[ancients] Kyrenaika's silphium plant

This type of coin caught my eye a while back. At a glance, I thought the plant was equisetum. It's not; it is thought to be a now extinct plant called silphium. It may have belonged to the fennel family; it could be the extant plant Ferula tingitana. Reading about this plant furthered my resolve to find an numismatic example.

As luck would have it, these coins of North Africa are ridiculously expensive. I managed to find a well-priced although not very glamorous example in the recent Roma auction. It's pretty scratched up-- at best clumsily cleaned, at worst perhaps tooled. Still, given that I didn't want to pay a fortune for an example, I'm happy with it. Bonus-- it also shows Zeus Ammon, whose coin depictions I avidly collect!


KYRENAIKA, Barke
480-450 BC
AR hemidrachm, 13 mm, 1.57 gm
Obv: silphium plant
Rev: head of Zeus Ammon right within linear frame, B A P K around
Ref: (which I have not checked) Müller MAA 301. Very rare.

-------------------------Warning! Extreme pedantism follows!----------------------------​

Theophrastus (371-287 BC), mentions silphium several times in Historia Plantarum:

"In the Cyrenaica the cypress grows and the olives are fairest and the oil most abundant. Most special of all to this district is the silphium..."

He goes on to describe the physical characteristics and plant product preparation here and in the next three pages, noting that it grows wild and disappears upon cultivation of the land (although he further documents contradicting agricultural anecdotes). The plant appears to relatively new, or at least newly discovered: "The people of Cyrene say that the silphium appeared seven years before they founded their city; now they had lived there for about three hundred years before the archonship at Athens at Simonides."

Other online references mention legends that silphium was viewed as a "gift from Apollo".

An article by Henry Koerper and A.L. Kolls, "The Silphium Motif Adorning Ancient Libyan Coinage: Marketing a Medicinal Plant" had many interesting tidbits. It is available for downloading for $39.95 but you can get a free 5 minute peek (and that was enough time to screen cap the whole thing for more leisurely reading )


In addition to use as a food, the list of purported medicinal applications of silphium is long:

oral contraceptive and abortifacient
treatment for abdominal pain
treatment for alopecia
treatment for anal exrescences and prolapse
antidote for the poison of weapons, scorpion stings, snake bites
treatment of asthma, bronchitis, coughs, horseness
treatment of dog bites
treatment of bruises and wounds (external application)
a calefacient (warming) medicine
treatment for carbuncles, chillblains, callosities, and indurations
treatment of cardiac diseases
treatment for coeliacus
treatment of convulsions
corn and wart removal
promotion of digestion
as a diuretic
treatment of dropsy, jaundice, and other visceral affections including intestinal wounds
treatment of epilepsy
treatment of eye diseases
for gynecological problems (menstrual problems)
treatment for intestinal worms
as a liniment for lumbago and sciatica
treatment of mange
treatment of nervous disorders
treatment of opisthotonus
pain prevention
treatment of pleurisy
treatment of quartran fever (malaria?)
treatment of shivering
treatment of sinew affections (tendonitis?)
treatment of stomach colds (??)
treatment for tetanus
treatment for toothache
treatment for ulcers
treatment for inflammation of the uvula
as a vaginal suppository (for menstrual disorders?)
a veterinary medicine for sheep

Why did it become extinct? Speculative, but multifactoral: overharvesting due to exploitation of medicinal and veterinary uses. (Betcha it was really due to its reported aphrodisiacal qualities; some behaviors never change.)

Pliny the Elder supposedly said that in Roman markets, silphium was worth its weight in silver denari. I could not find such a quote in Pliny's writings on silphium. However, he does mention that it supposedly acts as a soporific for sheep. Goats, not so much. They just go into fits of sneezing. [note to self: if I bring back silphium à la Jurassic Park, and if I decide to raise goats, keep them away from the silphium.]

Map showing the location of Barce/Barke, from the article by Koerper:


Well, that's probably more than you wanted to know about silphium.

Gotta run... have to shop for groceries. I'm in the mood for braised fennel.

 

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Great Greek, Princess ... very cool lil' coin

... sadly, I do not have one of these babies to show-off!!

Oh, and thanks for another great write-up and sweet map ...

NOTE: I am going to start using silphium to help relieve my occasional wagon-burn

 

I have a cook book of Roman recipes. Some things are annoying to make - namely, garrum. Some ingredients, like lovage seeds, aren't available in supermarkets, but can be ordered from European garden supply shops. But silphium? Good luck finding an extinct plant for your recipe.

 

I am loving your Roma writeups! Plant pedantism is the very reason I come to this forum.
The coin's pretty nice too Let us know how the braised fennel turned out.

 

Awesome coin again TIF, well centered, very nice details,info and maps very well done. braised fennel is what we used in our sweet Italian sausage, really makes that sausage pop...

 

Mmm yes, nothing like sweet Italian sausage with fennel!

Have you tried any of these recipes? Any favorites you want to share?

 

Garrum is pretty easy Bill, go to an asian market and get Nam Pla. Same basic product, and if needed you can add a few herbs the Romans used. North African silphium of course is extinct, but there is Asian silphium if you wanted to substitute.

Nice writeup TIF. I have always loved silphium and hope some day they find some in a remote oasis in Libya. I have quite a few Kyrene coins, but only a few with the Silphium plant depicted. Kyrenaica under Ptolemaic rule issued more coins, but unfortunately usually didn't depict silphium.

 

That's a very nice coin! I had a similar reaction when I first discovered these silphium coins - I wanted to collect a nice example, but whoa Tanto, too pricey for this collector. And the pieces I could afford were just too decrepit. I think the detail on your piece is lovely.

 

I have a well-used bottle, but I've been wary of adding it to my Roman recipes. Last time tried Roman cooking I attempted to make my own. I didn't attempt fermentation, so I ended up boiling anchovies for a while. Unfortunately, the recipe called for FRESH anchovies, and I inadvertently used SALTED, when the recipe called for adding a whole cup of salt! Yuck.

This is the book I have: http://www.amazon.com/Taste-Ancient-Ilaria-Gozzini-Giacosa/dp/0226290328 I particularly liked the pepones (cantaloupe in a vinagrette) and epityrum (seasoned olive paste), but I have many more to try.

 

great coin and wrte up....but i thought a pedantist was a foot doctor?

anyway, here's a good book that may float your boat..


http://www.amazon.com/The-Healing-Hand-Commonwealth-Publications/dp/0674383311/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397499191&sr=8-1&keywords=the healing hand ancient world

 

No, it's a guy with a foot fetish.

 

You guys need to stop tempting me with books, it's taking away from coin funds!

 

You're thinking of a pedantatrist.

 

haha - you actually suckered me into looking that one up.

 

That's hard to believe! Do by chance have an open bottle of glue nearby?

 

I haven't kept current on the latest fetish nomenclature.

 

i never post without it!

 

Found a nice site showcasing Kyrenaika coinage. http://kyrenaikacoins.omeka.net/

The site owner and collector (William Wright) also put together a nice prezi:

http://prezi.com/sqes-rqlzewd/coinage-of-kyrenaika/

 

Outstanding!!!!!!

 

I'd love to see an ancient themed restaurant! For my nutrition class, I did several paper on ancient diets, including one on the benefits of garrum If you plan on making some, expect complaints by neighbors.