Ancient Greece and Ancient China. Two societies we consider to have been separated from one
another through both their respective histories. What if we told you that at one point, the
Ancient Greeks and Chinese had interacted? And that they fought a war? A war over horses,
that led to the opening of the Silk Road? To find out where this story begins, we need
to go back 2300 years.
As Alexander the Great conquered the lands in Asia, he founded many walled cities across
Asia, which came to be inhabited by his military veterans. The furthest east of these cities
was founded in the Ferghana Valley, modern day Tajikistan, and named Alexandria Eschate,
literally: Alexandria the Furthest. This marked the beginning of a Greek presence
in Central Asia that would last nearly 300 years, and result in some of the most fascinating
cultural exchanges in human history. Indeed, in 250 BC, 80 years after Alexander’s Diadochi
divided up his empire among themselves after his death, the Greeks of the East- known as
the Greco-Bactrians, declared their independence from the Seleucid dynasty of Anatolia, and
formed the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, with Alexandria Eschate being its northernmost outpost.
Now, we must jump ahead around 100 years and go further east. China, ruled by the Han Dynasty,
was one of the richest and most powerful Empires of the world. However, they had problems to
contend with. On the northern frontier of the Han Empire resided the Xiongnu, a fierce
confederacy of nomadic steppe-warrior peoples, believed to be the predecessors of the mighty
Huns. They have been a thorn in the side of Han China for decades, raiding and pillaging
their northern territories and taking many captives, as well as exacting vast amounts
of tribute. As the Imperial Court shifted more and more
in favour of total war with the Xiongnu, Emperor Han Wudi realized that he would need allies
in the war to come. He appointed a diplomat, Zhang Qian, to the west. Zhang Qian’s travels
would later become legendary to the Chinese. They would come to see him as a national hero,
a man who connected the west and the east. Zhang Qian’s goal was to form an alliance
with the Yuezhi, another nomadic pastoral people who previously had been displaced by
the Xiongnu from their previous homeland in the modern-day Gansu Province in China to
the Tarim Basin. However, Zhang Qian never reached the Yuezhi, as he was captured by
the Xiongnu and had spent ten years in captivity among them. He was treated quite well, even
marrying a Xiongnu woman and having a child with her.
After a decade in captivity, Zhang Qian escaped his captivity. Even after all that time, he
displayed a remarkable loyalty to the Han Emperor, and continued westward to Ferghana
and Bactria, to find the Yuezhi people to forge an alliance with them. However, when
he finally reached the Yuezhi territory, he was effectively told that the Yuezhi have
no desire to make war upon the Xiongnu, rendering his 10 years in captivity and his entire mission
pointless. One would think that Zhang Qian’s expedition
had been an abject failure, but there was a silver lining. During his time in Ferghana
searching for the Yuezhi, Qian came across a city he called Erqin and noted several qualities
about the people living there called the Dayuan, or “Great Ionians”. The men had deep-set
eyes, and thick, dark beards. They lived in sophisticated city dwellings and were lovers
of grape wine. He also visited the cities in Bactria, where he was impressed by their
complex urban lifestyle and shrewd skill in trade and commerce. However, he noted that
the Dayuan, are weak in martial prowess and are afraid of fighting.
Indeed, the people who Zhang Qian encountered in Ferghana and Bactria were the descendants
of the Greek settlers transplanted into the region by Alexander the Great, over 200 years
earlier, but by 130 BC, the golden age of the Greeks in Asia has declined. While their
cities endure, they have been conquered by the very same Yuezhi people Zhang Qian wished
to forge an alliance with, and now live under the suzerainty of their nomadic hordes, paying
them tribute. Zhang Qian noted that the peoples of Alexandria
Eschate possess great “heavenly” horses. These mounts had powerful crests, short, stocky
legs and round barrels. They possessed remarkable endurance and made ideal warhorses. They were
even said to “sweat blood”, although this was likely a product of blood-sucking parasites
in their mane that caused blood to mix with sweat when the horses were worked.
The prodigal diplomat finally returned to the Imperial Court in Chang’an in 125 BC.
Although he had failed to make any alliances, he returned with detailed information about
the civilizations on the edge of the known Chinese world, including the Greeks in Alexandria
Eschate, and the heavenly horses they possessed. This information would later prove invaluable
to the Han Chinese. Zhang Qian’s accounts would be the first major documented interaction
between Chinese civilization and a European culture.
In 104 BC, Emperor Wu of Han had sent envoys to Alexandria Eschate, looking to buy a large
number of Ferghana horses, however we are unsure of what happened next. Perhaps the
envoy demanded tribute in the name of the Han or, maybe, the amount of horses he was
asking for was simply too high, and at too low a price. In any case, the offended Greeks
killed the envoy. When the news of this reached the Emperor,
he was furious and decided that if he cannot receive the heavenly horses through payment
or tribute, he will take them by force. A force of 20,000 Han infantry, and 6000 cavalry
was levied to invade Alexandria Eschate, and general Li Guangli was to command it.
Li Guangli had led his army through the treacherous Taklamakan desert to reach Ferghana. Within
the desert was the Tarim Basin, home to a network of oasis city-states governed by the
Tocharian peoples. Li Guangli attempted to gain supplies and resources from these cities,
but they refused. Ultimately, he ended up in multiple petty conflicts with the Tocharians,
losing a good chunk of his men. By the time the Han Chinese army reached Alexandria
Eschate, only a fraction of their original force remained. The Greeks, of course, refused
to capitulate. Without the means to break through the city walls, Li Guangli was forced
to withdraw back to China. When Guangli informed the Emperor of the difficulties
they had in the desert, Wu of Han responded tripling the amount of men given to his general.
Li Guangli had set out across the Taklamakan again with 60,000 soldiers, and 100,000 Oxen.
This time, due to the sheer numbers of the Chinese army the Tocharian cities cooperated
and offered supplies. Still Guangli had managed to lose nearly half of his army to exposure
in the harsh deserts. Nevertheless, with 30,000 troops, he reached
the walls of Alexandria Eschate once more and prepared for a siege.
Actual accounts of the battle itself are fairly sparse. We know that the Greeks put up an
initial fight, being able to hold off the Chinese army for 40 days, before they broke
through the outer wall of Alexandria. We don’t know by what means the Chinese penetrated
the city walls, although we can make an educated guess based on the siege engines, we know
the Han Dynasty used. It is likely that the heavy use of the overlook assault cart, battering
rams, and sheer force of numbers allowed the Chinese to hammer their way in.
In response to this the nobles within the city, fearing for their lives, assassinated
their king, and delivered his head to Li Guangli, as well as offering as many horses as the
Chinese would like, as a tribute. Li Guangli established a new puppet king in Dayuan, placing
the Greeks of the city firmly under Chinese influence. Thus ended the short, yet pivotal
war of the Heavenly Horses. On the Chinese march homeward, many of the
same Tocharian city-states capitulated to the Han, awed by their victory in Alexandria
Eschate. Chinese military garrisons would be established within their walls, and the
entire Tarim Basin region would eventually become consolidated into Han China’s Protectorate
of the West. Li Guangli returned to the Han court victorious,
and with 3,000 “Heavenly” Ferghana horses to show for it. The War of the Heavenly Horses,
and all the events that led up to it, are incredibly pivotal moments in history, especially
given how little they are talked about. It banishes the misconception that the Ancient
Greek and Ancient Chinese civilizations never interacted with one another, and opens up
a whole new field of fascinating cultural interaction between very different people
groups. More importantly, this critical interaction
between the Greeks and Chinese 2,000 years ago was likely the seminal event that opened
up the silk road. China’s expedition to Alexandria Eschate led to them establishing
their control across Central Asia. This connected the Eastern and Western worlds, and made trade
from Europe to China all the more possible. The Silk Road would play a crucial role in
the spread of religion, culture and commerce across continents for centuries to come.
Greek culture in the East would eventually be assimilated out of existence, but not before
it made its mark upon the cultures of the region, although not in the ways one might
expect. Many Greeks in India, Bactria and Ferghana converted to Buddhism. The Greeks
contributed their own philosophies and culture towards the faith. Due to the Greek cult of
form, it is said that the first anthropomorphic sculpture of the Buddha himself was done by
the Greeks, where before, he had only been represented by his symbols such as a Bodhi
Tree. It is even believed that the Greek philosophies
had a major impact in the development of a new sect of Buddhism- Mahayana Buddhism. It
would eventually spread into China, Korea and Japan through the trade and interaction
of the Silk Road, of which the Greeks had an active presence on.
As for China, they eventually won their war against the Xiongnu in AD91. The Heavenly
Horses they claimed from the Greeks became symbols of wealth and power, depicted prominent
in prestige art as late as the Tang Dynasty, 600 years later.
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