No one culture can completely claim ice cream as its own ice cream historians debate where it was even born. Roman emperor Nero supposedly had his slaves bring snow down from the mountains so that he could have it topped with fruit and honey. A king during China’s seventh-century Tang dynasty liked a version that was mixed with milk. And when explorer Marco Polo came back from China in the 13th century, legend has it that he brought back a sherbet-like concoction.