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History
Rome had a contraceptive plant, and used it up
Worth its weight in silver, and harvested into extinction.
Photo:
Unknown author Unknown author
· CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Silphium grew in a narrow strip of coast near Cyrene, in what is now Libya, and could not be cultivated — every attempt to farm it failed. It was used across the ancient Mediterranean as a contraceptive and abortifacient, traded by weight against silver, and stamped on Cyrene’s coins for centuries.
Pliny the Elder records that by his lifetime a single stalk had been found in years, and that it was sent to the emperor Nero as a curiosity. The plant is generally considered the first species documented to have been harvested to extinction, and no living specimen has ever been identified with certainty.
Did you know
Silphium’s seed pod was heart-shaped, and appears that way on the coins. It is one of the more plausible origins proposed for the heart symbol — which would make the sign of romantic love a picture of a contraceptive.
Sources
Pliny the Elder, Natural History XIX; Riddle, Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance (1992)
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