Are green-eyed Chinese descendants of lost Roman legion?

LONDON - Many residents of the remote north western Chinese village of Liqian have green eyes and blonde hair, leading some experts to suggest that they may be the descendants of a lost Roman legion that settled in the area.

Now, DNA testing of the villagers has shown that almost two-thirds of them are of Caucasian origin.

The results fortify the theory that the founding of Liqian may be linked to the legend of the missing army of Roman general Marcus Crassus, the Daily Mail reports.

In 53 BC, after Crassus was defeated by the Parthians and beheaded near what is now Iran, stories persisted that 145 Romans were captured and wandered the region for years.

The town’s link with Rome was first suggested by a professor of Chinese history at Oxford in the 1950s.

Oxford Professor Homer Dubs believes the group travelled east, were captured by the Chinese and founded Liqian in 36 BC.

Dubs theorised that they made their way as a mercenary troop eastwards, which was how a troop ‘with a fish-scale formation’ came to be captured by the Chinese 17 years later.

He said the ‘fish-scale formation’ was a reference to the Roman ‘tortoise’, a phalanx protected by shields on all sides and from above.

Dubs pulled together stories from the official histories, which said Liqian was founded by soldiers captured in a war between the Chinese and the Huns in 36 BC, and the legend of the missing army of Roman general Marcus Crassus.

Marcus Licinius Crassus was, alongside Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great, one of the three most powerful people in the world and one of the richest men in history.