Do you think that it would be possible for Chinese silk to be popular during the times of the Roman Empire? It does seem as if it would need to travel a huge distance and surely there were no trade routes that covered this huge part of the globe when you go back thousands of years?
Well, that is where you are wrong because, not only did Chinese and Asian silk appear in the Roman Empire, it seems that they were absolutely in awe of it all. There was even a point where it was banned as an import back in 14AD, simply because they were importing so much of the silk compared to other things that would actually be of benefit to the empire that it was hurting the economy.
The Romans did not trade directly with the Han Chinese, but through a series of links that did actually connect the two of them together. So, even 2,000 years ago there was the possibility of trade routes that covered thousands of miles which is in itself a pretty amazing fact.