How Much Our Luxuries and Women Cost Us

"By the lowest reckoning, India, Seres (China) and the Arabian peninsula take from our Empire 100 millions of sesterces every year: that is how much our luxuries and women cost us." —Pliny the Elder,  Natural History.

Fascinating sideshow of ancient diplomacy: tendrils of Romano/ Chinese relations -massive empires poking at each other blindly at vast distances. There even some hints of a possible Roman settlement in China.