Editing Silk Road (section)

=== Roman Empire (30 BCE – 3rd century CE) ===
[[File:Seidenstrasse GMT Ausschnitt Zentralasien.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Central Asia during Roman times, with the first Silk Road]]

Soon after the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30&nbsp;BCE, regular communications and trade between China, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe blossomed on an unprecedented scale. The Roman Empire inherited eastern trade routes that were part of the Silk Road from the earlier Hellenistic powers and the Arabs. With control of these trade routes, citizens of the Roman Empire received new luxuries and greater prosperity for the Empire as a whole.{{sfn|Liu|2010|p=21}} The Roman-style glassware discovered in the archeological sites of [[Gyeongju]], the capital of the [[Silla]] kingdom (Korea) showed that Roman artifacts were traded as far as the Korean peninsula.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea {{!}} Silk Road |url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/countries-alongside-silk-road-routes/republic-korea |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223211425/https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/countries-alongside-silk-road-routes/republic-korea |archive-date=23 February 2017 |access-date=23 February 2017 |website=UNESCO |language=en}}</ref> The Greco-[[Roman trade with India]] started by [[Eudoxus of Cyzicus]] in 130&nbsp;BCE continued to increase, and according to [[Strabo]] (II.5.12), by the time of [[Augustus]], up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from [[Myos Hormos]] in Roman Egypt to India.<ref>Strabo, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2E1*.html ''Geography''], Book II Chapter 5</ref> The Roman Empire connected with the Central Asian Silk Road through their ports in [[Barygaza]] (present-day [[Bharuch]]) and [[Barbarikon]] (near present-day [[Karachi]]) and continued along the western coast of India.{{sfn|Liu|2010|p=40}} An ancient "travel guide" to this Indian Ocean trade route was the Greek [[Periplus of the Erythraean Sea]] written in 60&nbsp;CE.

[[File:Statuetta indiana di Lakshmi, avorio, da pompei, 1-50 dc ca., 149425, 02.JPG|thumb|upright=.8|[[Indian art]] also found its way into Italy: in 1938 the [[Pompeii Lakshmi]] was found in the ruins of [[Pompeii]] (destroyed in an eruption of  [[Mount Vesuvius]] in 79 CE).]]

The travelling party of [[Maes Titianus|Maës Titianus]] penetrated farthest east along the Silk Road from the Mediterranean world, probably with the aim of regularising contacts and reducing the role of middlemen, during one of the lulls in Rome's intermittent wars with Parthia, which repeatedly obstructed movement along the Silk Road. Intercontinental trade and communication became regular, organised, and protected by the "Great Powers." Intense [[Roman commerce|trade with the Roman Empire]] soon followed, confirmed by the Roman craze for Chinese silk (supplied through the Parthians), even though the Romans thought silk was obtained from trees. This belief was affirmed by [[Seneca the Younger]] in his [[Phaedra (Seneca)|Phaedra]] and by [[Virgil]] in his [[Georgics]]. Notably, [[Pliny the Elder]] knew better. Speaking of the ''bombyx'' or silk moth, he wrote in his [[Natural Histories]] "They weave webs, like spiders, that become a luxurious clothing material for women, called silk."<ref>Pliny the Elder, ''Natural Histories'' 11.xxvi.76</ref> The Romans traded spices, glassware, perfumes, and silk.{{sfn|Liu|2010|p=21}}

[[File:Cernuschi Museum 20060812 150.jpg|thumb|A Westerner on a camel, [[Northern Wei dynasty]] (386–534)]]

Roman artisans began to replace yarn with valuable plain silk cloths from China and the [[Silla]] Kingdom in [[Gyeongju]], Korea.{{sfn|Liu|2010|p=75}}<ref name=":3" /> Chinese wealth grew as they delivered silk and other luxury goods to the Roman Empire, whose wealthy women admired their beauty.{{sfn|Liu|2010|p=20}} The Roman Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds: the import of Chinese silk caused a huge outflow of gold, and silk clothes were considered decadent and immoral.

{{blockquote|I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes.&nbsp;... Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body.<ref>Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BCE – 65 CE), ''Declamations'' Vol. I</ref>}} The [[Western Roman Empire]], and its demand for sophisticated Asian products, [[Fall of the Western Roman Empire|collapsed in the fifth century]].

The unification of Central Asia and Northern India within the [[Kushan Empire]] between the first and third centuries reinforced the role of the powerful merchants from Bactria and [[Taxila]].<ref name="Iranica">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Sogdian Trade |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdian-trade |access-date=4 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111117050947/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdian-trade |archive-date=17 November 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> They fostered multi-cultural interaction as indicated by their 2nd century treasure hoards filled with products from the Greco-Roman world, China, and India, such as in the [[Bagram|archeological site of Begram]].

The Silk Road trade did not sell only textiles, jewels, metal and cosmetic, but also slaves, connecting the Silk Road slave trade to the [[Bukhara slave trade]] as well as the [[Black Sea slave trade]], particularly slave girls.<ref name="Mayers, K. 2016 p. 122-123">Mayers, K. (2016). The First English Explorer: The Life of Anthony Jenkinson (1529–1611) and His Adventures on the Route to the Orient. Storbritannien: Matador. p. 122-123</ref>