Background Information:

Trajan, the great Roman emperor, manages to recover from his age induced disease and begins further campaigns towards the east. After having heard tales of "Sinae," or China, he begins planning an expedition to extend Roman control to the northeast. So, assembling an army of some 50,000, he sets off eastward from Antioch, following the Silk Road. Getting translators along the way, by some miracle, he manages to get to the border of the Han Empire with most of his army intact and well fed. The Han army, naturally considering 50,000 troops from some land far away that they have never even heard of, send out about 100,000 troops to face Trajan. However, behind Trajan his son Hadrian arrives with reinforcements of another 50,000 troops, and the two armies meet in battle near Chang'an. Who will triumph over the other?

Why wouldn't Trajan hire mercenaries along the way? ;)

Finaly, someone puts a bit of detail into their "Rome vs _____" Thread.

Oh, yes, I forgot about that. 50,000 Scythian and Xiongnu mercenaries fight for the Romans as auxilaries, but there are problems with languages and such. Trajan tries Chinese food, and likes it. Begins to learn Chinese.

why would he learn chinese after tryign chinese food? I personally love chinese food, but dont concsider learing the languae any sort of a want, let alone a priority; more over, considering that, what ever he may of though t of the food, he woudl have considered the chinese barbarians, i doubt hed make any sort of bow to forign culture

*anyway* as always, bet is on the Romans; chinese utilized good stratgey, but have the same faults asd the Parthians in that they revolves around levies of relitivlly undrilled troops, and elite cores of well drilled troops, unliek the Roman armies of all well drilled troops; adding int he advatages that the assorted tribes as allys would give, and you have a no problem Roman victory

Definatly the Romans

The thing about a large-scale war between Rome and China is that the Chinese, just like in the present, could just keep throwing more men at the Romans until the Romans were overwhelmed. While on a battleground with an equal number of men in each army the Romans would nearly always be victorious, the Chinese could easily turn such a war into attrition and eventually exhaust Rome, even at 2-to-1 casualties.

yeah but he said 100,000 vs 100,000

My prediction would be a victory at first for Rome and then they are outmaneuvered, trapped, and slaughtered, along with Emperor Trajan, only a few hundred miles from China's capital. Rome would be without one of its strongest emperors and a civil war cripples the Empire leading to a much earlier collapse. Perhaps as early as two hundred AD. It would make a good NES, come to think of it...

The thing about a large-scale war between Rome and China is that the Chinese, just like in the present, could just keep throwing more men at the Romans until the Romans were overwhelmed. While on a battleground with an equal number of men in each army the Romans would nearly always be victorious, the Chinese could easily turn such a war into attrition and eventually exhaust Rome, even at 2-to-1 casualties.

why the popualtions of Rome and china were alomst equal to one another durting this time, and both core areas were almost equa idstant from the purposed battlefeild; it would be just as hard for either nation to do battle with the other in the conditions that might have lead to a real life conflict

and both core areas were almost equa idstant from the purposed battlefeild; it would be just as hard for either nation to do battle with the other in the conditions that might have lead to a real life conflict

Uh, no. China's core is right where the battle is supposedly being fought. Chang'an, near the site of the proposed battle, was the Han capital. The Romans were about 4,000 miles away. Not equidistant at all.

roman would win because xen would use a time machine to go back and invent cataphracts early for rome.

Cataphracts weren't all they were hyped to be, either.

Closed. No point in repeating all these - the Romans couldn't have walked thru the Taklamakan in any case.