298 A Treatise on 
In the Time of Pliny the Cyrenaick Juice was no 
longer to be procured. One Stalk only of the La - 
ferpitium , (viz. the Plant) which was then found in 
Cyrenaica , was fent to the Emperor Nero ; and for 
a long Time no other Sort of Lafer was brought to 
Rome , but what was gathered in Perfia, , Media , or 
Armenia , as at prefent it is produced in the fame 
Countries. 
Authors have difputed much about the AJJa Fee v 
liia of the Shops (viz.) whether this was the Sil - 
phinm , Lafer , and Succus Cyrenaicus of the Ancients, 
or no ? The Reafons why they were fo long unde- 
termined on this Head were thefe. 
1. Becaufe Lafer was fo highly efteemed among 
the Ancients, that the Cyreneans offered a Plant 
of Silphium to Battus the Founder of their City 
Cyrene , as a Mark of their RefpeCt and Acknow- 
ledgment ; and a Medal was {truck, which on one 
Side reprefented Battus , and on the other the Cyre- 
neans offering to him the Kingdom and Silphium : 
Whence thefe Expreffions, the Silphium of Battus , 
and He is worthy of Silphium , became proverbial. 
They likewife offered yearly to Apollo of Delphos a 
Stalk of Silphium , which they made Choice of as 
thinking it more precious than the other Productions 
of the Earth. 
2. Becaufe both the Cyrenaick and the Perfian La- 
fer were reckoned among the moft agreeable Sea- 
foningsfor Food, and among the belt of Medicines, 
as we are informed by Pliny , Lib. 19. cap. 15. 570. 
T. 3. “ Next after thefe, fays he, (fpeaking of 
<c Mufhrooms, &c.) we muff rank the famous 
46 Laferpitium , which the Greeks call Silphion. It 
€t was formerly found in the Cyrenaick Province. 
“ Its Juice, termed Lafer ^ is fo highly efteemed 
“ for its medicinal and other Ufes, that it is equal 
€t in Value to its Weight in Silver. It is now many 
** Years 
