In my latest book, The Brothers of Death, Appius Claudius bribes an Etruscan assassin with silphium seeds, a plant so rare that it soon became extinct. As silphium’s prevalence waned, it became as valuable as gold. It isn’t much of a stretch to envision ancient Romans bartering with silphium seeds and plants, especially when coin money was still looked upon with suspicion.
But what is silphium, and why was it so valuable? A purported relative of fennel, silphium was a do-everything plant for Romans, the closest thing I’ve seen to a real-life panacea. It was used as an aphrodisiac, contraceptive, seasoning, perfume, medicine, root vegetable, stalk vegetable, preservative, and trade item! So precious was silphium, it was considered a gift from the god Apollo. Julius Caesar had his own stash of silphium, cached away in the Roman treasury.
So what happened to silphium, why did it become extinct? We aren’t sure, but there are two primary suspects: overharvesting and climate change.
Silphium flourished in a small region near Cyrene, an ancient Libyan city. Despite the best efforts of the Greeks and Romans, the plant wouldn’t grow anywhere else. As silphium grew in popularity, it grew in value. One can imagine troves of locals combing over the terrain, anxious to find the last remaining plants. Kind of like a Klondike gold rush, complete with claim jumpers and robbers.
The other theory is that desertification of Cyrene may have led to this fragile planet’s demise. Whatever the reason, it was virtually extinct by the second century BCE.
There are botanists who theorize that there are still some silphium plants out there, undiscovered in the North African wilds. So, if you should find yourself near present-day Shabbat, take a walk around the countryside. Keep your eyes out for a squat plant with clumps of small yellow flowers–you may have found Roman gold!
Scipio Africanus: One of History's Greatest Generals 