Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

part iv | migrations of cultures
the risk of setting off with an army composed of Chinese and auxiliary troops from
the local states.
After marching for several thousand miles, the troops approached Zhizhi’s capital,
and took it by storm. The account of this event sent to the imperial court by Chen
Tang, states that at the beginning of the attack, near the city, there were ‘more than a
hundred foot soldiers lined up on either side of the gate in fish-scale formation’. 4
Homer H. Dubs demonstrated that this kind of military formation was
characteristic only of the Roman legionaries, claiming that a ‘fish-scale formation is
such an extraordinary affair that it naturally raises questions concerning the nature
and nationality of troops who could execute so complicated a maneuver. These
soldiers must have been drawn up in such a manner that they crowded together and
overlapped their shields.’ The execution of this required a high degree of discipline
and organisation, typical of professional armies. At that time only the Greek and
Roman armies would have been capable of this. The nomadic tribes did not have any
kind of organised military formation. However, while Macedonian phalanx soldiers
had small and round shields, Roman soldiers had oval and rectangular shields, which,
when linked together, protected close rows of soldiers from arrows (incidentally, a
terracotta plaque found at Kampyrtepa bears the image of just such a shield). Thus,
Dubs concluded, there was ‘considerable evidence that the “more than a hundred
foot soldiers” were actually Roman legionaries’, almost certainly they included some
of the legionaries of Crassus, serving as mercenary soldiers for the Shanyu Zhizhi.
It is also noteworthy that the city, which was stormed by the Chinese, had a
double wooden palisade fortification. Such fortifications were used by the Romans,
especially in front of gates. The vagaries of fate had led the Romans along the Silk
Road and further east. Evidence for this comes from a short inscription bearing the
typically Roman name ‘Titus’ found on one of the Miran frescoes in the Turfan Oasis
in Xinjiang. Perhaps this Titus was a descendant of the Roman legionaries of Crassus?
We must assume that further thorough archaeological and historical research
in Central Asia and Xinjiang will eventually discover traces of Crassus’ Roman
legionaries.
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