Chinese Alexander

[Para upari saena]

Hi guys!
Did you know?
Two towns in China claim themselves founded by Alexander the Great, although he never get so far in his campaign!
Can somebody tell me what are theese towns? Do you know their name?
And, would you please, tell me, besides, some bibliography about the memories and the clues of the cultural impact in far East dealing with Alexander?
Thanks.Zei kai Vassilevi!

[nick]

Hi Franx -Just stumbled on it: http://murugan.org/research/gopalapillai.htm"Long before Islam, the Byzantines knew that he had traversed the Silk Route and founded Chubhan, the great Han capital of Sianfu"So the idea of Alexander as a city founder in China comes from Byzantine legends. I have no clue about the Chinese perspective on these stories, but I am afraid we are just dealing with some Medieval Late-Roman extension of the Romance.Regards -
Nick

[Sam]

there were mentions of Greek infantry equipment found in the imperial capital Xian but that could have easily been a result of trade along the Silk road.There were also dubious mentions of the Chin Empires' army defeating the armies of Alexander the Great in skirmishes though I wouldn't put too much validity in that one either - both sides would have detachments that somehow lost their way and drift for quite a considerable distance to end up in a clash.On the other hand if such a clash did occur Alex's army being defeated is more plausible than one thinks. Chinese arts of war does not have such compacted infantry formation but emphasises flexibility and mobility- they most certainly will not meet the phalanx head on but would most certainly have made flanking maneouvres. Chinese cavalry would have been more advance with their experience on dealing with the mounted Huns so Alex's usual defences against such flankings may well prove inferior. Chinese iron weapons and blacksmithing skills were also more advanced than their western counterparts. Also Chinese strategies were more developed with Sun Tzu's Art of War amongst many more classics already written at the time- not withstanding their famed martial arts giving them the advantage in close hand to hand combat.