Description: Ancient texts described silphium as a remedy for everything from tetanus to toothache, and a delicacy – it could do it all and was prized around the Mediterranean world. But by the end of ...

Extracted from: Libyan studies (London) 24, 1993, pages 27-33. Silphium, an extinct plant that once grew in Libya, was the source of power and wealth of the Cyrene colony. A symbol of royalty, a ...