ABSTRACT
It is a common fallacy to contrast the outgoing curiosity of Europeans with the traditional incuriosity and inwardness of Asians, often cited in discussions of European expansion into the East, whether in antiquity or modern times. This fallacy still has a surprising tenacity.! Indeed, in one otherwise admirable survey of the interaction of East and West, it was written that 'when the ports of China and India were full of European and North American shipping, no junk or dhow had ever been seen in Seville, Bristol or Boston' and 'few non-Europeans other than the Turks even entered Europe ... and we still do not really know why'. 2 The outgoing curiosity and expansion of Asian peoples into Europe began long before and continued long after the Greek and Roman expansion into the East: Phoenicians, Persians, Jews, Syrians, Arabs, Huns, Avars, Mongols and others, for example. These are largely beyond the present discussion. Suffice it to say that such fallacies do not stand up to scrutiny. At few other times in history was this more apparent than during the Roman Empire.
