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Another aphrodisiac herb that the Romans loved was silphium.
Julius Caesar kept a cache of it in the government treasury and the Greeks even put it on their money. It was worth its weight in gold – but no one knows if it still exists.
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Julius Caesar kept a cache of it in the government treasury and the Greeks even put it on their money. It was worth its weight in gold – but no one knows if it still exists.
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Silphium was a veritable wonder herb, a panacea for all manner of ailments, including growths of the anus and the bites of feral dogs (Pliny the Elder says simply rub silphium into the affected area).
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(Though Pliny warns his readers never, ever to try this with a tooth cavity after a man who did so threw himself off a house.)
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BUT silphium was also associated with romance! 
Its heart-shaped seeds are thought to be the reason we associate the symbol with romance to this day.
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Its heart-shaped seeds are thought to be the reason we associate the symbol with romance to this day.13/
The thing is, the fussy plant only grew on the east coast of Libya. Neither Greeks nor Romans could work out how to farm it.
Silphium was collected from the wild, and though there were strict rules about how much could be harvested, there was a thriving black market.
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Silphium was collected from the wild, and though there were strict rules about how much could be harvested, there was a thriving black market.
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The herb stumped even the most enthusiastic plant geek of the day, Theophrastus.
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Today, silphium has vanished – possibly just from the region, possibly from our planet altogether.
Pliny wrote that within his lifetime, only a single stalk was discovered. It was plucked and sent to the emperor Nero as a curiosity sometime around 54-68 CE.
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Pliny wrote that within his lifetime, only a single stalk was discovered. It was plucked and sent to the emperor Nero as a curiosity sometime around 54-68 CE.
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Silphium is thought to have been a close relative of asafoetida, which the Romans treated as a reasonable substitute.
Asafoetida comes from the area of modern-day Iran and Afghanistan ...just like the carrot!
(...and tulips, but that's a different thread.)
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Asafoetida comes from the area of modern-day Iran and Afghanistan ...just like the carrot!
(...and tulips, but that's a different thread.)
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Asafoetida's name is derived from Persian azā, meaning "resin", and Latin foetidus meaning "smelling, fetid".
Bon appétit!
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Bon appétit!
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Footnote:
This tablet lists the plants in the garden of King Marduk-apla-iddina (721-710 BCE) including onions, garlic, leeks, lettuce, cucumbers, and turnips, as well as mint, cress, thyme, and coriander.
The plant called "slave girl buttock" remains unidentified.
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This tablet lists the plants in the garden of King Marduk-apla-iddina (721-710 BCE) including onions, garlic, leeks, lettuce, cucumbers, and turnips, as well as mint, cress, thyme, and coriander.
The plant called "slave girl buttock" remains unidentified.
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