To Asians, the Greeks were all called Ionian, likely because that was the oldest term associated with people from the far west.
The article touches on this, but when Chinese explorers arrived in Bactria (roughly modern Afghanistan), they were expecting to run into "ioanians", due to earlier texts that had described these people (大宛 - Da Yuan, meaning "great ioanians").
This is the early history of the silk road, and also the first appearance of Buddhism in the West[0], which must have been absolutely fascinating to Stoics.
The article touches on this, but when Chinese explorers arrived in Bactria (roughly modern Afghanistan), they were expecting to run into "ioanians", due to earlier texts that had described these people (大宛 - Da Yuan, meaning "great ioanians").
This is the early history of the silk road, and also the first appearance of Buddhism in the West[0], which must have been absolutely fascinating to Stoics.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism