MERGE TO GYRENE. 
415 
I'he silphium is described by Theophrastus as a plant with a 
large and thick root ; and the stem, he tells us, resembled that of the 
ferula, and was of about the same thickness. The leaf which, he 
says, was termed maspetum (^fcairmrov), resembled that of parsley : the 
seed was broad and foliaceous : the stem annual, like that of the 
ferula*. Pliny’s account is copied from that of Theophrastus; but 
he has given us at the same time whatever information he could 
collect of the silphium and its properties in the age in which he 
himself lived. He informs us that— the celebrated plant Laserpi- 
tium, which the Greeks call silphium, was found in the Cyrenaica ; 
and that the juice, or liquor, extracted from it was termed Laser; a 
drug so famous for its medicinal qualities that it was sold by the 
of the Persian kings, as enumerated in the list we have quoted, we find four hundred 
sheep, one hundred oxen, thirty horses, three hundred lambs, thirty stags, or gazelles, 
four hundred fatted geese, three hundred pigeons, and six hundred other birds of 
various kinds ! So much solid food was not, however, cooked without a proportionate 
seasoning ; and we find a talent weight (say sixty -five lbs.) of garlic among the numerous 
other condiments employed on these occasions. 
The Macedonians in the suite of Alexander, while they expressed their astonishment 
at its profusion, applauded the magnificence of the royal table, and the good taste of 
the Persian monarchs. But the ardent son of Philip (though by no means a friend to 
abstinence) was prudent enough to discourage, on this occasion, the commendation of 
luxuries so superfluous and expensive, and ordered the column to be taken down, 
observing at the same time that so prodigious a meal was unnecessary ; that such excess 
of indulgence and prodigality could scarcely fail to produce timidity and efleminacy ; 
and tha.t they who had dined or supped so enormously must necessarily afford an easy 
victory to their opponents. 
* To Ss otX(p(ov /xsv nciKkrt)) xau Tioc'/jiia.v, tov Se x.a.vXov nXiKov vap6ri^. Ss xat 
TW ora5(,£i '7lQi.^a.TiXri(no\. rov Ss (pyXXov, o xa.Xovai /xasowsrov, o/zoiov to csiXtvu. i7TCsqfji<x S’ TsXarv, 
(pnXXciiSn^r, oiov rov Xsyofjvsvov (pvXXov. — (Lib. iv. c. iii.) 
