page_title: Serica
section_title: Accounts
hierarchical_section_title: Serica / Accounts
context_page_description: Serica was one of the easternmost countries of Asia known to the Ancient Greek and Roman geographers. It is generally taken as referring to North China during its Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties, as it was reached via the overland Silk Road in contrast to the Sinae, who were reached via the maritime routes. A similar distinction was later observed during the Middle Ages between "Cathay" and "Mangi" or "China". The people of Serica were the Seres, whose name was also used for their region. Access to Serica was eased following the Han conquest of the Tarim Basin but largely blocked when the Parthian Empire fell to the Sassanids. Yule summarized the classical geographers:
  If we fuse into one the ancient notices of the Seres and their country, omitting anomalous statements and manifest fables, the result will be something like the following:—"The region of the Seres is a vast and populous country, touching on the east the Ocean and the limits of the habitable world, and extending west to Imaus and the confines of Bactria.
caption: A Latin inset map derived from Ptolemy's Geography.[9] Serica (Sericae Pars) lies to the north of the Sinae, who lie on the Great Gulf (Magnus Sinus) at the eastern end of a land-locked Indian Ocean (Indicum Pelagus).
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