It was an essential item of trade from the ancient North African city ofCyrene, and was so critical to the Cyrenian economy that most of theircoins bore an image of the plant. The valuable product was the plant'sresin, called in Latinlaserpicium,lasarpicium, orlaser (Laserpitium andLaser were used by botanists to namegenera 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] but is commonly believed to be a relative ofgiant fennel in thegenusFerula.[1][4][5] The extant plantThapsia gummifera[6] has been suggested as another possibility. Another theory is that it was simply a high-quality variety ofasafoetida, a common spice in the Roman Empire. The two spices were considered the same by many Romans, including geographerStrabo.[7]
Silphium was considered invaluable by all who held it. The plant was sung about by Roman poets and singers, 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]
The identity of silphium is highly debated. Without a surviving sample, no genetic analysis can be made. It is generally considered to belong to the genusFerula as an extinct or living species. The extant plantsThapsia gummifera,[6]Ferula tingitana,Ferula narthex,Ferula drudeana, andThapsia garganica have been suggested as possible identities.[1][4][5][9][10]Ferula drudeana, an endemic species found in Turkey, is considered a strong candidate for silphium based on several unusual shared features, such as the plant morphology, yellow foliage of mature plants, slow growth, resistance to cultivation from seed, and phytochemistry, including its production of an aromatic, spice-like gum resin with properties similar to those reported for silphium.[11][5] However,F. drudeana belongs to a lineage from the southern Caspian Sea region with no known connection to eastern Libya.[12] This species is also considered highly imperiled, with few surviving populations, and threats posed by overharvesting for use as an aphrodisiac.[11]
Theophrastus mentioned silphium as having thick roots covered in black bark, about onecubit (48 cm) long, with a hollow stalk, similar tofennel, and golden leaves like those of celery.[2]
Weighing and loading of silphium at Cyrene
The disappearance of silphium is considered to be the first extinction of a plant or animal species in recorded history.[13] The cause of silphium's supposed extinction is not entirely known, but numerous factors are suggested. Silphium had a remarkably narrow native range, about 125 by 35 miles (201 by 56 km), in the southern steppe ofCyrenaica (present-day easternLibya).[14]Overgrazing combined withoverharvesting have long been cited as the primary factors that led to its extinction.[3] Recent research has challenged this notion, though, arguing instead thatdesertification in ancient Cyrenaica was the primary driver of silphium's decline.[15]
Another theory is that whenRoman provincial governors took over from Greek colonists, they overfarmed silphium and rendered the soil unable to yield the type that was said to be of such medicinal value.Theophrastus wrote inEnquiry into Plants that the type ofFerula specifically referred to as "silphium" was odd in that it could not becultivated.[16] He reports inconsistencies in the information he received about this, however.[17] This could suggest the plant is similarly sensitive to soil chemistry ashuckleberries, which when grown from seed, are devoid of fruit.[2]
Similar to the soil theory, another theory holds that the plant was ahybrid, which often results in very desired traits in thefirst generation, buthybrids are often sterile, so it is possible that silphium could not be propagated from seeds at all (which would indeed make cultivation considerably more difficult), but instead only asexually through their roots.[2][18]
Pliny reported that the last known stalk of silphium found in Cyrenaica was given to EmperorNero "as a curiosity".[3]
Many medical uses were ascribed to the plant.[19] It was said that it could be used to treat cough, sore throat,fever, indigestion, aches and pains,warts, and all kinds of maladies.Hippocrates wrote:[20]
When the gut protrudes and will not remain in its place, scrape the finest and most compact silphium into small pieces and apply as acataplasm.
Silphium was used in Graeco-Roman cooking, notably in recipes presented inApicius. Some historians have suggested that its use, particularly in the North African region of its origin, was extensive:
Not quite as ubiquitous asliquamen, but just as necessary in the Roman kitchen, was the herb silphium...Life in Cyrenaica revolved around [silphium] to such an extent that the dramatist Antiphanes, in the fourth century BC, made one of his characters groan: "I will not sail back to the place from which we were all carried away, for I want to say goodbye to all—horses, silphium, chariots, silphium stalks, steeple-chasers, silphium leaves, and silphium juice!"[22]
Long after its claimed extinction, silphium continued to be mentioned in lists of aromatics copied one from another, until it makes perhaps its last appearance in the list of spices that theCarolingian cook should have at hand—Brevis pimentorum que in domo esse debeant ("A short list of condiments that should be in the home")—by a certain "Vinidarius", whose excerpts ofApicius[a] survive in one eighth-centuryuncial manuscript. Vinidarius's dates may not be much earlier.[23]
Evans's 1921 description of silphium hieroglphys atKnossos
The Minoans probably used silphium as the visual reference for the hieroglyphpsi (), meaning "plant". It resembles a central shoot flanked by two stalks.[24] Minoan fetishes with this geometry are known aspsi and phi type figurines, and are also designed for their letter-like shape. This glyph developed into the modern Greekpsi (Ψ).
Egyptian hieroglyphs for Libyan silphium have also been documented in archaeological publications as a balm ingredient that must be dehulled and which produces a sap. In one record, it appears similar to thehieroglyph for branch (𓆱), written to be read from left to right.[25]
Ancient Cyrenean silver coin depicting a silphium seed or fruit
Some speculation exists about the connection between silphium and the traditionalheart shape (♥).[26] Silver coins from Cyrene of the 6th to 5th centuries BCE bear a similar design, sometimes accompanied by a silphium plant, and is understood to represent its seed or fruit.[27] Some plants in the familyApiaceae, such asHeracleum sphondylium, have heart-shapedindehiscent mericarps (a type of fruit).
Contemporary writings help tie silphium tosexuality and love. Silphium appears inPausanias'Description of Greece in a story of theDioscuri staying at a house belonging to Phormion, aSpartan:
For it so happened that his maiden daughter was living in it. By the next day, this maiden and all her girlish apparel had disappeared, and in the room were found images of the Dioscuri, a table, and silphium upon it.[28]
Silphium aslaserpicium makes an appearance in a poem (Catullus 7) ofCatullus to his loverLesbia (though others have suggested that the reference here is, instead, to silphium's use as a treatment for mental illness, tying it to the "madness of love"[29][30]).
In theItalian militaryheraldry,il silfio d'oro reciso di Cirenaica ("Silphium of Cyrenaica, smoothly cut and printed in gold; inblazon:silphiumcoupedor of Cyrenaica") is the symbol granted to units that distinguished themselves in theWestern Desert Campaign in North Africa during World War II.[31]
Italiancoat of armsIl silfio d'oro reciso di Cirenaica
^abAmigues, 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.
^"Off this tract is the island of Platea, which the Cyrenaeans colonized. Here too, upon the mainland, are Port Menelaus and Aziris, where the Cyrenaeans once lived. Silphium begins to grow in this region, extending from the island of Platea on the one side to themouth of the Syrtis on the other." (Herodotus, iv.168–198on-line textArchived 2013-04-09 at theWayback Machine)
^"Si distinsero i soldati del 28° Reggimento Fanteria "Pavia" il cui scudo reca nel terzo quarto una pianta di silfio d'oro reciso e sormontata da una stella d'argento"." (Gaetano Arena,Inter eximia naturae dona: il silfio cirenaico fra ellenismo e tarda antichità, 2008:13
^"Two for the Lions".Kirkus Reviews. 1999. Retrieved19 March 2024.exploring the hills and towns along the African coast ... searching for the herb silphium, a gold mine if found
Buttrey, Theodore V; MacPhee, Ian (1998).The coins from the sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone. The University Museum.ISBN978-0-924171-48-2.OCLC611613435.
Fisher, Nick (1996). "Laser-Quests Unnoticed Allusions to Contraception in a Poet and a Princeps?".Classics Ireland.3:73–96.doi:10.2307/25528292.JSTOR25528292.
Riddle, John M.; Estes, J. Worth; Russell, Josiah C. (1994). "Ever Since Eve... Birth Control in the Ancient World".Archaeology.47 (2):29–35.JSTOR41770706.OCLC5543506162.
Riddle, John M. (1997)."Silphium".Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West. Harvard University Press. pp. 44–46.ISBN978-0-674-27026-8.
), meaning "plant". It resembles a central shoot flanked by two stalks.[24] Minoan fetishes with this geometry are known aspsi and phi type figurines, and are also designed for their letter-like shape. This glyph developed into the modern Greekpsi (Ψ).
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