I was looking up a recipe for roast chicken with garlic and honey when an Internet rabbit hole opened up in front of me and down I fell, resurfacing many clicks later on a BBC story about silphium.

Silphium is or was an herb, an aromatic like garlic, that back in the day grew in what is now eastern Libya. Every part of the plant, root, sap, stalk, leaf, and flower was used in cooking for a condiment, the main course, or a snack; in pharmacology for an aphrodisiac, birth control, or an anti-inflammatory; and for perfume. It was so necessary and valuable to the life of the classical world that they actually put it on coins, which is the only reason we know what it looks like today. Julius Caesar is alleged to have kept his personal supply locked up in the treasury in Rome.

Silphium started dying out as soon as the Romans took over and had disappeared by the time of Christ. No one knows why, although it’s hard not to look at the arrival of the rapacious Romans as cause and effect. But let’s try to be fair. Silphium was so popular around the Mediterranean at that time that it could have been overharvested by anyone who wanted to make a denarius. Or maybe it developed a type of ergot or Dutch elm disease, nature deciding to take out one of its own. Or maybe foraging animals, who according to Theophrastus liked it every bit as much as humans did, chewed it all right down to the ground, and lacking leaves to make chlorophyll, it gave up and went the way of all life.

So. Here we have an herb essential to cooks and doctors and estheticians, already literally worth its weight in gold, which as it became more and more rare would only increase in value. As the astute reader will have already recalled, Tetisheri’s day job is merchant trader, whose cargoes certainly included herbs and spices. Silphium is dying out in her lifetime, which is going to make her and Uncle Neb’s customers a little irritable. Maybe time for a trip to Cyrene to see if they can find some silphium and make those customers happy once again.

Of course, you know Cleopatra, that living matryoshka doll, will have some ideas of her own about what else might be accomplished on such a voyage…

To catch you up, here are recaps of the first three Eye of Isis Novels:
Death of an Eye  introduces us to Tetisheri, lifelong friend of Cleopatra, the Lady of Two Lands and ruler of Egypt. The queen’s Eye is struck down in the streets of Alexandria and Cleopatra tasks her friend to find the murderer and bring them to justice.
Disappearance of a Scribe  Tetisheri’s first official case as the new Eye of Isis. A scribe goes missing and leads to an investigation of corruption, bribery, and murder in Alexandria’s building trades.
Theft of an Idol   The most popular actor in Alexandria is kidnapped and the queen asks Tetisheri to find her and return her to her adoring fans. The journey takes Tetisheri and the Five Soldiers to Memphis, deep into the depravity and degradation of the eldest temple and even deeper into the heart of the tombs of the dead.

See you day after tomorrow at the Poisoned Pen!
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