Ancient China vs. Rome

[Hassan_Al_Basri01]

I wonder what would happend if they went into war. Rome had some difficulties with the tiny Persian Empire. What if China fought over some land,and rome disputed with china over that land.
Old China is so crazy that even the defeated persian king by muslims bowed down for the chinese emperor.

Indeed Allah Jalla Wa Alaa has giving china the secrets of this world.

[gurey25]

Which Roman Empire?
which time period?

Pre constantine empire, or the Byzantium that you are familiar with,
Each period has an entirely different miilitary culture, population economy, manpower etc etc.

the Same with China?
which china ? which Dynasty?

Han dynasty china has an completly differnt millitary culture, population, Economy etc etc

to the Tang for example.



A good example would be the hight of the Roman Empire , lets say 160-180 ish
time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, againts Late Han Dynasty China.

Roman Legionary tactics are still highly effective, against Han dynasty infantry
but the chinese learned and adopted effective Cavalry tactics from the border wars with Turks and Skythians and Huns. and Plus the Cho Ko Nu(repeating Crossbow) came into use about that time.

This plus a popualtion more than double the Roman Empire, id bet on china,
even though id expect a good fight.

[BABYGIRL123]

They Were Both Super powers @ times And Weak At Moments so you have to be clear on the time period and the dynasties.

muslims were defeated by the mongols aka tatars not the chinese the muslims crushed the chinese army during the abbasian dynasty while the same dynasty was destroyed by the mongols in 1258 i believe and then the muslims regrouped and were lead by quds a melmulek from egypt and he defeated the mongols.

[The-Screw]

at the height of its power in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman Empire spanned 3 continents, try focking with that.

[Hassan_Al_Basri01]

[quote="gurey25"]Which Roman Empire?
which time period?

Pre constantine empire, or the Byzantium that you are familiar with,
Each period has an entirely different miilitary culture, population economy, manpower etc etc.

the Same with China?
which china ? which Dynasty?

Han dynasty china has an completly differnt millitary culture, population, Economy etc etc

to the Tang for example.



A good example would be the hight of the Roman Empire , lets say 160-180 ish
time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, againts Late Han Dynasty China.

Roman Legionary tactics are still highly effective, against Han dynasty infantry
but the chinese learned and adopted effective Cavalry tactics from the border wars with Turks and Skythians and Huns. and Plus the Cho Ko Nu(repeating Crossbow) came into use about that time.

This plus a popualtion more than double the Roman Empire, id bet on china,
even though id expect a good fight.[/quote]

We are talking about the time when Rome was a superpower,no one dares to challenge them.In that time you had Roman Empire ruling over large places in Middle east and north africa. So i mean the Roman Republic.
Roman Republic at its highest and Han Dynasty at its highest.
The problem is that china was isolated from the outside world for many centuries,they only did trade with persians and other surrounding empires throught the silk route.
You have to know that Han dynasty succeeded in inventing papers,porcelain and the world's first wheelbarrow .
In manpower they were over millions.

Roman Empire had some difficulties with barbarians,most of these wars the romans won.
If the romans though of persians as their equals then what about the chinese?

[gurey25]

The Han dynasty wins when it comes to technology, and wealth,
but thier millitary system was inferior to both the Romans and Persians.

You are all underestimating the Persians, they were a super power compared to Rome and China.
The Persians also exposed the weakness of the Roman infantry based system, and basicaly the Parthian system was copied by everyone else, including the Romans(byzantines) the Tang Dynasty Chinese and even the Muslims.

Most of the wars between muslims and Byzantines , both sides were complelty using an adopted verison of the Parthian(Persian) milliatry system, the same with the Tang dysnasty chinese.


The Muslim and Tang armies that faced each other in 750 AD talas river were identical.
The chinese had better armour, and longer range bows, the muslims won due to better tactics.

but both sides were fighting the persian way of war.