(Indirectly, of course!)
Finally started reading Forbidden Nation, Jonathan Manthorpe’s book on Taiwan. The opening chapter is a little sad to read now, brimming as it is with statements like "[The Taiwanese] have only recently extricated themselves from the coils of the corrupt and dictatorial one-party Kuomingtang state, and see no reason to jump into the arms of another one…"
Well, we were ALL a bit more optimistic back in 2005. But getting back to the question: What’s the Augustus-Taiwan connection that Manthorpe suggests? I’ll just briefly summarize his argument (from pages 32-33).
In 30 B.C., Marc Antony and Cleopatra commit suicide, and Octavian conquers Egypt. Within the next 50 years, a lucrative trade between Rome and India apparently develops, via Egyptian ports on the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Merchants from India travel abroad, scouring Southeast Asia for ever more exotic goods to ship to the Roman market. Hindu missionaries follow those merchants, as do Indian colonists. Ethnic Malays wind up being displaced from their land, or leave when they find conditions in the new Hindu monarchies are not to their liking.
And where do these Malays go? Well, at least a few of them find their way to Taiwan. Where they end up founding some of the aboriginal tribes that continue to exist on the island to this very day.
Way cool stuff.
(Brian Blessed as Emperor Augustus from I, Claudius)
Commentary:
First off, I’ll admit I know nothing about Indian imperialism two thousand years ago. But I’m somewhat sceptical of the notion that absent the Roman conquest of Egypt, India wouldn’t still have been tempted to establish colonies abroad.
Now, if someone tells me increased Roman-Indian trade sweetened the pot, further fueling India’s colonial ambitions, then sure. I’ll buy that.
Correction (Feb 8/08): Egypt, of course, has ports on the Red Sea, not the actual Indian Ocean. The correction’s been made to the post.
A further boost to Octavian’s reputation came from his reception of envoys from India, seeking to negotiate a trade agreement for the spice route via the Red Sea and Egypt.
(from Richard Halloran’s Augustus: Godfather of Europe, p 304)
Correction of Correction (Sep 15/25): Ancient Egypt did in fact have ports on the Red Sea.
Sep 22/25: It’s a nice story, but as far as I can tell, the Malays never colonized Taiwan. Don’t know where Manthorpe got the idea they did.
i-1