ABSTRACT
Medicines for man and beast, as prescribed in late antique handbooks of pharmacology, medicine and diet, were composed of ingredients whose diverse origins imply the existence of far-reaching networks of trade.1 Some of these materia medica, produced within the territory of the Empire, were transported in a local, Mediterranean trade: mastic from Chios, honey from Mount Hymettus, natron from Egypt.2 Others came from farther afield: frankincense from South Arabia, pepper from India, aloeswood from South-east Asia, and ginger from China.3 Their names – λίβανος, πέπερι, ἀγάλλοχον, ζιγγίβερι – are foreign words naturalized into Greek,4 while the names of their distant sources impart to medical manuals the flavour of a geography lesson. Why did people go to so much trouble to obtain these substances?Many of them do have properties that are useful in maintaining health – they kill bacteria, for example, or deaden pain – and these properties do not just belong to the realm of what one might call ‘traditional’ or ‘alternative’ therapy, but continue to be the subject of medical research today.5
