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Roman Drug Deal Gone Bad
#1
From the Papyri Rylands 2, 141 Document 76, from Euhemeria, Egypt, AD 37 the following is abstracted:

Petrmuthis son of Heracleus, a public tax collector, files a complaint with Gaius Trebius Justus, Centurion. Permuthis throws a fit because two of the Euhemeria local home boys beat him up and take 30 drachma he got from the sale of opium. He further states the state will suffer unless something is done about this.

Apart from the learning that a public official is dealing drugs, and that this is not a strictly modern phenomia, the context implies the practice was quite open and not "possession with intent to distribute" as it is here and now. Permuthis has no problem with going to the local Centurion about this. One presumes the use was medicinal, but also probably recreational.

I have some questionable pre-Roman references to Minoan priestesses wearing opium poppy head dresses, and the Sherden(?) adorning their helmets with the flower pod, and speculation that these mercenary troops were getting all wiped out on opium before wiping out whoever got on Pharaoh's nerves.

Besides wondering about what kind of music these people listened to, does anyone have anything more on the Roman drug trade?

Gaius Decius Aquilius
(Ralph Izard)
who does not advocate the use of any drug and who's posting is purely academic
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#2
How do you define "drug trade". Do you mean "herbal medicine trade". Or do you mean "illicit drug trade". Opium would have fallen into the former and the latter likely never existed except for instances where individuals were trying to avoid import/export duties or attempting to bypass licensed monopolies.
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen & Sword Books
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#3
According to Wiki it was named by the Macedonians (opi=drunken, um=mind). Anyone know if this is actually the case or can expand on it?
[url:1l2bbzk3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium[/url]
If it does mean drunken mind, that suggests to me a bit more than purely medicinal use. The Wiki discussion page also mentions opium being smoked and eaten in Cyprus as early as 1100 BC.
[url:1l2bbzk3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Opium[/url]

More info here:
[url:1l2bbzk3]http://sulcus.berkeley.edu/mcb/165_001/papers/manuscripts/_672.html[/url]

[url:1l2bbzk3]http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/heroin/etc/history.html[/url]
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
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#4
Drug use in the ancient world?

I think that if you look a bit you will find a lot of it. Why not start with Homer's Odyssey. I can not remember which book, I apologize. But when Telemachus visits Helen, she is described as panpharmakon. I will check the exact text later. But it is an interesting passage. Herodotus mentions a type of "sweat lodge" among the scythians (I could be wrong there). They place hash on top of a hot rock and cover their heads with blankets overtop. I think he mentions them jumping for joy afterwards.

Kevin
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#5
Quote:Apart from the learning that a public official is dealing drugs, and that this is not a strictly modern phenomia, the context implies the practice was quite open and not "possession with intent to distribute" as it is here and now. Permuthis has no problem with going to the local Centurion about this. One presumes the use was medicinal, but also probably recreational.

If you go through medicinal recipe books, you will find that something like up to half of those listed contain opium. Its use as pain killer was well known to the Romans and very old knowledge at the time. Also, there was no concept of "illegal drug abuse" at the time.

For Dioskurides on the poppy plant in his De Materia Medica, please see http://www.tiscalinet.ch/materiamedica/ ... chlafmohn_ (in German)

Interesting text, though - where is this published?
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#6
Quote:I have some questionable pre-Roman references to Minoan priestesses wearing opium poppy head dresses, and the Sherden(?) adorning their helmets with the flower pod, and speculation that these mercenary troops were getting all wiped out on opium before wiping out whoever got on Pharaoh's nerves.

Sherden? Unlikely. I'm more for the explanation of that disc as a sun disc. Besides, we also find Sherden without that thing on the helmet, just the horns.
The Orange victory monument also shows Celtic helmets with horns and such a decoration between them.
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
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#7
Quote: Herodotus mentions a type of "sweat lodge" among the scythians (I could be wrong there). They place hash on top of a hot rock and cover their heads with blankets overtop. I think he mentions them jumping for joy afterwards.

"The Scythians, as I said, take some of this hemp-seed, and, creeping under the felt coverings, throw it upon the red-hot stones; immediately it smokes, and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour-bath can exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy, and this vapour serves them instead of a water-bath; for they never by any chance wash their bodies with water."
(History, 4, III, 74.1)

Inhaling dope smoke and never washing? Sounds like some hippies I know.

But the jumping and shouting bit indicates that Herodotus wasn't directly familiar with the effects of cannabis. Lounging around in their tents, having rambling conversations about, like, the universe and stuff man, losing their train of thought, giggling and wondering why they have cravings for chocolate when it doesn't exist yet would be closer to the truth.

Or so I've heard ... :wink:
Tim ONeill / Thiudareiks Flavius /Thiudareiks Gunthigg

HISTORY FOR ATHEISTS - New Atheists Getting History Wrong
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#8
From the Oxford English Dictionary,

opium < classical Latin opium opium (Pliny) < Hellenistic Greek όπιον poppy juice, opium < ancient Greek οπός vegetable juice (< the same Indo-European base as Old Church Slavonic sokŭ juice, Russian sok juice, Lithuanian sakai (plural) resin) + -ιον, diminutive suffix.


There's also the case of silphium (or its resin laserpicium) which was so popular it was harvested to extinction.

Oh, and moving this to Civ Talk since it's not really military...
Dan Diffendale
Ph.D. candidate, University of Michigan
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#9
But I was asking what usage was in context of the Army? Were they interdictive, or just oversaw a customs role in the import. I can't imagine there was extensive use of opiates in regular service for the same reasons it is frowned on today.

We had to suffer numerous old, grainy, training films when I was in. These were shown to us to toughen us up for the rigors of combat. These films included military courtesy, parade ettiquite, filling out Form 202(b)- rev3, and on drug abuse. Sergeants walked up and down the aisles hitting anyone who fell asleep.

The Romans had no films but one can speculate that they did have Training Plays.

After seeing the training play, "Re-Rolling the Mark XII Scroll: Changing the Endcaps", new Legionaries were shown, "Dangers of Opium":

Centurion: Miles Glaucus, You have been noted as being less than enthusiastic when we burned down the last village. Your appearance has suffered and your eyes are always red. DO you have anything you want to discuss with me?

Glaucus: Well yes, Centurion Justus. I think I have this problem with Opium. I get it from Petermuthis, the public tax collector. I have been meaning to come forward on this problem.

Centurion: Good thing to do! The Roman Army realizes that sometimes people make mistakes. We have a Ten Part Rehabilitation Program. In Part One you need to admit you have a problem. I tie you to a post and beat you with my vicus until you admit your problem, and until you are unconscious. Then we throw you in a cage for three days. Steps Two through Ten are just repeats of Step One. At the end of Step Ten you are clean and back on track! This program has a very high success rate, because if you relapse, we crucify you. Take him out boys!

Glaucus: Thanks Centurion! The Army is a great carer!

All the trainees weakly applaud and snicker because the Centurion Justus is still using the old mark IX scroll that only rolls up manualy. This was an old training play, naturally.

Gaius Decius Aquilius
(Ralph Izard)
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#10
Quote:I can't imagine there was extensive use of opiates in regular service for the same reasons it is frowned on today.
Given the amount of injuries legionaries probably sustained I see no reason why they wouldn't turn to anything to relieve the pain, especially as opium's pain relief properties were definitely known. Whether it was used recreationally the argument seems open to me, but I can't see any reason why the Romans would be less prone to addiction than modern society. Egypt apparently had a binge drinking problem...
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
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#11
Dioscurides, one of our best sources for the use of opium in the ancient world, was a military phyxsician, so the Roman troops definitely used it for medical purposes. As to personal use, I suspect the relatively high price (opium poppies don't cultivate well in the Mediterranean) would have been an effective deerrent for the aerage groundpounder to become an addict. After all, opium was known and in use throughout Europe since Antiquity, yet our first evidence of opium addiction becoming a social rather than individual problem date to the 19th century, when it becomes cheap and plentiful.

I would, however, caution against projecting modern attitudes to drug use on Roman military practice. Roman soldiers got to do a lot of things that modern militaries frowned upon. As long as a personal habit did not interfere with a soldier's effectiveness in his role it is quite likely that it would not have been addressed, and that role was not always combat. there are recorded instances of troops becoming quite thoroughly unfit for field duty.
Der Kessel ist voll Bärks!

Volker Bach
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#12
Ave Civitas,

In G. Manjo's book "The healing hand" he explains that:

In content as well as in form, there has been progress since Hippocrates,-but the road is still long. In the crystal bowl of Celsian Latin you will be served an occasional piece of dung. The thirty-four caustics of Celsus include not only quicklime, cantharides, salt, and pepper, but also salamander ash and dung of lizard, pigeon, wood-pigeon, swallow, and sheep.204 His drugs for "closing a wound" include myrrh, white wine, and vinegar, but also eggwhite, pounded snails, and cobwebs.

And pain may call for poppy-tears, but for headache the opium is soaked in bread — and worn like a hat.

I wonder if opium soaks in with topical applications.

Lothia.
AKA Tom Chelmowski

Historiae Eruditere (if that is proper Latin)
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