Smoking Romans...

[Carlton Bach]

When I was at uni I was told a story of a young academic who theorised that the small ceramic jars found on a Roman wreck were opium jars. (they looked like opium poppies) He was laughed at until the technology to sample their interiors was developed and confirmed that they contained opium.
I also read (somewhere) that opium was part of the Roman doctors kit for obvious pain relief.
Regards,
Richard

Dioscurides mentions opium. pop historians lately came up with the idea Nero might have been an opium addict, and the stuff was certainly widely traded. That doesn't mean opium smoking, though. Opiates are notoriously versatile drugs - just about the only thing that won't work is absorption though the skin - and I suspect the Romans took their opium orally. It was certainly the preferred method of administering it in medieval and early modern Europe, cf 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater' (not -Smoker).

PLus, archeologists can come up with interesting ideas. A certain type of vessel ("sphero-conical") found in the medieval Middle East has been called anything from a hand grenade to a container for carbonated drinks.