Who was the Silk road - According to Europe

[Timotheus]

My question is simple.

How far did most Romans think the Silk Road went? Did they know they were buying from any one of middle men on a long road to the far east?

Did they know China and India existed? Or did they think Pontus and Parthia were the sources of the material because the middle men protrayed themselves as the source of all the goods?

[Jona Lendering]

Roman authors were generally aware of the existence of the Silk People (Seres) and distinguished them from Indians and Sacae (=Central-Asian Nomads). The best discussion is in the recent commentary on the great digression on Asian topography in Ammianus Marcellinus' Res Gestae 23; the commentary is from 1998, the editors are a team led by Den Boeft.