Through the silk road goods could be traded between nations with no direct contact. Did any polity send expeditions with their merchants to learn more about them, or perhaps maps were exchanged that would inform of distant places (as India and China would have been to Rome, for example)?

by Cataphractoi
kingleon321

Are you asking if the governments of the day sent any embassies to one another (i.e. Rome sending an embassy to Han China)?

If that is the case, then yes, polities in antiquity did send or attempt to send embassies to one another that stretched across the length of Eurasia. One example would be the expedition of Zhang Qian who famously traveled through Central Asia reaching historical Bactria (area that includes parts of modern day Tajikistan and Afghanistan). He was famously sent by his emperor to seek allies to fight against the neighboring steppe people attacking China. Although the trip didn't exactly go as planned, when Zhang returned, he detailed information about the people that he had encountered and heard about including the Romans, Bactrians, Parthians, Sogdians, and even the remnants of the Seleucid Empire. Rome followed in the steps of the Hellenic Kingdoms and participated and encouraged to the growth of trade between the far east and far west. Roman embassies were sent to China during the imperial period and more embassies were sent by the Eastern Roman Empire following the subjugation of Rome.

While the great distance between China and Rome seems astronimical at first it's important to note two things. One, during certain high marks in Chinese imperial history, China had a great deal of influence over Central Asia, espicially in the Tarim Basin and going so far as to influence affairs even further West. For example, the Tang Dynasty and the Abbasid Caliphate competed against one another for control of Transoxiana, leading to the Battle of Talas. In other words, people like the Hellenistic Greeks, Romans, or Persians wouldn't need to travel all the way to the Pacific coast in order to contact China. Second, Rome was heavily engaged in the trade networks of the Indian Ocean. Even in Classical times, goods from the Mediterranean and parts of the East African coast could be shipped to places like South East Asia as evidenced by hoards of Roman coins being found in India or example of Roman glass being found in Vietnam.

As far as maps are concerned I'm not to sure, but a good example of cartography from the Mediterranean was the Geography by Ptolemy. I'm not sure if this helps answers any of your questions, but hopefully it gives you some ideas.