Sounds interesting. These two empires knew of each other and even traded, but the distances were so vast to travel back then, they might as well have been on different planets.
Like the old children’s game where an adult would whisper a short sentence or phrase into the ear of a child who would in turn whisper it into the ear of another child. Ten or so children later the result rarely made sense much less had anything to do with the original sentence or phrase.
[snip] ...embassy claiming to have been sent by the Emperor An-tun [Sinicized name of Marcus. Aurelius Antoninus (r. 161-180)] was received at the Chinese court [/snip]
Erythrean Sea Trade: The Origin of Rome’s Contact with China
Joshua Hall
Western Oregon University
https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1107&context=his
(this Roman-era visitor was probably a private trade delegation, in a foreign court claiming the imperial imprimatur lent some safety)