THE SCENE: Opium was a controversial topic in the Roman medical community, with some doctors acclaiming its virtues and other expounding its dangers. In the passage below, the Roman scientist Pliny the Elder gives an overview of the discussion.
THE TEXT: We have already stated that there are three varieties of the cultivated poppy, and, on the same occasion, we promised to describe the wild kinds. With reference to the cultivated varieties, the calyx of the white poppy is pounded, and is taken in wine as a soporific; the seed of it is a cure, also, for elephantiasis. The black poppy acts as a soporific, by the juice which exudes from incisions made in the stalk—at the time when the plant is beginning to flower, Diagoras says; but when the blossom has gone off, according to Iollas. This is done at the third hour, in a clear, still, day, or, in other words, when the dew has thoroughly dried upon the poppy. It is recommended to make the incision just beneath the head and calyx of the plant; this being the only kind, in fact, into the head of which the incision is made. This juice, like that of any other plant, is received in wool; or else, if it is in very minute quantities, it is scraped off with the thumb nail just as it is from the lettuce, and so again on the following day, with the portion that has since dried there. If obtained from the poppy in sufficiently large quantities, this juice thickens, after which it is kneaded out into lozenges, and dried in the shade. This juice is possessed not only of certain soporific qualities, but, if taken in too large quantities, is productive of sleep unto death even: the name given to it is “opium.”
It was in this way, we learn, that the father of P. Licinius Cæcina, a man of Prætorian rank, put an end to his life at Bavilum in Spain, an incurable malady having rendered existence quite intolerable to him. Many other persons, too, have ended their lives in a similar way. It is for this reason that opium has been so strongly exclaimed against by Diagoras and Erasistratus; for they have altogether condemned it as a deadly poison, forbidding it to be used for infusions even, as being injurious to the sight.
Andreas says, in addition to this, that the only reason why it does not cause instantaneous blindness, is the fact that they adulterate it at Alexandria. In later times, however, the use of it has not been disapproved of—witness the celebrated preparation known as “diacodion.” Lozenges are also made of ground poppy-seed, which are taken in milk as a soporific. The seed is employed, too, with rose-oil for head-ache; and, in combination with that oil, is injected into the ears for ear-ache. Mixed with woman’s milk, this seed is used as a liniment for gout: the leaves, too, are employed in a similar manner. Taken in vinegar, the seed is prescribed as a cure for erysipelas and wounds.
For my own part, however, I do not approve of opium entering into the composition of eye-salves, and still less of the preparations from it known as febrifuges, digestives, and cœliacs: the black poppy, however, is very generally prescribed, in wine, for cœliac affections. All the cultivated poppies are larger than the others, and the form of the head is round. In the wild poppy the head is elongated and small, but it is possessed of more active properties than the others in every respect. This head is often boiled, and the decoction of it taken to promote sleep, the face being fomented also with the water. The best poppies are grown in dry localities, and where it seldom rains.
– Natural History, Pliny the Elder, 1st Century AD
