Why The Name?

Sylphium, usually spelt silphium or silphion, was a plant used in classical antiquity as a seasoning and medicine. 5th century BCE historian Herodotus provides the first references to the silphium plant. Stalks and leaves were eaten as vegetables. By scarring stems and roots a resin-like chyle was gained. It was this milky-white fluid that was used as a spice. Besides its usage in the ancient Greek and Roman kitchen - the Roman cookbook Apicius includes recipes - several medical effects were ascribed to silphium. It was said to cure coughing and sore throat, lower fever, relieve severe pain and eliminate warts.  However, according to Pliny the Elder, the most important function of silphium was as a contraceptive. It was used by nearly all cultures around the Mediterranean. The Romans considered it as worth its weight in silver. From the 6th century BCE onwards it was the mainstay of the economy of Cyrene, present-day Shahhat, Libya. This explains its appearance on their coinage.

Silphium could not be cultivated, but rather was harvested as a wild plant on a strip of land 55km broad and 200km long along the coast of Cyrenaica. It is said that the inhabitants of Cyrenaica had driven goats on the silphium fields to increase their price. The plant was decimated and then extirpated. Pliny the Elder mentions that in his time the last surviving silphium plant was presented to the Emperor Nero, who had eaten it with pleasure. The true reason for the extinction of silphium was probably a combination of over harvesting, the Roman civil wars, and climate change in the Maghreb. Rising temperatures and the resulting desertification destroyed the growing regions of northern Cyrenaica.

It is owing to the confluence of food, nutraceutical, and medical applications as well as the associations with economic development and the negative impact of climate change that the name Sylphium and its image on an ancient silver coin of Cyrene were chosen for our consultancy.