into the Roman world before the days of Ptolemy. The two names
by which China was first known to Europeans were "Seres" or "Serica,"
and "Sinae" or "Thin." These two differing names are the records of two
different methods of approach to different parts of a vast country, very
much as the Northmen called their part of eastern North America
"Vinland," while the Spaniards called their part "Florida." The name
"Seres" was given to northwestern China by traders who approached it
through the highlands of central Asia from Samarcand, while "Sinae" was
the name given to southeastern China by traders who approached it by way
of the Indian ocean, and heard of it in India, but never reached it.
Apparently no European ships ever reached China before the Portuguese,
in 1517.[313] The name "Sinae" or "Thin" seems to mean the country of the
"Tchin" dynasty, which ruled over the whole of China in the second
century before Christ, and over a portion of it for a much longer time.
The name "Seres," on the other hand, was always associated with the
trade in silks, and was known to the Romans in the time of the Emperor
Claudius,[314] and somewhat earlier. The Romans in Virgil's time set a
high value upon silk, and every scrap of it they had came from China.
They knew nothing about the silk-worm, and supposed that the fibres or
threads of this beautiful stuff grew upon trees. Of actual intercourse
between the Roman and Chinese empires there was no more than is implied
in this current of trade, passing through many hands. But that each
knew, in a vague way, of the existence of the other, there is no
doubt.[315]

[Footnote 310: Diodorus Siculus, i. 70.]

[Footnote 311: Strabo, xi. 7, Sec. 3.]

[Footnote 312: Robertson, _Historical Disquisition concerning
the Knowledge which the Ancients had of India_, Dublin, 1791,
p. 55. I never have occasion to consult Dr. Robertson without
being impressed anew with his scientific habit of thought and
the solidity of his scholarship; and in none of his works are
these qualities better illustrated than in this noble essay.]

[Footnote 313: The Polos sailed back from China to the Persian
gulf in 1292-94; see below, p. 282.]

[Footnote 314: The name "Seres" appears on the map of Pomponius
Mela (cir. A. D. 50), while "Sinae" does not. See below, p. 304.

Jam Tartessiaco quos solverat aequ