Did the Ancient Chinese send an envoy to the Roman Emperor Augustus?When Octavian defeated his rival

Did the Ancient Chinese send an envoy to the Roman Emperor Augustus?When Octavian defeated his rivals in the triumvirate and became the first Emperor of Rome, taking the name Augustus, people from all over the Roman world and beyond traveled to his palace to offer tribute to the new emperor.  The Roman historian Florus describes the envoys, including the Sythians, Parthians, Sarmatians, and other peoples.  However most interestingly he briefly details a people called the “Seres”, who brought gifts of jewels, pearls, and elephants. The Seres were a people from the land of Serica, in Roman Latin meaning “the land where silk comes from”.  In later centuries when the Romans successfully sent envoys to China they referred to it as Serica (the Chinese referred to Rome as “Da Qin”).  Florus describes the men stating, “ In truth it needed but to look at their complexion to see that they were people of another world than ours.”  He also mentions that the envoy took four years to travel from their homeland to Rome.It is unknown whether the people described by Florus were actually Chinese or another people from Central Asia.  However it is known that in 97 AD contact was almost made by the Chinese envoy and explorer Gan Yin.  In 166 AD Rome would establish the first envoy with China under the reign of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.   -- source link

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