Ancient Chinese Historian Describes The Roman Empire // 3rd century AD "Weilüe" // Primary Source episode artwork

EPISODE · Jul 22, 2026 · 16 MIN

Ancient Chinese Historian Describes The Roman Empire // 3rd century AD "Weilüe" // Primary Source

from History's Living Voices: The Past, Told by Those Who Lived It · host HLV

"The ruler of Da Qin is not permanent. When disasters result from unusual phenomena, they unceremoniously replace him, installing a virtuous man as king, and release the old king, who does not dare show resentment..." Here we have the words of the early third century Chinese historian Yu Huan, who lived during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. Though he never left China, he collected large amounts of information on the countries to the West, chief among them the Roman Empire. Enormous thanks to John E. Hill for kindly allowing us to use his translation, and for tips on the possible locations mentioned and correct pronunciation. There is still some debate on some of the places mentioned in the text, so please enjoy debating further about it! https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html How do we actually know about history? Voices of the Past is a channel dedicated to recreating the original accounts from the people who lived through events, or who lived far closer to them than we do today. We do this word for word, with an accompanying soundtrack of rousing music and images. — Thanks for watching! Don’t forget to subscribe for new videos every single week! & Let us know in the comments what you’d like to see covered in the future. — Don’t forget to subscribe to our other channel History Time, where we make full length historical documentaries:- https://www.youtube.com/historytime — Music courtesy of:- - Epidemic Sound — Voice actor & editor:- David Kelly Are you a budding artist, writer, illustrator, cartographer, or music producer? Send us an email! No matter how professional you are or even if you’re just starting out, we can always use new music and images in my videos. Get in touch! I’d love to hear from you. We try to use copyright free images at all times. However if we have used any of your artwork or maps then please don't hesitate to contact me and we’ll be more than happy to give the appropriate credit. Thanks to: Poemandpainting [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)] MapMaster [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)] By Ssolbergj - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2992630 Rob [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)] Dennis Jarvis [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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