This article has been written for Easy History by Powee Celdran, owner and founder of the Byzantine Time Traveller.
Introduction:
At the height of its territorial extent in the mid 6th century, the Byzantine Empire (also known, sometimes, as the Eastern Roman Empire) covered the entire Mediterranean Sea stretching west to east from Southern Spain to Syria, and north to south from the Danube River to Egypt. However, the Byzantines left their footprints even in lands far beyond their empire’s already vast borders, as they were engaged in trading and diplomatic activities with lands as far away as China, India, Ethiopia, and Scandinavia throughout their entire 1,100-year history from the 4th to 15th centuries AD. With the Byzantines travelling to these distant lands, they had several accounts describing what they saw and experienced in these said places. Apart from that, Byzantine relations with these foreign lands also allowed them to import luxury items into the Byzantine Empire, most notably silk from China and spices from India, which became vital for growing Byzantium’s economy. Apart from having diplomatic and commercial relations with these distant lands, at times the Byzantines also played an important part in their politics – sometimes inciting conflict in order to further Byzantium’s own interests.
China:
The two empires of Rome and China, despite the great distance between them, were aware of each other mostly through their indirect trade of goods and the occasional visits of diplomats and travellers. Thanks to the Silk Road, which ran from Europe to China through Central Asia, and the sea routes that ran primarily through the Indian Ocean, Chinese silk had been able to reach the Roman Empire whereas Roman coins and glassware reached China as seen through archaeological evidence. Additionally, China appears in Roman sources known as Seres, which however was a general term for the lands of Asia. Chinese sources though were more specific in describing the Roman Empire which was known to them first as Daqin and later as Fulin – which how they referred to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire from the 4th century onwards. In the 4th century, Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus makes a reference to the Great Wall of China mentioning that their land was enclosed and defined by the summits of lofty walls.
Since the first century BC, the product the Romans desired most from China were their high-quality silks, however this commodity was very difficult and expensive to attain due to the Parthian and later Sassanid Empires of Persia and the Kushan Empire of India and Central Asia acting as intermediaries in the silk trade making the silk more expensive as it passed through them. In the mid-6th century though, the Eastern Roman or Byzantine emperor Justinian I the Great (r. 527-565) found a solution to manufacture silks within the Byzantine Empire to avoid buying overpriced Chinese silks from the Sassanid Empire. Here, according to the 6th century historian Procopius of Caesarea, Justinian I sent two unnamed Nestorian Christian monks to China in around 551, and when in China, these monks observed the intricate methods for raising silkworms and producing silks. In order to bring this silk making technique back to the Byzantine Empire, these monks smuggled Chinese silkworms by storing them inside their bamboo canes as this was the ideal temperature in which these silkworms could thrive while they too brought mulberry bushes with them as silkworms required them to grow silk. Passing through Central Asia and above the Caspian and Black Seas, these monks made it back to the Byzantine Empire and finally back to the capital Constantinople where they presented the worms to the emperor Justinian himself. With this mission a success, silk factories were thus established around the Byzantine Empire, and thanks to this, the Byzantines were able to manufacture their own silk without having to import it from Sassanid Persia, although Byzantine silks were still not as superior in quality as compared to Chinese silks. However, in 568, Justinian I’s successor Emperor Justin II (r. 565-578) was still able to impress the Gokturk Khaganate of Central Asia with Byzantine made silks in order to form an alliance with them against the Sassanids. The Byzantines thus had a silk monopoly in Europe which then became a major source for their economy for the next 650 years while silks too were used by the Byzantines as gifts to impress other foreign powers.
In the 7th century meanwhile, the Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta wrote extensively about China during his time mentioning that it was the most populous region in the world and that next to it is a land known as Mucri which most possibly referred to Korea. One mentioned Byzantine (Fulin) embassy to Tang Dynasty China (618-907) took place in 643 during the reign of Byzantine emperor Constans II (641-668) where his ambassadors visited Emperor Taizong of Tang (r. 626-649) bearing gifts of red glass and green gemstones. Chinese sources at this time namely the Old Book of Tang and New Book of Tang refer to the Byzantine emperor Constans II as Po-to-li. Modern historians too mention that different Byzantine embassies to Tang Dynasty China took several times during the 8th century. Byzantine embassies to China are mentioned again in the 11th century with China now under the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and a particular one took place during 1081 where a Byzantine ambassador sent by Emperor Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071-1078) arrived at the court of Emperor Shenzong (r. 1067-1085) as mentioned in the History of Song which also described Byzantine punishments of that time, particularly the capital punishment of being stuffed into a feather bag and thrown into the sea. Lastly, during the 13th century, the Book of Yuan mentions a Byzantine known to them as Ai-sie who became a physician and astronomer at the court of the Mongol emperor of China Kublai Khan (r. 1271-1294) at Kublai’s capital Beijing wherein Ai-sie was given the title “Prince of Fulin”. Kublai Khan too had sent Nestorian monks from China to the court of Byzantine emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282-1328) to remind him that he was in a way his in-law as Andronikos II’s two half-sisters were true enough married to great-grandsons of Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227), the founder of the Mongol Empire and Kublai’s grandfather.
India:
Relations between the Roman Empire and India go back to the reign of the first Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27BC-14AD). Their relations were primarily built on trade; hence Egypt was a very important province for the Romans as it allowed them access to the Red Sea and thus making it more accessible to trade with India. In 77AD, Roman author Pliny the Elder wrote extensively about Roman trade with India and about valuable commodities that came from India such as corals and pearls while spices such as black pepper and cinnamon too came from India which is why the Romans saw it as important to trade with them. Meanwhile, a medieval map known as the Peutinger Table made in around 1200 which was a copy of a 4th or 5th century map shows a Roman Temple of Augustus at the port of Muziris which was found at the Malabar Coast in Southern India. Later, in the 4th century, the historian Eusebius of Caesarea also wrote that Indian ambassadors which he calls “Indians of the East” arrived at the court of Roman emperor Constantine I the Great (r. 306-337) bringing gifts and reminding him that the local princes in India dedicated pictures and statues in honor of him. Again, in 361, the historian Ammianus Marcellinus mentions Indian ambassadors this time at the court of Constantine I’s nephew Emperor Julian (r. 361-363) in the Roman Empire’s new capital Constantinople. Finally, in 530, the Byzantine historian John Malalas too mentions another Indian embassy to the court of Emperor Justinian I the Great in Constantinople.
During the 6th century, a Byzantine merchant and traveler from Egypt known as Cosmas Indicopleustes had made several sea voyages to India which thus earned him his nickname “Indicopleustes” meaning “he who sailed to India”. In his work Christian Topography, Cosmas describes the distant lands of India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in which he also illustrated the maps of these distant lands which are some of the earliest and most famous world maps. In one of his visits to India in around 522, Cosmas mentions several ports in the Malabar Coast in Southern India, as well as the presence of the Soriyani Christians or the St. Thomas Christians- those believed to have been converted to Christianity in the first century AD by St. Thomas the Apostle- in what is now Kerala, India. Aside from India, Cosmas had also traveled to Ceylon then known as Taprobane and in his account, he wrote about a certain Byzantine merchant named Sopatros who traveled to the distant and mysterious island of Taprobane together with a Sassanid Persian merchant. Both Sopatros and the Sassanid were taken to Taprobane’s local king who asked which of their rulers was the better one, in which the Sassanid said it was his king being Kavad I (r. 488-531). Sopatros however told the local king to judge which was the better king by looking at their respective coins in which the king, after seeing both the Byzantine gold solidus coin and the Sassanid silver one, concluded that the Byzantine one was of higher quality than the Persian one. Because of this, the local king saw the Byzantines as the more superior power, hence Sopatros was paraded on an elephant.
The distant island of Taprobane though had already appeared in Ancient Greek and Roman maps being located at the edge of the known world by notable geographers such as Claudius Ptolemy and Strabo. In around 400AD, according to the author Palladios, an Egyptian lawyer from the Byzantine Empire reached the island of Tabrobane and claimed that it was so rich in magnetic rocks that ships made with nails could not depart and were thus drawn back to the island. In this story, this lawyer, before reaching the island was caught by a people known as the “Bisads” and since neither could understand each other, the lawyer was punished by being forced to work in a bakery for the next 6 years! He was released only when the king of Taprobane discovered he was a Roman as the people of Taprobane apparently viewed the Romans with great respect, thus the lawyer was released and managed to travel to Taprobane.
Additionally, Palladios also describes that in India, the Brahman men and women live on opposite banks of the Ganges River and that the men cross the river to be with the women for 40 days from July to August and after the woman has two children, the couple will never meet again. Palladio too wrote about several exotic animals from India such as dragons, huge ants, scorpions, and a huge amphibious creature in the Ganges called the “Tooth-Tyrant” which was able to swallow a whole elephant! The historian Philostorgius on the other hand who wrote in 425 says that the unicorn lived in India and that it had a serpent’s head and coiled neck, a crooked horn, a beard, and lion’s feet.
Ethiopia and Arabia:
Since the first century AD, the Kingdom of Aksum which was later known as the Aksumite Empire based in Ethiopia ruled over most of East Africa. In the 3rd century AD, Aksum was one of the four great powers alongside the Roman Empire, Sassanid Persia, and China according to the Persian prophet Mani. Aksum too maintained diplomatic relations with Rome as it played a major role in the trade route between Rome and India due to its location along the Indian Ocean. Furthermore, in the 4th century, Aksum under their king Ezana adopted Christianity as their official state religion, thus further growing their ties with the Roman Empire. Relations between Aksum and the Roman (now Byzantine) Empire reached its peak during the reign of Aksum’s King Kaleb I (r. 514-534) and Byzantium’s emperor Justin I (r. 518-527). During this time, Kaleb I, at the behest of Justin I invaded the Arab Himyarite Kingdom in what is now Yemen which was then an enemy of the Byzantine Empire and ally of the Sassanid Persian Empire but also played a vital role in the Indian Ocean trade route which it controlled. Kaleb’s invasion of Himyar is thus well documented by 6th century historians, namely Procopius of Caesarea, John of Ephesus, John Malalas, and Cosmas Indicopleustes.
During the 520s, the Kingdom of Himyar which recently adopted Judaism as its state religion was under the rule of King Dhu Nuwas who initiated a vicious persecution of Christians in his kingdom. The Byzantine emperor Justin I seeing himself as the protector of Christians but also to gain control of the Indian Ocean trade route sought to punish the Himyarite Kingdom not by directly invading it but by having a Christian ally invade it in his name. In this time as well, the Byzantines were at a “cold war” against their traditional enemy, the Sassanid Persian Empire under Kavad I, hence both empires used their allies being other smaller kingdoms against each other in a “proxy war”, one of these kingdoms were Aksum which was an ally of the Byzantines and Himyar which was allied to the Sassanids. According to the writings of Procopius, Kaleb I with his Aksumite army invaded Himyarite Yemen in 525 in the name of Justin I by crossing the Red Sea with the assistance of Byzantine ships and in a short amount of time conquered the entire kingdom which was thus annexed into the Aksumite Kingdom. The 9th century Arab historian Ibn Ishaq says that Dhu Nuwas after his defeat in 530 chose to commit suicide by riding his horse into the Red Sea in order to avoid capture. As for Kaleb, following his conquest of Himyar, Ethiopian tradition states that he abdicated his throne and gave his crown to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, then he retired to a monastery where he died. Before Kaleb’s retirement though, he was visited by the Byzantine ambassador Nonossos who was sent by Justin I’s successor Justinian I the Great, and thus describes Kaleb’s ‘exotic’ appearance in full detail.
Following Aksum’s conquest of Himyar, an Aksumite viceroy was placed in charge of it who answered both to the King of Aksum and the Byzantine emperor. However, later in the 6th century, Ma’adi Yakrib, a relative of Himyar’s Aksumite viceroy rebelled and sought assistance from the Sassanid king Khosrow I (r. 531-579), thus triggering the Aksumite-Persian War. Sassanid troops thus arrived in Himyar and after successfully capturing its capital of Sana’a, the Aksumites were expelled from Yemen and thus Ma’adi Yakrib was placed in control of it as a Sassanid vassal. In around 578, Yakrib was assassinated by his Aksumite servants, thus Khosrow I sent another army to invade Himyar, this time to make it a Sassanid province under his direct control with his general Wahrez as its governor. From here on, Himyar became a Sassanid province until the rise of Islam in the 630s wherein the entire Yemen fell under the Rashidun Caliphate, the first Islamic Empire. Aksum however remained untouched by the expansion of the Sassanids and later the Caliphates, though because of the rise of the Caliphates from the 7th century onwards, Aksum’s power declined and thus it collapsed during the 10th century. The rise of the Arab Caliphates with their conquest of Byzantine Egypt in the 640s too brought about the decline of the Indian Ocean trade.
Scandinavia:
It is well-known in Byzantine history that from the 10th to 14th centuries, several Scandinavian warriors- as well as Russians and Anglo-Saxons- served in the Byzantine army in an elite unit protecting the emperor known as the “Varangian Guard”. However, even before the Varangian Guard was an institution in the Byzantine army, there had already been Scandinavians fighting for the Byzantines as mercenaries whereas Byzantine chroniclers too had already written about Scandinavia. It was also believed that several Germanic people encountered by the Byzantines from the 4th to 7th centuries originated in Scandinavia such as the Goths, Heruli, and Lombards. The 6th century Byzantine historians Procopius and Jordanes provide some of the earliest detailed accounts of Scandinavia known to them as Scandza or Thule which they believed to be an island. Jordanes on the other hand who identifies as a Goth claims that Scandinavia was the homeland of his people who “burst forth from it like a swarm of bees”, yet he admits that there are no bees there because of the cold while in the summer the sun hardly sets. Procopius meanwhile says that the people of Scandinavia are depressed during winter because of the perpetual darkness and thus they sent a watchman to the tallest mountain to get a glimpse of the sun, and when he does, he runs back to tell the others how long it will take for the light to return which then allows the people to hold a festival. Procopius too mentions that he wished to see Scandinavia himself but never got the opportunity to do so, yet mentions so much about it in his work The History of the Wars. One people Procopius mentions from Scandinavia are the Scrithifini who are hunters that do not feed milk, but the marrow of animals killed in their hunts to their infants and then he too mentions the people known as the Geats who are the most populous in Scandinavia and also the people of the mythical hero Beowulf who was said to have lived during the 6th century.
Warriors from the Kievan Rus’ state in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia meanwhile began serving in the Byzantine army as mercenaries since as early as 874 as part of a treaty made between the Kievan Rus’ state and the Byzantine emperor Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867-886). However, the Varangian Guard only became a permanent institution in the Byzantine army as a unit with a specific purpose to protect the emperor under Emperor Basil II (r. 976-1025) in 988. Here, Basil II requested the Prince of the Kievan Rus’ Vladimir I the Great (r. 978-1015) to put down a military rebellion in Byzantium in exchange for giving Vladimir his sister Anna as a wife and for Vladimir to also convert to Orthodox Christianity which he did. The Varangian Guard thus became an institution in the Byzantine army and over the next years, many warriors from Russia and Scandinavia including those from as far as Iceland traveled to the Byzantine Empire to serve in the Varangian Guard for a number of years in exchange for returning home with great amount of riches. Among the traces left behind by these Scandinavian warriors in Byzantium include runes carved in the marble ledge at the upper floor of the Hagia Sophia cathedral in Constantinople. On the other hand, there are about 30 runic inscriptions found in Scandinavia, mostly in Sweden, from the 11th century carved by these Varangian warriors who have been to Constantinople mentioning the city itself known to them as Miklagard or “The Great City”.
Among the famous Vikings to serve in Byzantium’s Varangian Guard include the future King of Norway Harald III Hardrada (r. 1046-1066) who during the 1030s and 1040s fought in various locations around the Byzantine Empire including the Levant, Sicily, and Bulgaria before returning home to Norway and seize the throne. The Icelandic Laxdaela Saga meanwhile written in the 13th century mentions a certain Icelander known as Bolli Bolason who journeyed to Byzantium to serve in the Varangian Guard before returning home to Iceland rich with silk clothes and gilded weapons. In 1111, another King of Norway being Sigurd I (r. 1103-1130) passed Byzantine Constantinople on his way back home from his Crusade in Jerusalem wherein he left behind many of his warriors to serve in the Varangian Guard of the emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081-1118). From the late 11th century onwards, most of the Varangian Guardsmen were Danes and Anglo-Saxons in which the latter fled England after the Norman conquest of 1066. When Constantinople was captured by the 4th Crusade in 1204, the Varangians were known to have defended the walls from the Crusaders although failing as the city fell to the Crusaders. The Varangians are last mentioned by Byzantine sources in battle in 1259 though up until 1400, there were people in Constantinople- back under Byzantine hands- who still identified as Varangians. Lastly, in the 1440s, a Byzantine chronicler known either as John Kananos or Laskaris Kananos journeyed to as far as Norway, Sweden, Livonia, Prussia, Slavonia, Denmark, England, and Iceland, although he only describes Iceland in full detail where the men are robust and strong and they only eat fish.
Sources:
- Kaldellis A. (2017), A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities
- Sarris P. (2023), Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint
- Stephenson P. (2022), New Rome: The Empire in the East
- Lygo K. (2022), The Emperors of Byzantium
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