Steel and silk -- Silk in Roman society -- The Chinese empire and the Xiongnu -- The discovery of the west -- Securing the silk routes -- The Kushan empire -- The Sogdian intermediaries -- Caspian routes and the Crimea -- Black Sea voyages -- The Sarmatians -- The Parthian empire -- Parthia and...

"This book brings together André Tchernia's previously published essays, updated and revised, with recent notes and prefaced with an entirely new synthesis of his views on Roman commerce with a particular emphasis on the people involved in it"--Book jacket