Scholars are divided as
to when and where the use of opium started.
This is because poppy seeds have been found in diverse locations
stretching from the ‘Cave of the Bats’ in Spain to the Shanidar Cave in
modern-day Iraq[1]. However, there is consensus that cultivation
on a wide scale began in the Tigris-Euphrates valley in lower Mesopotamia in
present-day Iraq. By 3400 B.C., the
ancient Sumerian civilization compiled medicine lists which mention the wide
use of opium[2]. The Sumerians called the poppy plant as hul-gil or the ‘joy plant’, probably a
reference to its hallucinogenic properties[3]. Opium was used not only for its medicinal
effects but also as a culinary item, in order to spice up foods like bread and
salads. From the Sumerians, it was
passed on to the Babylonians who exported it in large quantities to other
regions such as Egypt and Persia with the Phoenicians acting as the
intermediary.
By the year 1500 B.C.,
opium was well-known in Egypt. The city
of Thebes was one of the major centres of cultivation. In fact, the place has lent its name to one
of the alkaloids in opium, namely thebaine[4]. In the medical texts compiled by the
Egyptians, more than 700 medicines use opium.
It was from the time of its cultivation in Egypt that opium became a
commodity traded all over the Mediterranean world. The Phoenicians and the Greek merchants who
traded in Egypt purchased the opium in the local markets and transported them
to regions as diverse as Carthage, the Greek world and Europe. In Greece, opium had religious as well as
medicinal value. Many Greek gods such as
Apollo and Hypnos are depicted with wreaths of poppies. Homer mentions it in his epics as the drink
that Greek warriors took after a battle[5]. By the time of the Greek Classical period,
its medicinal properties were also known.
Hippocrates lists out the properties of opium in his treatises. Hence Greece became a large market for the
drug.
From Greece, the use of
opium spread to the Roman Empire. The
Romans highly valued the drug for both mystical as well as practical purposes. The opium was purchased by Greek and
Phoenician merchants in Alexandria from where it was taken on the last leg of
the Silk Road to the Eternal City. Several
Roman gods such as Somnos are depicted with poppies. The drug was also valued as a
painkiller. The Romans also were among
the first people to learn of the recreational use of opium. They would crush the poppy pod and mix it
with honey and then eat it. This remained
the principal mode of ingestion in the ancient world. Opium was so important to the Romans that
their coins often carried the image of the poppy plant. It was during the heyday of the Silk Road
during the Pax Romana that opium use spread across the known world. The use of opium, mainly for medicine
extended from China in the east to the British Isles in the west. The Persians had already introduced opium to
the societies of China and India.
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