414 MERGE TO GYRENE.

that the liquor (or otoc roy a-tXipiov, in Latin termed Laser) was obtained from the stem as well as from the root, as Theophrastus, and Pliny (on his authority) have testified * * §.

It is evident also from both these authors that the stem of the silphium was in request as an article of food, and was eaten in several ways f. This appears equally in Athenaeus ; and we find both the extract, and the plant, very decidedly mentioned in the bill of fare of the Persian monarchs, as given by Polymnus (Stratagem ata. Lib.

iv.) and which was discovered by Alexander the Great, engraved on a brazen column in the royal palace. Here we see two pounds, and upwards, of the extract, or juice of the silphium, termed by Pliny Laser ; and a talent weight (about sixty-five pounds) of the plant itself in the list:]:. What the extract of the silphium was like we will not pretend to say ; but the stem and the root appear to have been eaten much in the same way that we eat celery, (which indeed it very much resembles,) either stewed or boiled §.

* Succus duobusmodis capiebatur, e radice atque caule. — (Hist. Nat. L. xix).

Ottov Sa SiTTov (says Theojihrastus) tov /xav art rov xayXoy, tov Sa o.tco rris Sio naXovai TOV fxev Kaj/Xisuv, tov a — (Lib iv. mpi Ot/Twv).

t Post folia amissa (says Pliny) caule ipso et homines vescebantur, decocto, asso, elixoque : — Theophrastus’ words ai’e, — yusra. Se ravtcx. xccvXov aoS'ieo'&ai oravTat Tgoarov «ya&ov, i(p3‘ov, arcrot. — (Lib. iv.)

4 Owoy iTiXlpiOLi Svo /xvai ariXlpiov TizXavTOv <TTa&/xci;“.

If the king supped at Babylon, or at Susa, half the quantity of wine supplied for the meal was palm wine, the other half, the juice of the grape, orav S'a ev BaS’t/Xwvi, ■« ev ouaois, rov /xav 7)/xi(Taa ex raiv (poivixcuv oivov ‘sragejei, tov Se mfjuanoi a/xweXivov. — Polyaeni Stratagem. Lib. iv. 32.)

§ Among a great many other articles, consumed every day at the dinner and supper * Taking the mina at 1 lb. 1 oz., the talent (which was always sixty minae) would give sixty-five pounds.