The Chinese were also strongly attracted by the tall and powerful horses (named "Heavenly horses") in the possession of the Dayuan (literally the "Great Ionians", the Greek kingdoms of Central Asia), which were of capital importance in fighting the nomadic Xiongnu. They defeated the Dayuan in the Han-Dayuan war. The Chinese subsequently sent numerous embassies, around ten every year, to these countries and as far as Seleucid Syria. "Thus more embassies were dispatched to Anxi Yancai [who later joined the Alans , Lijian under the Greek Seleucids, Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), and Tianzhu India... As a rule, rather more than ten such missions went forward in the course of a year, and at the least five or six." ("Hou Hanshu", Later Han History). These connections marked the beginning of the Silk Road trade network that extended to the Roman Empire.