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Silphium

This article is about the plant that was used in classical antiquity. For the modern genus of plants, see Silphium (genus).
Not to be confused with Silpium.
Ancient silver coin from Cyrene depicting a stalk of silphium

Silphium (also known as laserwort or laser; Ancient Greek: σίλφιον, sílphion) is an unidentified plant that was used in classical antiquity as a seasoning, perfume, aphrodisiac, and medicine.[1][2]

It was the essential item of trade from the ancient North African city of Cyrene, and was so critical to the Cyrenian economy that most of their coins bore a picture of the plant. The valuable product was the plant's resin, called in Latin laserpicium, lasarpicium or laser (the words Laserpitium and Laser were used by botanists to name genera of aromatic plants, but the silphium plant is not believed to belong to these genera).

The exact identity of silphium is unclear. It was claimed to have become extinct in Roman times.[3] It is commonly believed to be a relative of giant fennel in the genus Ferula.[1][4][5] The extant plant Thapsia gummifera[6] has been suggested as another possibility. Another theory is that it was simply a high quality variety of asafoetida, a common spice in the Roman Empire. The two spices were considered the same by many Romans including the geographer Strabo.[7]

Silphium was considered invaluable by all who held It. The BBC reports that the plant was sung about in Roman poems and songs, who considered it equivalent to its weight in gold.[2] Historically, Pliny the Elder blamed silphium's valuation on "tax-farmers," and Julius Caesar directly registered silphium as "1500 pounds of laser" in the Roman treasury.[8]

  1. ^ a b Tatman, J.L. (October 2000). "Silphium, Silver and Strife: A History of Kyrenaika and Its Coinage". Celator. 14 (10): 6–24.
  2. ^ a b Zaria Gorvett (2017). "The mystery of the lost Roman herb". BBC. Archived from the original on 2018-05-17. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference PlinyXIX was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Did the ancient Romans use a natural herb for birth control? Archived 2006-10-27 at the Wayback Machine, The Straight Dope, October 13, 2006
  5. ^ Grescoe, Taras (23 September 2022). "This miracle plant was eaten into extinction 2,000 years ago—or was it?". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 25 September 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  6. ^ Amigues, Suzanne (2004). "Le silphium - État de la question" [Silphium - State of the art]. Journal des Savants (in French). 2 (1): 191–226. doi:10.3406/jds.2004.1685.
  7. ^ Dalby 2000, p. 18.
  8. ^ Parejko, Ken (2003-05-29). "Pliny the Elder's Silphium: First Recorded Species Extinction". Conservation Biology. 17 (3): 925–927. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.2003.02067.x. ISSN 0888-8892.

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