Pliny the Elder

Ab his proximum dicetur auctoritate clarissimum laserpicium, quod Graeci silphion vocant, in Cyrenaica provincia repertum, cuius sucus laser vocatur, magnificum in usu medicamentisque et ad pondus argentei denarii repensum.

Multis iam annis in ea terra non invenitur, quoniam publicani, qui pascua conducunt, maius ita lucrum sentientes depopulantur pecorum pabulo. unus omnino caulis nostra memoria repertus Neroni principi missus est. si quando incidit pecus in spem nascentis, hoc deprehenditur signo: ove, cum comederit, dormiente protinus, capra sternuente crebrius.

Diuque iam non aliud ad nos invenitur laser, quam quod in Perside aut Media et Armenia nascitur large, sed multo infra Cyrenaicum, id quoque adulteratum cummi aut sacopenio aut faba fracta; quo minus omittendum videtur C. Valerio M. Herennio cos. Cyrenis advecta Romam publice laserpicii pondo XXX, Caesarem vero dictatorem initio belli civilis inter aurum argentumque protulisse ex aerario laserpicii pondo MD.

Next in importance comes the much celebrated laserpicium, which the Greeks call silphion. It was found in the province of Cyrenaica. Its juice is called laser; it was highly prized for ordinary and medicinal uses and weighed against silver denarii.

For many years now it has not been found in that land, because the contractors who rent the pastures, finding greater profit in it, devastate the plant as fodder for their flocks.¹ In our own time only one stalk was found, and it was sent to the emperor Nero. If an animal comes upon a growing shoot, one can tell: after eating it, a sheep immediately sleeps, while a goat sneezes repeatedly.

For a long time the only laser reaching us has been what grows abundantly in Persia, Media, and Armenia.² It is much inferior to the Cyrenaic product, and even it is adulterated with gum, sagapenum, or ground beans. It should therefore be remembered that, in the consulship of Gaius Valerius and Marcus Herennius, thirty pounds of laserpicium were officially brought from Cyrene to Rome; and that Caesar, at the beginning of the civil war, brought out fifteen hundred pounds from the treasury along with gold and silver.