SILPHIUM

Is a major mystery of Roman cuisine

11.12.2023

Author: Qalam

An antique coin from Cyrenaics. On the obverse is Zeus, on the reverse is Silphium/coinarchives.com

The ancient Greeks and Romans often reported that the most delicious vegetable was silphium. Herodotus 1¹HerodotusAncient Greek historian and traveler (484 BC – 425 BC) thought its taste was wonderful. The botanist and agronomist Theophrastus 2²Theophrastus Ancient Greek botanist (370 BC – 285 BC) called silphium the main export of Cyrenaica ithe name of the area in modern Libya where many Greek colonies were located. Catullus 3³Catullus Ancient Roman poet (87 BC – 54 BC) also confirms that silphium grew in Cyrenaica.

You ask, how many kissifications

of yours are enough and more than enough for me.

As great a number as a Libyan sands that

lie on silphium-bearing Cyrene.

The Romans loved silphium so much that they must have eventually eaten it all. Or maybe the plant fell victim to climate change or some viral disease. In any case, the emperor Nero 4⁴ Nero Roman Emperor (37 – 68 AD) once received a stem of silphium as a special offering; it was considered a royal gift. After the second century AD references to silphium disappear completely. Unfortunately, our contemporaries have no hope of knowing the taste of silphium because no one has any idea what this plant was. Judging from the surviving pictures and descriptions, it seems to have belonged to the parsley family (Umbelliferae), which means that it was a relative of the cow parsnip and the carrot. From time to time, biologists with historical training or historians with biological training propose versions that silphium was one or another specific member of this family: Ferula tingitana, for example, or Ferula foetida. Unfortunately, all those proposed so far have had at best an unpleasant taste, and usually have been completely inedible.

Qalam

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