Several instances of interaction betweenBuddhism and theRoman world are documented byClassical and earlyChristian writers. Textual sources in theTamil language, moreover, suggest the presence of Buddhism among some Roman citizens in the 2nd century AD.[1]
Roman historical accounts describe an embassy sent by the "Indian king Porus" (perhaps Pandion,Pandya, orPandita[citation needed]) toCaesar Augustus sometime between 22 BC and 13 AD. The embassy was travelling with a diplomatic letter on a skin inGreek, and one of its members was asramana whoburned himself alive inAthens to demonstrate his faith. The event made a sensation and was described byNicolaus of Damascus, who met the embassy atAntioch (near present dayAntakya inTurkey) and related byStrabo (XV, 1,73[3]) andDio Cassius (liv, 9). A tomb was made to the sramana, still visible in the time ofPlutarch, which bore the mention:
"ΖΑΡΜΑΝΟΧΗΓΑΣ ΙΝΔΟΣ ΑΠΟ ΒΑΡΓΟΣΗΣ"
("Zarmanochegas fromBarygaza inIndia")
Strabo also states thatNicolaus of Damascus in giving the details of his tomb inscription specified his name was "Zarmanochegas" and he "immortalized himself according to the custom of his country."Cassius Dio (Hist 54.9) andPlutarch cite the same story[4]Charles Eliot in hisHinduism and Buddhism: An Historical Sketch (1921) considers that the name Zarmanochegas "perhaps contains the two wordsSramana andAcarya."[5] HL Jones' translation of the inscription as mentioned by Strabo reads it as "The Sramana master, an Indian, a native of Bargosa, having immortalized himself according to the custom of his country, lies here."[6]These accounts at least indicate that Indian religious men (Sramanas, to which the Buddhists belonged, as opposed toHinduBrahmanas) were circulating in theLevant during the time ofJesus.
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By the time of Jesus, the teachings of the Buddha had already spread through much ofIndia and penetrated intoSri Lanka,Central Asia andChina.[7]
Will Durant, noting that theEmperor Ashoka sentmissionaries, not only to elsewhere in India and to Sri Lanka, but toSyria,Egypt andGreece, speculated in the 1930s that they may have helped prepare the ground for Christian teaching.[8]
Ashoka ascended the throne of the Mauryan Empire around 270 BC. After his conversion to Buddhism he dispatched missionaries to the four points of the compass. Archeological finds indicate these missions had been "favorably received" in lands to the West.[citation needed]
Ptolemy II Philadelphus, one of the monarchs Ashoka mentions in his edicts, is recorded byPliny the Elder as having sent an ambassador namedDionysius to theMauryan court atPataliputra: "India has been treated of by several other Greek writers who resided at the courts of Indian kings, such, for instance, as Megasthenes, and by Dionysius, who was sent thither by Philadelphus, expressly for the purpose: all of whom have enlarged upon the power and vast resources of these nations."[9]
Records fromAlexandria, long a crossroads of commerce and ideas, indicate that itinerant monks from the Indian subcontinent may have influenced philosophical currents of the time.[citation needed] Roman accounts centuries later speak of monks traveling to the Middle East, and there is mention of an embassy sent by the Indian king Pandion, or Porus (possiblyPandya), toCaesar Augustus around 13 AD (seePandion Embassy section above).
Meanwhile, the Buddha's teachings had spread north-west, intoParthian territory. Buddhiststupa remains have been identified as distant as theSilk Road city ofMerv.[10] Soviet archeological teams inGiaur Kala, near Merv, have uncovered a Buddhist monastery, complete with hugebuddharupa. Parthian nobles such asAn Shih Kao are known to have adopted Buddhism and were among those responsible for its further spread towardsHan China.
Some knowledge of Buddhism existed quite early in the West. In the 2nd century ADClement of Alexandria wrote about theBuddha:[11]
εἰσὶ δὲ τῶν Ἰνδῶν οἱ τοῖς Βούττα πειθόμενοι παραγγέλμασιν. ὃν δι’ ὑπερβολὴν σεμνότητος ὡς θεὸν τετιμήκασι. [Among the Indians are those philosophers also who follow the precepts of Boutta, whom they honour as a god on account of his extraordinary sanctity.]
— Clement of Alexandria,Stromata (Miscellanies), Book I, Chapter XV
He also recognized Bactrian Buddhists (Sramanas) and IndianGymnosophists for their influence on Greek thought:[11]
"Thus philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, flourished in antiquity among the barbarians, shedding its light over the nations. And afterwards it came toGreece. First in its ranks were the prophets of theEgyptians; and theChaldeans among theAssyrians;[12] and theDruids among theGauls; and theSramanas among theBactrians ("Σαρμαναίοι Βάκτρων"); and the philosophers of theCelts; and theMagi of thePersians, who foretold the Saviour's birth, and came into the land ofJudaea guided by astar. The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, and the other barbarian philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of them calledSramanas ("Σαρμάναι"), and othersBrahmins ("Βραχμάναι")."
— Clement of Alexandria,Stromata (Miscellanies)
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The story ofthe birth of the Buddha was also known: a fragment of Archelaos of Carrha (278 AD) mentions the Buddha's virgin-birth, andSaint Jerome (4th century) mentions the birth of the Buddha, who he says "was born from the side of a virgin".Queen Maya came to bear theBuddha after receiving a prophetic dream in which she foresaw the descent of the Bodhisattva (Buddha-to-be) from theTuṣita heaven into her womb. This story has some parallels with the story of Jesus being conceived in connection with the visitation of theHoly Spirit to theVirgin Mary.
InBerenice, Egypt, in March 2022 an American-Polish archaeological mission excavating the main early Roman period temple dedicated to the Goddess Isis uncovered in the forecourt of the temple a marble statue of aBuddha, theBerenike Buddha, suggesting the presence of Buddhist merchants from India in Egypt at that time.[13][14]
The latest impact upon Christian and Greek literature is the Christianized version of the legend of the life of the Buddha found in the Buddhist texts of the 3rd century CE and the epicBarlaam and Josaphat. The latter is traditionally attributed to SaintJohn of Damascus (d.c.750 CE), but it seems that he took it from the Arabic Kitab Bilawhar wa Yudasaf, which in its turn had also been taken from India via the Manichaeans.[15]
Early 3rd century–4th centuryChristian writers such asHippolytus andEpiphanius write about aScythianus, who visited India around 50 AD from where he brought "the doctrine of the Two Principles". According toCyril of Jerusalem, Scythianus' pupilTerebinthus presented himself as a "Buddha" ("He called himself Buddas"[16]). Terebinthus went toPalestine andJudaea ("becoming known and condemned"), and ultimately settled inBabylon, where he transmitted his teachings toMani, thereby creating the foundation ofManichaeism:
"But Terebinthus, his disciple in this wicked error, inherited his money and books and heresy, and came to Palestine, and becoming known and condemned in Judæa he resolved to pass into Persia: but lest he should be recognised there also by his name he changed it and called himself Buddas."
Because of the high degree of similarity betweenMadhyamaka andPyrrhonism, particularly the surviving works ofSextus Empiricus,[17]Thomas McEvilley[18] and Matthew Neale[19][20] suspect thatNāgārjuna was influenced by Greek Pyrrhonist texts imported into India during the era of Roman trade with India.
According to legend, Nagarjuna said he was influenced by books inaccessible to other people. He was approached byNāgas (semi-divine serpents) in human form. They invited him to theirkingdom to see some texts they thought would be of great interest to him. Nagarjuna studied those texts and brought them back to India.[21][22][23] According to Matthew Neale, "Nāgārjuna was a skillful diplomat concealing novel doctrines in acceptably Buddhist discourse... to conceal their doctrines’ derivation from foreign wisdom traditions."[24]
The name "Chaldeans" refers generally to theChaldean people who lived in the land ofBabylonia, and especially to the Chaldean "magi" of Babylon......The "Chaldeans" were the guardians of the sacred science: the astrological knowledge and the divination mixed with religion and magic. They were considered the last representatives of the Babylonian sages......In Classical Antiquity, the name "Chaldeans" primarily stood for the priests of the Babylonian temples. In Hellenistic times, the term "Chaldeos" was synonymous with the words "mathematician" and "astrologer"......TheNeo-Platonists connected theChaldean Oracles with the ancient Chaldeans, obtaining a prestige coming from the East and legitimizing their existence as bearers and successors of an ancient tradition.
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