang Temple (Song Hemi's Biography of Chun Zhu).

3)。 In recent years, there have been many festivals offering sacrifices to cattle in both the north and the south. Up to now, there are bullfighting activities in Jinhua, Miao, Yi, Li, Dong, Buyi and Hui in Zhejiang. And most of them are fighting with cows. In foreign countries, there was a bull-running festival in the ancient Near East, which began in A.D. 160. Bull worship originated in the Eastern Aegean Sea and spread to the Indus Valley and Danube region in Europe.

Cults); There is knight bullfighting, which is called Spain's "national art"; Only in ancient Rome, there was neither the worship of cattle nor the custom of bullfighting, only people fought beasts and people fought people. Experts are either negligent or deliberately deceiving public opinion.

It is also reported that the scallion cake that locals like to eat is Roman pizza. Pizza is usually baked in the oven, and tomato sauce, cheese and other ingredients are covered on the fermented round cake. Onion oil cake is made by frying onion and salt on a dead-noodle sandwich in a pot. There is nothing in common between them.

In a word, the theory that the Roman Legion belongs to Li Gan in the East is full of contradictions and has no historical basis. It is a complete forgery of history.