Bruno Costa

AV SCRIPT - The Lost Legion of Crassus Scene Nr. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Visuals Clip: We open to a long shot of a battlefield. Audio History has known a great deal of impressive battles and wars. A series of clips of: 1. Medium shot of Roman soldiers fighting an enemy. 2. A Roman emperor waving at his people. 3. Long shot of the people of Rome in the city. Whether seen as victories or defeats, each one had its importance or marked the fate of a civilization, a kingdom, or its people. 1. Clip of a Roman legion that But there was one battle that produced a prepares to fight. They are in battle peculiar offspring in a small corner of the formation. world. 2. Footage of a small Chinese village in the desert. This is Li-Jien. 1- Compilation of different pictures showing us various prominent historical figures: DaVinci, Newton, Copernicus, Darwin, to name a few. 2- A Subscribe button pops up followed by a clicking hand icon. What might that be? Welcome to our Youtube channel, where we tell the most curious and biggest mysteries of history. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel to discover more great content about historical mysteries. 1. A picture of Homer H. Dubs pops up. 2. Clip: Long shot of the village of the ancient village of Li-jien, today known as Zhelaizhai. 3. Pictures of Chinese people exhibiting Caucasian features pop up: Blue eyes, red hair, blond hair, and different nose. In 1957, the sinologist Homer H. Dubs, proposed a curious argument to explain the genetic descent of the inhabitants of a small village in China called Li-jien. In this village there are inhabitants who have Caucasian features, but the strangest thing about this is not the fact that they have Western traits, but the theory behind it. Clip: Medium-shot video of a marching group of legionaries. Dubs proposed that these people were none other than descendants of the lost legion of Crassus, a group of Roman legionaries who disappeared in 53 BC. 1. Illustration of a map of Western Asia. 2. Zoom in to a map of Eastern Turkey. 3. The word "Carrhae" appears on the right spot on the map. 4. Clip: Medium shot of Roman general depicting Marcus Crassus. That year, a devastating defeat took place in Carrhae, located in modern Eastern Turkey, where the parthian empire faced the Roman legions led by Marcus Licinius Crassus, the richest man in the Roman republic. 1. Clip: Long shot of a battle that's about to start, the Romans against the Parthians. 2. The words "Battle of Carrhae" come across the screen in capital letters. This is known as the Battle of Carrhae. 9 1. On one half of the screen an illustration of Marcus Crassus with a fierce look. 2. On the other half, an illustration of a defiant Spartacus. 3. Clip: Fade to a long shot of a large rebellion. Let's go back a bit to the past to have more context and smoothly enter the present events. Prior to this bloody battle, Marcus Crassus had amassed some fame after putting down the rebellion of Spartacus in 71 BC. 10 An illustration of Pompey arriving on However, to his misfortune, Gnaeus a horse with his cavalry behind him. Pompeius Magnus, another general of military renown, had claimed part of this feat as his own triumph. Pompey had more military experience and enjoyed more popularity. 7 8 11 12 Illustration of a younger military In addition, another great young military man. Other soldiers around him man had begun to enjoy tremendous raise their arms as a sign of victory. success in military campaigns and was forging his own prestige and fame: Gaius Julius Caesar. Illustration of an upset Crassus looking over his shoulder. In the back, Pompey and Caesar surrounded by smiling politicians. Crassus desperately wanted to prove to his colleagues in the newly formed triumvirate, to the Senate, and to the Roman people, that he too could make great gains for the Republic, Drawing of a map of the Middle East, numbers and words pop up on the screen. We see on one half of the screen: 13 so he set about organizing seven legions and led 45,000 men into the desert to meet the 10,000 Parthian soldiers who would ambush and annihilate them in a humiliating defeat. Rome: 1. Seven legions. 2. 45,000 men. On the other half: Parthian empire -10,000 14 Clips of: 1. Roman soldiers being killed. 2. Roman soldiers escaping. 3. Roman soldiers being seized by the enemy. 15 Long shot: Footage of a vast, barren To this day it hasn’t been proven what land. The desert. happened to these 10,000 legionaries, as everything there is about it is conjecture. 16 17 18 After this painful defeat in which 20,000 Roman soldiers were killed, some 4,000 managed to flee to Syria, and another 10,000 ended up as prisoners of war. Map drawing: Interactive lines and arrows show us the supposed trajectory from Carrhae to Merv, located in Turkmenistan. Historical sources tell that these legionaries were taken prisoner by the Parthians and then sent to Merv, Turkmenistan, where they were used as soldiers to fight other invaders. 1. Illustration of legionaries escaping on horses. 2. Illustration of the Xiongnu people, a nomadic tribe. They look like the Huns. 3. Illustration of the Roman legionaries meeting the Xiongnu. From here there are some historical gaps. One version tells that the legionaries managed to escape and joined the Xiongnu, a steppe people of nomadic warriors. Others say that the Parthians themselves sold them to the Xiongnu as mercenaries. Illustration of Roman Emperor Augustus sitting on a throne. In 20 A.D. Emperor Augustus signed a peace treaty with the Parthian empire and asked the Parthians to return his captured soldiers, but the Parthians had already lost track of these legionaries and did not know their whereabouts at this stage. 19 20 21 On one half of the screen: 1. Illustration of a Xiongnu warrior. On the other half: 2. Illustration of a Han-dynasty warrior. Clip of a battle between the Chinese The battle between the Xiongnu and the and the steppe people. Han dynasty took place in the city of Zhizhi, located in present-day Uzbekistan. 1. Illustration of General Gan Yanshou. 2. Illustration of Roman soldiers attacking. The chronicles of General Gan Yanshou, who undertook the military campaign against the Xiongnu, relate that he observed a curious group of warriors among the ranks of the Xiongnu defending the city, who had a particular style of fighting. Picture of the Roman formation testudo . The soldiers protected themselves with shields creating some sort of fish-scale formation, so that they protected each other by forming an armor-like defense, which coincides with the traditional Roman formation known as testudo. 22 23 24 25 In 36 BC. the Xiongnu fought a battle against the Chinese empire of the Han dynasty. It is at this point that the accounts of the historians Plutarch and Pliny the Elder begin to match the chronicles of the Han dynasty itself. Simple animation of a village or fort The city of Zhizhi was eventually taken being burned. by the Han Chinese and the Xiongnu were defeated. Map of Asia: animation shows us with pointers the trajectory from Zhizhi to Zhelaizhai in Gansu province. and around 1,000 of these legionaries were made prisoners. However, the Chinese were so impressed by the skills of this strange group of soldiers that they were taken to China to a location known today as Zhelaizhai, in Gansu province Animation of legionaries guarding a and left there to be used as soldiers to wall. They stand at a gate carrying protect the borders of the empire against their own weapons. the Tibetan tribes and other threats that plagued the region. 26 27 28 1. Footage: Long shot of the current city of Zhelaizhai, a.k.a. Li-jien. 2. Text pops up on the screen. We read: 3. Li-jien=Legion 4. Li-jien=Rome The chinese Emperor later created a county for these legionaries and named it Li-jien, meaning "legion". Notably, this was also the name the ancient Chinese used to refer to Rome or the roman empire. A series of pictures of Chinese people appear on the screen, one by one: 1. A kid with red hair. 2. A grown man with green eyes. 3. A girl with blondish hair. 4. A woman with a Caucasian-like nose. It’s from these events that the theory arises that the current inhabitants of Lijien have Caucasian features due to their descent from this group of Roman legionaries who settled in the region. Close-up of an old Chinese man with strong Caucasian features. But is there really any evidence that these people are descended from romans? 29 Footage: Close-up of a Roman Or is it just a legend? soldier removing his helmet, we are able to see his features very clearly too. 30 1. Footage of archaeologists digging. 2. Picture of an old Roman coin. 3. Picture of old Roman armour. 4. Drawing depicting a log with stakes. Excavations at Zhelaizhai have found Roman antiquities such as coins, armour, as well as logs with stakes, which were of common use in Rome to build fortifications. 31 Footage of: 1. A scientist observing through a microscope. 2. Vision through a microscope, we are able to actually see what DNA looks like. However, a 2005 genetic study revealed that 56% of the DNA of Zhelaizhai's inhabitants was Caucasian, but not necessarily of Roman or Italic origin. 32 Illustration of a map. We see Li-Jien located on the map, and lines and arrows coming from Northern Europe pointing towards the appointed region. Arguments raised by other historians suggest that other Indo-European peoples had already moved into Central Asia before the Roman period, Footage of Celtic warriors fighting. such as Celtic mercenaries who fought in Turkey, Syria, and Judea against the Seleucid empire. Zoom in on a Chinese child's features. Other discoveries also disprove the theory that the inhabitants of Li-jien have Roman origins. 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 A map illustration showing us the A finding on the Tarim mummies, a location of the Tarim River basin, in series of mummies found in the Tarim current Xinjiang, China. River basin, also yielded evidence suggesting otherwise Various pictures of Tarim mummies as a 2021 study found that much of their pop up on the screen. genetics were of Eurasian ancestry, thus suggesting that this perceived descent in the traits of the locals here could be from northern European peoples and mercenaries rather than from southern Europe or the Italic peninsula. Zoom in the map of Central Asia: 1. Illustration shows us the trajectory of the Silk Road connecting Europe with Asia. 2. Various new trajectories appear on the map coming from the west and converging on the Silk Road. 3. A new trajectory of a different color is drawn from a specific spot on the Silk Road and heads for LiJien. In addition, Li-jien is adjacent to the ancient Silk Road, so it is argued that other travelers of European origin could very easily have had contact with this town and mixed with their lineage. Footage of inhabitants of Zhelaizhai Although today no evidence has been walking around their village, doing a found to fully prove the true origin and normal routine. ancestry of these people, the inhabitants of Zhelaizhai still like to believe that those Roman legionaries are their ancestors. Footage of Chinese people dressed Moreover, these people have acquired as Roman soldiers, performing certain customs as part of their folklore choreographies. where they perform festivities and dances, dressed as Roman legionaries. 40 41 42 43 Pictures of: 1. Statue of Roman soldiers in Lijien. 2. Roman-like portico of Lijien. Statues have been erected and porticos have been decorated with Roman architecture. Footage: The Chinese dressed as legionaries gather and show enthusiasm. They smile at the camera. Both the festivities and the archaeological sites are used as tourist attraction, as many go to this Chinese town believing the legend to be true. A clip of a Roman general marching Whether or not these inhabitants are with his imposing troops. descendants of Roman legionaries, there is no reason to believe that this small village couldn’t have been home to the mysterious lost legion of Crassus. A call-to-action animated button pops up on the screen followed by clicking hand icon. If you liked this video don't forget to click subscribe and follow us for more great historical facts. See you next time.