It’s amazing how far the reach of the Roman Empire extended. There are stories of Chinese armies using Roman formations (having been trained by captured Roman soldiers).
It is. There’s an old rumor, and it’s in China rather than in Europe. Trade links (by land and sea) existed among the Han dynasty of China, the Roman Empire, the Mauryan empire of India, and the intervening territories. Long before the 15th c and Zheng He, the Chinese sent a trade mission and ambassador to made contact with the Romans. Their expedition arrived in the Persian Gulf shortly after Trajan’s new province of Mesopotamia had been unceremoniously dumped by his successor, the homosexual pedophile Hadrian. Somewhat later Han court records refer to the arrival of a Roman ambassador (likely a seagoing trade expedition) from Marcus Aurelius.
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“It’s amazing how far the reach of the Roman Empire extended. There are stories of Chinese armies using Roman formations (having been trained by captured Roman soldiers).”
It has been postulated that Romans captured by the Persians were used to garrison/patrol the Persian eastern frontier.