The Emperor Augustus banned his men wearing silk - why ?
They ran out of money because of huge demand and they have nothing to trade in return. A single silk full body cloth at Augustus time is worth a year of average soldier pay. The Sogdian traders who were the middlemen of the Chinese Han dynasty silk trade charge the Romans so much. Imagine transporting bolts of silk from Chang’an (Xian today) to Samarkand, to Palmyra(Syria) all the way to Anatolia and eventually to Rome in the age of camel caravans. It maybe at least 5 middlemen involved from silk production to customer end user. The Roman senate tried in vain to ban wearing silk. But it did not stop their trade deficit.
