412 
MERGE TO CYRENE. 
whenever they smelt it they would rim to the place, and after eating 
the flower, would scratch up the root and devour it with the same 
avidity^. On this account (says Arrian, who has recorded the fact 
just mentioned) some of the Cyreneans drive their sheep away from 
the parts in which the silphium is produced ; and others surround their 
land with hedges, through which the sheep are not able to pass when 
they chance to approach near the plants f . Silphium appears to 
have been found in many parts of Asia, as well as in some parts of 
Europe; but that of Gyrene was much the most esteemed and con- 
stituted a material part of the commerce of that country, as we find 
from various authorities In the time of Pliny silphium (or laser- 
pitium) had become so scarce in the market, that a single stalk of it 
was presented to the Emperor Nero as a present (no doubt) of 
extraordinary value ; and Strabo tells us that the barbarous tribes who 
frequented the country about the Cyrenaica had nearly exterminated 
the plant altogether (in an irruption which they made on some hostile 
occasion) by pulling it designedly up by the roots ; from which we may 
infer that the destruction of the silphium was considered as a material 
* The effects of eating silphium (according to Pliny) were manifested in sheep by 
their falling asleep, and in goats, by sneezing. Si quando incidit pecusin spem nascentis, 
hoc deprehenditur signo : ove, cum comedeidt, dormienti protinus, capra sternuenti. — 
(Lib. xix, c. iii). 
■f* Etti TCiiSe EV ais ixxxqoraroj aTre’kxuvoiiaiv rxs ‘TTotfj.vas rcniv itia. Xici acvron to 
mXipiov (pusrxi' oi Ss xxi Trs^i^^xcraovai rov %ii/§ov rou ixrtV a, TCsXxaicv ocvta rx TrqoQxra, Svvxra 
yEVEO&ai Eiacu TTapsXSrEiv. — on tioXKov a^jov (he adds) Kf^nvcnoiy to tnX(pm. (Exped. Alex. Lib. 
iii. c. xxix.) 
X Among others, see Strabo, Lib. xvii. and Pliny, Lib. xix. and xxii. 
