Did Romans ever venture deeper into germanic and eastern Europe territories just to look around? I live in a shithole known as Poland and I wonder if any Romans ever walked over my country's land.
>To the victory of the emperors – army that lies at Laugaricio, 855 soldiers of the II. legion (made on the order of Marcus Valerius Maximianus, legate of the II. auxiliary legion)
Legions of Commodus left this in Trenčín, Slovakia in 179 AD
>>283841
forgot pic
>>283812
No. Ancient Slav Land (i.e. around Ukrainian Podolia-Carpathia, as far as I know) has been documented by them but they haven't actually gone there.
It's not like there was a point either, the region was quite poor with nothing to plunder.
>>283892
>what is salt and jade
>>283812
Well not sure about that, expect of course traders and other adventures, but I doubt any legion made that far, or there would be records of that.
On a side note, Roman historian Tacitus even knew about Fenni tribe (Finns most likely), so inviduals did travel around and seek knowledge.
>>317482310
This kind of stuff is always so interesting to me. I remember hearing about some Greek cartographer who made his way all the way to Scandinavia or somewhere around there, can't remember if it was disputed/mythical though. It also blows my mind that the ancient Greeks had colonies as far away as Hispania before Rome was really even relevant.
The fact that the Vikings had colonies in North America and their genes are actually found in some northeastern native American tribes is super interesting too.
There's also that story about the Japanese being somehow related to the Hebrews but that was probably some "lost tribes" new wave bullshit.
>>283812
Roman traders would certainly have been where you were. And there are reports of some punitive expeditions going up to the Ober and Vistula region, with Roman spies active all over the place in the "barbaricum" beyond the frontiers. Shit was incredibly rare though, nobody bothered to chart the groups beyond the first 'layer' of barbarians in any great detail.
There were expeditions by sea around the top of Scotland, around Jutland to the Baltic Sea and trade with the Canaries.
>>284312
Man, you think that's amazing? Roman explorers made it as far as Vietnam. Greek courtiers were advising Ashoka in India. Vikings brought back Buddhist statues to Scandinavia. Somali merchants had their own neighborhoods in Bharuch, Gujarat. The Abbasid Caliphate fought Tang China in Transoxiana. Frankish crusaders almost entered an alliance with the Mongols against the Kurdish Ayyubid Sultanate of Egypt.
>>283812
Probably. Merchants always went way farther than the borders of a nation.
>>284312
Fuck now I'm curious about the post you were replying to.
>>284381
>The Abbasid Caliphate fought Tang China in Transoxiana.
This gets even more interesting when you know that the Tibetan Empire (because there's a tibetan empire) participated in this battle. In the same side than the muslims.
>Frankish crusaders almost entered an alliance with the Mongols against the Kurdish Ayyubid Sultanate of Egypt.
No, against the mamluk sulatanate that expulsed the Ayyubids. Mamluks were mostly turkics from the kipchak steppe so it's probably even more curious.
>>283812
Thank your German and Dutch neighbors, they rebelled on two occasions and wiped five legions from the face of the earth.
>>283812
I'll take that clay in my next Rome 2 campaign for you, friend
:^)
>>284423
>>284348
Why would a roman trader go that far into Europe? Why not buy/sell the trades to your germanic neighbour, who buys/sells it to his neighbouring tribe, who buys/sells it to his neighbouring tribe, etc.?
This happened even within the empire and in the way more developed routes like the silk road and the indian ocean trade. Travelling merchants existed but were obviously not the norm. Why would a roman travel into Poland to trade, when there's no good knowledge of the area and nobody to ensure his security?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_Road
And stop having shitty complexes.
>>284381
>Romans in vietnam
Fuck, wish they had left a temple or shrine around there
Romans built a lot of shit in Hungary and southern Slovakia. I think northwestern Slovakia is the farthest they went in Eastern Europe, pic related.
>>284381
>The Abbasid Caliphate fought Tang China
This is not surprising really. Earlier, you have the last few Sassanid Princes being refugees in the T'ang Court, and dying as Chinese nobles.
Yes, they did. Tacitus actually wrote about the far-eastern tribes.
>>284488
Two reasons.
Mad dosh and fuck the middle man.
>>284381
>greek courtiers
you mean hellenistic ambassadors right?
>>284835
No mad dosh if you're lost because there's no roads or maps and killed because you don't speak the language and don't know the retarded barbarian trade customs, and there's probably not even a central authority to protect you.
>>284872
No risk no reward anon
>>284872
high risk high yield nigga
there's a reason why international commerce was almost indistinguishable from soldiery in premodern times (see Hanseatic League).
>>284847
It's not really even that bizarre since Seleucids were bordering Asoka's turf.
>>284381
>Roman explorers made it as far as Vietnam.
Not really surprising, since there were accounts of Rome and China correspondences. It's not like the east and the west didn't know about each other. It's just that contact was pretty infrequent.
>>284847
If it quacks like a Greek, walks like a Greek and is Greek, then it is a Greek.
>>284381
>The Abbasid Caliphate fought Tang China in Transoxiana
That is pretty amazing. We all imagine pre-modern China as isolated from anything west of the himalayas, a bunch of turban wearing, scimitar wielding muslims fighting medieval chinese soldiers is bizarre to imagine.
>>285232
Actually, the battle was more like "Abbasids and their Pet Turks VS. China and their Pet Turks." So what majority had, really, are Turkish armies.
China's pet turks backstabbed them during the fight.
>>283812
Roman legions went up to the Elbe but not further. Did Roman traders made it into Poland? maybe.
>>283841
>Trenčín
Cool. That's not *too* far over the Danube though
>>285232
I think that early arabs used mostly straight swords, like it was common in both persian and roman tradition. While not a turkish invention, it was in turkic tradition that curved swords were traditional and they were popularized by the turks who took over the middle east.
But well, the battle was fought on turkic land, so probably there were plenty of scimitars on both sides.
>>285259
Also tibetans. Literally the only time period when tibetans get to be badass.
>>285844
>scimitars
As I've read they were used, because they offered more reliability when used by a horse rider. Did they have any diminished efficiency against normal swords when people fought on foot?
>>285057
They never actually communicated directly. They just knew of each other through middle men.
China was Romaboo as fuck though. Because of their belief in dualism they always thought another China must exist somewhere. When they learned about Rome they decided Rome was Da Qin. (Great China)
>>285259
Fucking kebabs
>>286127
>China was Romaboo as fuck though. Because of their belief in dualism they always thought another China must exist somewhere. When they learned about Rome they decided Rome was Da Qin. (Great China)
Rome was also pretty Chinaboo
They would speak of anything high quality as being from Seres (China)
>>285948
A scimitar is not going to cut anything thicker than leather. Infantry blades are either straight and built for stabbing, or heavy and curved and built for chopping. A scimitar is for slicing and some stabbing. Scimitar training was more about being able to get a blow in and retract the blade as soon as possible, like on the move. Slavs dueled with curved blades in the late Medieval and Renaissance periods, but they were unarmored during duels.
>>286137
I think it's really nice they had that little pen pal thing going on.
Such a shame Rome did not survive until they could meet properly.
I still want to know if there's any Chinese response in any way to the fall of Byzantium. Did they find out about it? Did they even care at that point?
>>286142
I imagine they doodled a lot of crying anime gifs over losing their waifu
