The battle of Carrhae ended fifty-three years before the birth of Jesus Christ, on the last day of May. It was a shameful disaster for the Roman army: seven legions with the strength of 45,000 were defeated. Some historians speculate about the Roman prisoners escaping further east and serving as a mercenary army under different rulers. Many folk stories correlate these audacious theories.
One of this stories is narrated by Miss Zuo, a migrant former school teacher from the underdeveloped north now based in Suzhou, the prosperous Jiangsu province city next to Shanghai, one of the richest cities in east China. Ms. Zuo claims to be a descendent from the Roman soldiers more than 2000 years ago.