SINO-ROMAN MARITIME CONNECTIONS AFTER THE PALMYRENE ERA: A COMPARATIVE CASE OF BATNAE AND LINYI.

Traditionally, late antique Sino-Roman maritime interactions are considered to have diminished soon after the decline of Palmyra in AD 273. However, topographical observations of Batnae and Linyi – two emporia located at the termini of both trade networks – demonstrate the continuation of maritime trade across the Indian Ocean. In AD 354 and later in AD 363, Ammianus Marcellinus noticed that Chinese merchandise was being transported to Osrhoene Batnae via both land and sea through the Persian Gulf. Also in AD 363, a Chinese source, Jin Qijuzhu, refers to an official mission dispatched to convey condolences from the South China Sea to the king of the Pulin Kingdom in the Near East. These parallel references strongly imply that there was a potential maritime connection between the South China Sea and Roman-controlled Upper Mesopotamia during late antiquity. Building on these foundations, this paper seeks to establish a comparative framework between the rise of Roman Batnae in Osrhoene and Chinese Linyi County in Rinan to clarify the dynamic development of oceanic trade from the third to fifth centuries AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]