Robyn, Duke of Amber wrote:

[snip]

 The Empire crossed the globe colonizing North America.
 A few (well one) "artificers" from Japan show up.
as "political advisors" to the Aztec Empire.

'New Barbarians', I believe - I actually have a copy. :)However, the advisors
were from Sericca, which to the
Romans was China - the Land of Silk. There was a
Japanese slave artificer who defected to the Romans
but he mentioned that China had conquered the
Japanese earlier in history.

Hope this helps.

[snip]