The Romans and China
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2026
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How did Roman silver travel from Egypt to China across monsoon seas, pirate waters, and bustling ports?
Tristan Hughes is joined by legendary archaeologist Sir Barry Cunliffe for a dramatic journey through the Indian Ocean, where Roman glass, pepper, and silk linked two ancient superpowers. From Sri Lanka to the Malacca Strait, they reveal a dazzling world of traders, middlemen and maritime adventure.
More
Origins of the Silk Road
The Great Wall of China
Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds
The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ever wondered why the Romans were defeated in the Tudorburg forest? |
| 0:04.0 | What secrets lie buried in prehistoric Ireland? |
| 0:07.0 | Or what made Alexander truly great? |
| 0:10.0 | With a subscription to history hit, you can explore our ancient past alongside the world's leading historians and archaeologists. |
| 0:17.0 | You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand new release every single week |
| 0:22.5 | covering everything from the ancient world to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com slash subscribe. |
| 0:30.3 | Hello, I hope you're doing well. I am recording this from my car because I've just finished doing an |
| 0:36.8 | interview with an absolute legend, |
| 0:40.2 | a legend in the field of archaeology and quite frankly a British treasure today. |
| 0:44.9 | He's none other than Barry Cunliff. Sir Barry Cunliff, he's been involved in archaeological |
| 0:50.2 | excavations since the 1950s. He's in his 80s now, but he's still going strong, |
| 0:56.3 | he's still as lovely as ever and as brilliant as ever. I've been up at his house doing this |
| 1:01.5 | interview all about his new book, which explores the maritime connections, the maritime trading |
| 1:07.5 | world of ancient history in the Indian Ocean and beyond, the ships carried |
| 1:12.7 | by the monsoons. We recreate in this episode a theoretical journey of Roman goods from Roman |
| 1:19.9 | Egypt and the Red Sea all the way to China. This was so much fun. Barry is as brilliant as |
| 1:26.9 | ever. Send love to Barry in the comments, |
| 1:29.7 | OK, because as mentioned, he is an absolute treasure and I really do hope you enjoy this episode. |
| 1:36.4 | Let's go. It's 2,000 years ago, and Sri Lanka, this beautiful island in the Indian Ocean is one of the great pivots of the world. |
| 1:57.0 | Here, the Indian Ocean does not divide the world, it tethers it through bustling |
| 2:05.1 | ports that can be found scattered along this island's coastline. To the Roman merchants |
| 2:11.8 | who have survived the gruelling journey here from the Red Sea, this is Trapra Barnair, the renowned trading land near the |
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