Caesar’s favourite herb was the Viagra of ancient Rome. Until climate change killed it off

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Perfume, tonic – even love potion – silphium was prized by the ancient Romans, but in its success lay the seeds of its own downfall

King Arcesilaus II of Cyrenaica overseeing the packaging of silphium.Of all the mysteries of ancient Rome, silphium is among the most intriguing. Romans loved the herb as much as we love chocolate. They used silphium as perfume, as medicine, as an aphrodisiac and turned it into a condiment, called laser, that they poured on to almost every dish. It was so valuable that Julius Caesar stashed more than half a tonne in his treasury.

“You’ll often see the narrative that it [became extinct] because of a mix of over-harvesting and also over-grazing – sheep were very fond of it and it made the meat more valuable,” Pollaro said. “Our argument is that regardless of how much was harvested, if the climate was changing, silphium was going to go extinct anyway.”Silphium is believed to be a species of Ferula whose modern counterparts include fennel and asafoetida, a spice often used in Indian cooking.

Silphium grew along the drier, sea-facing side of Libya’s Jebel al-Akhdar plateau, a fertile, forested region. After harvesting, it was exported to Rome and beyond. Children walk at Apollonia near the ancient Greek and Roman city of Cyrene, in Libya. Apollonia served as a port for the export of silphium.Exports brought wealth, which meant expansion. The Greeks and the Romans, who took control of Cyrenaica about 90BC, cut down forests on the plateau to build bigger and better houses and to clear land for crops for the growing population.

 

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It was a contraceptive as well, wasn't it?

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