Rome or China?

I always was of the mind if the Parthians HAD facilitated the meeting of Rome and China, they would of became richer because of the increased trade. Maybe even build some roads, have outposts about a days horse ride apart.

It was made by the retarded OP most likely.

The Iranians would've definitely benefited from it in either the Arsacid or Sassanid dynasty. Most likely they were however worried about a possibility of military alliance between the Romans/Byzantines with the Chinese. Which while a sensible outlook was not necessarily rational given the Han/Chinese had already had centuries of contact and cooperation with the Iranians and probably wouldn't have cut them out of any trade or alliances.

As for the rest of what you said, the Arsacids/Sassanids did cooperate with the Han and later Chinese dynasties in maintaining fortresses, protecting caravans and merchants and traders along the Silk Road, cooperating against steppe raiders like Turkic and Hunnic people, etc...

Couldn't the Chinese and Romans have just figured out an alternative sea trading route that bypasses the Parthians altogether, had they known exactly where each other were?

Those routes and pacts continued with the Sassanids without much change, and no, there are no alternative land routes that wouldn't be either a) extremely more vulnerable to raiders, bandits, or b) costly and slower regardless of whatever alternatives they took.

And also more importantly, the Iranians also held dominance over the sea routes between the three empires which a lot of the trade and goods filtered through regardless.

I was always under the impression that there was a Roman presence, trade wise, from about Madagascar to India or so. (I think they have found Roman coins that far)
The sea routs are fascinating, thats basically how Islam spread to the southern tip of the malay peninsula and Indo. Albeit at a much later date, with probably better ships and navigational aids.

What would have happened if Rome and China contacted each other?

Homosexuality

On the less extreme end, they send some gifts to each other and make some formal trade arrangements maybe.
On the more extreme end, Rome learns Confucianism while China learns democracy.
On the super extreme end, they invade the Parthians from both sides at once and divide it up between themselves

Rome's history is much more interesting IMO. China's might be longer but it all boils down to "this guy reigned for X years it was good, this guy reigned for Y years, it was bad" then once every two centuries or so you get a crazy guy and then a civil war and repeat.

Doesn't help that China's been afflicted for far too long with the poison that is Confucianism.

If you are interested in sea routes, you might like this. It is an illustration made from a Greco-Roman trading guide, for merchants interested in Egyptian Red Sea ports.

>China's might be longer but it all boils down to "this guy reigned for X years it was good, this guy reigned for Y years, it was bad" then once every two centuries or so you get a crazy guy and then a civil war and repeat.
You could boil Rome's history down to this too. The problem with Chinese history is that so much of the material available is not translated into English, and the CCP is reluctant to let politically unreliable western academics look at their stuff.

They did had contact.

And that doesnt even make sense, "hurr what kind of crazy shit happen if romans and chinese met?? why wont they let them pass through their territory??"

I like reading about bad Chinese emperors. They are all into kinky shit.

Not just Muslims. St. Thomas.

>implying it's not just the same fucking story about the lake of wine repeated over and over again

Bad Chinese emperors are unimaginative

It goes both ways, user. The Arsacid and Sassanid dynasties had no qualms about the Romans/Byzantines being involved in trade with the Chinese or their goods passing either which way, because their taxes and tariffs would only further generate more revenue for them as the middlemen. Also I think you can find Persian silks, silverware, and other goods in Roman and Byzantine lands as well as the rest of mainland Europe.

>CCP is reluctant to let politically unreliable western academics look at their stuff
This is funny given the People's Republic started their own Wikipedia that specifically locks out foreigners as well as their own people from editing articles, pages, or information.

The Huns get BTFO

>look up Huns involving not just Rome/Byzantine Empires or Chinese dynasties but also Persia
Apparently they tried to invade Persia, specifically the Sassanid Empire, twice and both times got wrecked. How come there's so little concerning the Persians vs the Huns or Goturks?

I just prefer Roman names and aesthetics.

I dunno about you two but a simple jaunt into wikipedia will quite literally tell you Chink history is not.
>"this guy reigned for X years it was good, this guy reigned for Y years, it was bad" then once every two centuries or so you get a crazy guy and then a civil war and repeat.

More like you guys don't spend any effort while Rome's history is wrapped and edited for you guys in numerous entertaining formats from games to lit-major written pop-history books.

>they invade the Parthians from both sides at once and divide it up between themselves

No ones gave a shit about chinks

The glorious China

it doesn't help that chink threads on Veeky Forums are literally always about mao/three kingdoms/commie/WW2 shitflinging.

t. May 4th movement

I learned some interesting things from the latest China thread we had though.

If Han China was situated in Germany and retained their culture would they have turned into snownigs? Really makes me think...

This desu

I wish all of above would have happened.
God damn sand niggers ruin everything.

I wish I lived in those alternate realities.

A match made in heaven. China thought of Rome as the China on the west side like some sort of twin.