Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 4 (1897).djvu/558

 534 APPENDIX Sunday, Jan. 18. Before sunrise Justinian appears in the Hippodrome and takes an oath before the assembled people, but does not produce the desired effect. Hypatius is proclaimed ; Justinian contemplates flight ; a council is held in the Palace, at which Theodora's view prevails. The revolt is then suppressed by the massacre in the Hippodrome. lIonday, Jan. 1!), before daylight H3-patius and Pompeius are executed. The final massacre is commonly placed on the Monda3', but I have shown that it must have occurred on Sunday [op. cit.). ISjfecial monographs : W. A. Schmidt, Der Aufstand in Constantinoi)el unter Kaiser Justinian, 1854 ; P. Kalligas, n-epl t^s trToo-ew? tou y.Ua (in MeAeToi xai Aoyoi, p. 3'2!), sqq.) 1882.] 12. ROUTES AND COMMERCE BETWEEN THE EMPIRE AND CHINA —(P. 230 S9^.) (Reinaud, Relations Politiques et Commerciales de I'Empire remain avec I'Asie orientale, 18G3 ; Pardessus in the Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscr., 1842, see above p. 22'J ; F. von Richthofen, China, i., 1877 ; Bretschneider in Notes and Queries on China and Japan, vol. iv. ; F. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, researches into their ancient and mediaeval relations, as rejiresented in old Chinese Records. 1885 ; R. von Scala, Ueber die wichtigsten Beziehungen des Orients zum Occidente. The work of Hirth is admirably done ; he gives the literal translations of the Chinese texts, and explains their date and character, so that the reader knows what he is dealing with and can test Hirth's conclusions. But Hirth seems to have no acquaintance with Cosmas Indicopleustes.) The earliest certain mention of the Roman Emi^ire in Chinese history ^ is in the Hou-han-shu, which, ^vritten during the fifth century, covers the period a. d. 25 to 220. Its sources were the notes made by the court chroniclers from day to day, which were carefully stored in the archives and concealed from the monarch himself, and thus supplied imjjartial and contemjiorary material to subsequent historians. We learn from this historj' that, in the year a.d. !)7, a certain Kan- 3ing was sent as an ambassador to Ta-ts'in. He arrived at T'iao-chih on the coast of the great sea. But when he was going to embark the sailors said to him : " The sea is vast and great ; with favourable winds it is possible to cross within three months, but if you meet slow winds, it may also take you two yeai-s. It is for this reason that those who go to sea take on board a supply of three -ears' pro- visions. There is something in the sea which is apt to make man homesick, and several have thus lost their lives." Hearing this, Kan-jing gave up the idea of visiting Ta-ts'in (Hirth's translation, op. cit., k 39). It has been fully sho^vn by Hirth that Ta-ts'in does not mean the whole Roman Empire, but only the eastern i>art of it, es])ecially Syria, and that the royal city of Ta-ts'in always means Antioch. In the seventh century we first meet Fu-Ua, the medieval name of Ta-ts'in. The appearance of this new name has been probably connected with the Nestoriau mission in China (see below, vol. v., c. xlvii.) ; and Hirth thinks it represents Bethlehern — plausibly, if he is right in supposing that the old jjronunciation was hat-lim. The ejjisode of Kan-ying shows that the trade route between China and the west in the first century a.d. was overland to Parthia ; but thence from the city of T'iao-chih (which Hirth identifies with Hira) by river and sea round Arabia, to Aelana, the jiort of Petra at the head of the Red Sea, and M3-03 Horrnos on the coast of Egypt. We also see that the carrying-trade between China and the Empire was in the hands of the Parthian merchants, whose interest it was to prevent direct communications. The kings of Ta-ts'in "always desired to send 1 Syria may be mentioned earlier in the Shih-chi (written about B.C. 91), under the name of Li-ican, which Hirth proposes to identify with Rekem = Petra (• is regularly represented by / in Chinese pronunciation, at least in certain dialects). Certainly the Hou-han-shu expressly identifies Li-kan with Ta-ts'in.