RANDOLPH. — MANDRAGORA IN FOLK-LORE AND MEDICINE. 509 



Its soporific power was surely known from very early times, — so well 

 kuown, in fact, that it became proverbial. 

 In Xenophon we read : 



Symp., 2. 24: Wine, moistening the soul, lulls cares to sleep, just as the 

 maudragora does men's bodies. 



Plato, in the Republic, speaks of rendering the captain of a ship in- 

 capable by means of it : 



Rep., 488 C: Having chained up the noble captain's senses with man- 

 dragora or strong drink or otherwise. 



Demosthenes compares the torpor of bis fellow-citizens to that of 

 persons who have drunk mandragora : 



Philip. 4. G : It is not in these respects alone, men of Athens, that wo 

 are behindhand : we cannot even be aroused, but are like to men who have 

 drunk mandi-agora. 



Aristotle includes it in a list of narcotic plants : 



De Somn., 3 : . . . the narcotics ; for they all cause heaviness of the 

 head, both the drinkables and the eatables, — poppy, mandragora, wine, 

 lolium. 



Philo the Jew refers to it in a simile in a way that indicates familiarity 

 with this property of the plant in his time : 



De Vita Contempl., § 5 : Others of the apparently more moderate f casters, 

 when they have drunk unmixed wine as though it were mandragora, fall 

 down and . . . are overcome by deep sleep. 



Frontiuus tells how the Carthaginian general Maharbal captured a 

 whole host by means of wine drugged with mandragora : 



Stratag., 2. 5. 12 : Maharbal, having been sent by the Carthaginians against 

 the rebellious Africans, knowing that these people were very fond of wine, 

 mixed a great quantity of it with mandragora, the effect of which is half 

 poisonous and half narcotic. Then, after beginning a light skirmish, he 

 left off by design, and in the middle of the night feigned flight, leaving part 

 of the baggage and all the drugged wine in camp. The barbarians seized 

 the camp in great delight, and eagerly drank the wine. Soon they were 

 stretched on the earth like dead men. Maharbal then returned, and cap- 

 tured or killed them. 



Polyaenus relates a very similar story about the Carthaginian general 



