The Production of Perfumes in Antiquity: The Cases of ... · PDF fileThe Production of Perfumes in Antiquity: The Cases of Delos and Paestum JEAN-PIERRE BRUN Abstract Perfume production

The Production of Perfumes in Antiquity: The Cases of Delos and PaestumAuthor(s): Jean-Pierre BrunReviewed work(s):Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 104, No. 2 (Apr., 2000), pp. 277-308Published by: Archaeological Institute of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/507452 .

Accessed: 14/01/2013 15:44

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Archaeological Institute of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toAmerican Journal of Archaeology.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:44:46 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aia

http://www.jstor.org/stable/507452?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


The Production of Perfumes in Antiquity: The Cases of Delos and Paestum

JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

Abstract

Perfume production is one of the ancient arts. Al- though it is well attested in texts from the Egyptian Old Kingdom and the early second millennium in Mes- opotamia and Palestine, the sources give us little precise data about early perfume technology. This situation changed at the end of the Hellenistic period, when production was increasingly characterized by larger and more distinctive equipment such as the wedge press. Recent excavations of two perfume shops in Delos and Paestum make it possible to describe the processes used during the Hellenistic period and the early Roman empire. These studies give us the oppor- tunity to evaluate, through texts and inscriptions, the economic importance of perfume making and trade as well as the social status of perfumers.*

Perfumed oils and incense have been used in the Near East since early antiquity for liturgical purposes for the gods, the kings and priests who embodied

them, and the dead, as well as for medical purposes or simply for pleasure. Cretan and Mycenaean palaces have provided us with complex accounts of oils and perfumes, especially Pylos in the Peloponnese and Knossos in Crete. During the Geometric and

Orientalizing periods, perfumes were produced chiefly in the Orient, in Egypt, and in Eastern Greece. Per- fume was at first an aristocratic item; it was not until the seventh to sixth centuries B.C. that more wide-

spread trade began, mainly from Corinth. The rise of palestrae and baths during the Hellenistic and Ro- man periods led to a "democratization" of perfume use. What soon distinguished the aristocracy from the common people was not the use of perfumes but the quality and relative rarity of perfumes used. Yet while the history of the use of perfumes is relatively widely known, the processes and equipment used by the perfumers remain obscure.1

Modern perfumes are composed of a base or "ex-

cipient" (usually an alcohol), essential oils (often from flowers), spices, fixatives, coloring agents, and

preservatives. Perfumes in antiquity differed funda-

mentally from our modern scents in the base that was used: although the ancients empirically under-

* This paper is dedicated to David Mattingly. Many thanks to Claude Blanc and Sebastien Chorney for the En- glish translation. All translations of primary sources are

stood distillation principles, they had not yet discovered distilled alcohol and mainly used glycerides to fix fragrances. During the second millennium B.C., the most commonly used oils in Mesopotamia and

Egypt were those obtained from ben, sesame, horseradish, and almond. As olive oil was more easily produced in large quantities, it became the most common excipient. These fats were then made astringent by being first heated with plants such as sedge, then mixed with aromatic substances, mainly flowers (iris, rose), but also fragrant woods, gums, and musk. This action of imparting the scents onto the fats is called

enfleurage; it sometimes (but not always) required the use of heat. Perfumes were then made less vola- tile by adding fixatives such as resins, and coloring agents might also be added; for example, madder was used to produce a red tint.

The ancient texts of these formulas and recipes are imprecise, particularly in terms of instruments, processes, and quantities. Making perfume did not

require heavy equipment and it is difficult to identify from archaeological remains any workshops that

may have been used specifically for this purpose. Per- fumers worked with torsion presses made of cloth, or-

dinary and often reused earthenware or metal containers, and hearths so simple as to be atypical. We have had to rely, therefore, on a few Egyptian representations and, for the Roman period, paintings from Pompeii and Herculaneum showing Cupids involved in the making of perfumes, which was then a

very important economic activity in Campania. Re- cent investigations on Delos and in the Campanian town of Paestum, however, have led to the identifica- tion of antique perfumeries based on the presence of oil presses of a specific type.

The fact that perfume shops were located in the center of cities such as Delos, Paestum, Pozzuoli, Capua, and even Rome during the Hellenistic and Roman periods is a good indication of the importance of perfumers in the society. Perfume making was considered a sordida ars, however, and perfume makers were held in low public esteem. This maligned pro-

from the Loeb Classical Library unless otherwise noted. 1 Forbes 1965; Faure 1987; Amouretti 1986, 185-9.

277 American Journal of Archaeology 104 (2000) 277-308



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

fession was nevertheless in permanent contact with the upper classes; its activity was very profitable but re-

quired large investments to buy the expensive exotic aromatics. Thus perfume production and trade may have been financed by leading citizens who, through their freedmen, collected most of the profit.

ORIGINS

Mesopotamia There is ample evidence that perfume making

took place in the Mesopotamian palaces. Excava- tions in the palace of Mari have uncovered rooms in which scented and unscented oils and tablets of ac-

counting records of scented oils were stored. Admin- istrative archives from the 18th century B.C. show that a Lit raqqu (perfume maker) named Nfir-ili re- ceived filtered sesame oil and delivered scented oils in return.2 The scented oils were aromatized with

myrtle, cypress, opopanax, odorous reed, and some oils that remain a mystery: supalum and tamrirum oils, and oil of Mari. These tablets document the use of several fragrant plants, including galbanum (from the umbelliferae family), storax (which produces a balsam used as a pungent-smelling fixative), and lab- danum, which is derived from various species of rockrose. These texts indicate that some of the fra-

grant essences were extracted through maceration, without heating (particularly for cypress and myrtle), while others required heating (diqdrdtim, cooking- pot oil). This enfleurage by heat was used primarily for resin-based aromatic elements. From documents

registering receipt and shipment of oil it can be in- ferred that the preparation of fragrant oils took about two weeks. In the reign of Zimri-Lim (around 1780- 1759 B.C.), we know of nine perfumers who made the oil used (about a liter per day) by the king, the

queen, and the women in the harem. The king also

typically gave bottles of perfume to his guests and to the princes of the neighboring kingdoms. These scented oils were also used for religious celebrations, in particular to anoint both the participants and the animals to be sacrificed.3

In Assyria in the 13th century B.C., women (mur- raqitu) were the perfumers. Some recipes have been found on tablets; one indicates that plants and gums were minced and left to marinate over-

night in hot water with salt. In the morning they were filtered and mixed with oil on a stove. Then,

2 Bardet et al. 1984, 328-452. 3Joannes 1993, 251-70. 4 Ebeling 1948, 129-45. 5 Davies 1935.

away from the fire, the oils saturated with essences would rise to the surface.4

Egypt A wealth of texts and iconography exists on

Egyptian perfume-making practices. Many of the

ingredients-aromatic elements as well as oils- were local. Oils such as colocynth, horseradish, sesame, ben (from Moringa peregrina, a bush found in the Eastern desert), and later olive oil were used, as well as palm and grape wines, whose alcohol content

helps to dissolve the essence. Imports of aromatic in-

gredients rise from the time of the New Empire onwards. They come from the Red Sea coast through trade or military expeditions such as the one sent to the land of Punt by Queen Hatshepsut (1504-1483). The walls of the funeral temple at Deir-el-Bahri include depictions of incense and myrrh trees being carried in pots.

A few paintings, such as the one in Rekhmireh's tomb (around 1430 B.C.),5 show perfumers at work. Resin and ingredients are crushed, ground in mortars, mixed with oil, and finally heated in a cauldron in order for the oil to be saturated with scents. Other

representations show torsion presses, in which a sim-

ple sack is twisted above a container to squeeze out either oil saturated with essences or juices from

plants. This method was also used to press grapes in the Old Empire: in Saqqara, several mastabas display paintings showing the harvesting and the treading of the grapes and the pressing of the grape pulp in similar sacks. A fourth century B.C. low relief at the Louvre depicts the preparation of iris perfume, show-

ing two women twisting a sack, which probably contains the chopped rhyzomes, to extract the sap (fig. 1).

Scented oils served several religious purposes, in-

cluding medicinal use,6 embalming, unction of cult statues, offerings to the gods and to the dead, and

anointing participants at ceremonies. Every large sanctuary had its own perfume-producing unit; at the

temples in Edfu and Dendera the rooms used for stor-

ing the sacred perfumes are covered with scenes de-

picting both perfume offerings and perfume recipes. Dated to the Hellenistic period, these texts in the

"laboratory of perfumes" at Edfu include, among others, a recipe for "the unguent of divine mineral."7 Se-

cretly prepared by a high priest, this unguent was made from bitumen, incense, and various minerals and was

6 Forbes 1965, 2-5. 7 Montet 1960, 20-2 and most recently Aufrere 1991,

329-32.

278 [AJA 104



THE PRODUCTION OF PERFUMES IN ANTIQUITY

Fig. 1. Egyptian low relief from the fourth century B.C. (Paris, Musee du Louvre)

used to coat the sacred statues, particularly one representing Min of Coptos, making them appear black.

In addition to these religious uses, perfume was

quickly adopted by high-society women represented on the walls of the nobles' tombs in Thebes. Some texts indicate that men also used perfume.

Palestine The Hebrews were great producers and users of

olive oil-based perfumes as early as the 14th century B.C. Exodus 30.22-30 establishes the recipe for

making the sacred perfume, flavored with myrrh and

cinnamon, intended for the ceremonies and the

priests. The offering of perfume and incense was thus an essential ritual in the worship ofYahweh, and some priests specialized in making these perfumes. Besides religious and funerary uses (suggested in the New Testament in Mark 16.1 and Luke 23.56), scented oils were also used as unction for bathing, medicinal rubs, and seduction. The Song of Songs

8 On the subject of balm (opobalsamum) see, e.g., Plin. HN 12.111-112. Ajuglet dating from the period of Herod still containing oil of some kind was found in a cave on the Dead Sea. Chromatographic analysis has revealed that it

includes detailed descriptions relating to the bride's perfumes (e.g., 4.14), and Naomi advises Ruth to wear perfume when she tries to seduce the rich Boaz (Ruth 3.3). Palestine was a perfume- producing country throughout its entire history; therefore, it was a natural outlet for Arabian aromatics and was rich with its own products such as

Judean balsam oil.8 It is in fact in Palestine where the clearest archaeo-

logical evidence of perfume production has been found. The En-Gedi oasis, on the west coast of the Dead Sea, was known during antiquity as a place where Judean balsam oil was harvested. Excavations in the oasis at Tel Goren have uncovered furnaces,

jars, and various metal and bone objects at a level dated between 630 and 582 B.C. These finds have been linked to perfume production that, in light of the seals found on site, could have been placed under royal control.9

The best evidence for the perfume industry is

was not olive oil but fatty acids and glycerol esters, which could be residue of Judean Balm (Patrich and Arubas 1989, 43-59).

9 Barag 1976, 2.373.

2000] 279



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

Fig. 2. Floor plan of the En Boqeq perfume production facility according to Fisher 1978- 1979, 26

from the Roman period. Excavations in Jerusalem have uncovered a house burned in A.D. 70, when Ti- tus captured the city.10 Several furnaces, some stone

mortars, scale weights, measures, ingredients, and

glass and terra-cotta unguentaria found inside the house belonging to an aristocratic family of priests named Qatros, indicate that perfumes were made there to fulfill the needs of the temple. Another production site has been discovered in the En Boqeq oasis,11 south of Masada on the Red Sea (fig. 2). This

rectangular construction, built at the time of Herod on the remnants of an older tower, was in use for less than a century. One entered the building through a hall with seats lining the walls. Room 5 contained

equipment remains, among them a press bed(?) containing resin and aromatic plant residue. The ex- cavators believe that fragrances were prepared in this room by grinding, pressing, and heating. A cor- ridor led out to a courtyard in which some mortars

10 Avigad 1980, 120-39 (in Hebrew; my thanks to Rafi Frankel for translating the relevant passage); English trans., Avigad 1983.

l Gichon 1993, 395-9; Fisher 1978-1979, 21-38. 12 Wine obtained from the fermentation of dates in wa-

were found. Here three circular-based furnaces were built against the south wall simultaneously. They were designed in such a way as to allow double-boiler

heating of a container in which oils and aromatics could be saturated with fragrances. Three rooms

opened onto the yard. To the east, on the north side of room 4, was a 3.5 m-long X 3.8 m-wide area where the ground was covered with a layer of mortar. This

space was bounded to the south by a low wall chan-

neling liquids towards a small tank (0.50 X 0.35 X 0.55 m) with a capacity of less than 10 liters. The lay- out of the room seems to indicate the presence of a

press used to extract small quantities of the product. The discovery of mounds of date pits in the room have led the archaeologists to suppose that this was the fruit that was pressed,12 but the pits could also have come from fruit stored there as a food reserve or even as fuel for the furnaces. In room 6, which

opens west onto the central courtyard, there was a

ter is known to Pliny (HN 13.27, 44). Certain recipes may have used date wine, the alcohol contained in it having perhaps served as a solvent for essential oil (regarding the use of wine in perfume recipes see Theophr. Sens. 25: the quinces are steeped in sweet wine).

280 [AJA 104




circular pavement with the base of a millstone in its

center, possibly used to grind the ingredients neces-

sary for making perfumes. There was also a furnace in a third room to the north (no. 10), but it is essen-

tially the discovery of organic remains that has de- fined the nature of production in these installations. In more temperate climates, positively identifying perfumeries will remain difficult.

Greece In Crete during the Middle Bronze Age, perfume

production already had a certain importance, but it was not until the Mycenaean period, in the 14th and 13th centuries B.C., that the large number of Linear B texts shed light on this activity. Several hundred tablets from Knossos mention oil deliveries to be

processed by perfumers, who are designated by the words arepazoo or kupirijo, "the Cypriot." In Greece itself, tablets from Mycenae, Thebes, and

Pylos mention the work of the perfumers. The most precise documentation comes from Pylos, where the palace was destroyed by fire towards the end of the 13th century. The perfumers' workshops could have been located in front of the building's eastern entrance, where cauldrons, basins, and vases have been found.

The tablets from Knossos, Haghia Triada, and Myce- nae clearly indicate that sesame, safflower, and especially olive oil were used. Linear A pictographs show olives in both wild and cultivated form. Wild olives,

extensively used in medicine and perfumery, are more frequently represented.'3 These oils were made

astringent by the addition of coriander, sedge, orjuni- per, and then heated with flower petals, usually roses, or rhizomes, such as those from irises.

The Iliad and Odyssey mention the use of fragrant oils by goddesses, who employ them lavishly for

anointing cadavers or for simple profane uses. In the Iliad Hera covers her body: "With ambrosia first did she cleanse for her lovely body every stain, and anointed her richly with oil, ambrosial, soft and of rich fragrance."'4 In the Odyssey Telemachus is rubbed with oil after his bath (3.466; 4.49), and we see Ulysses covering himself with oil brought by Nau- sicaa (6.227); in this case at least it is certainly fra-

grant oil. Hesiod portrays the maiden "who washes her soft body and anoints herself with oil."'5

The use of perfumes becomes quite common be-

ginning in the sixth century. Archilochus and Sappho

'3 Melena 1983, 89-123. '4 Hom. II. 14.171-174. 1 Hes. Op. 519-523.

celebrate them. When Solon prohibits perfumes in Athens early in the sixth century (Athenaeum 15.686), it is in vain. Towards the end of the fifth century, dur-

ing the Ad6nia celebrating Adonis and Aphrodite, groups of courtesans wore perfume to banquets. In

fact, both men and women wore perfume to ban-

quets. According to Hikesios, oils with fragrances of

rose, quince, myrrh, nard, saffron, marjoram, and wild thyme were adequate for a symposion (Athenaeum 15.689Cd).

Perfume shops became quite common during this

time; in Athens everybody "is in the habit of paying a call at either a perfumer's or a barber's or a shoe- maker's shop, or wherever he may chance to go, in most cases, it is to the tradesmen who have set up nearest the marketplace and in fewest, to those who are farthest from it."16

It is the amount of money spent on perfumes that

distinguishes the city lady from the country girl:

Ah, the woman I married-I a rustic-her A fine town-lady, niece of Megacles A regular, proud, luxurious, Coesyra. This wife I married, and we came together, I rank with wine-lees, fig-boards, greasy woolpacks She all with scents, and saffron, and tongue-kissings Feasting, expense, and lordly modes of loving.17

The Athenaeum (15.691) mentions the prevailing prices in Athens in the fourth century: a quarter of a liter of perfume cost between five and 10 mina, a sum equivalent to more than 500 days of citizen indemnities.

This thriving trade has left many traces in the form of alabastron, aryballos, and lecythus perfume vases. Corinth specialized in producing and export- ing fragrant oils; Corinthian bottles and flasks decorated with flowers and animals have been found in a number of settlements and cemeteries dating from the seventh and sixth centuries, particularly in the western Mediterranean.

Texts on perfume production are rare; most of what we know comes from Theophrastus's treatise De

Sensibus, "On Odours," written at the end of the fourth century B.C. Between ??14 and 16, he inventories the different types of oils used in perfumery. According to Theophrastus, oils were used as bases that could receive and retain the scents. Ben oil (bal- anos), extracted from nuts growing on bushes in the

Syrian and Egyptian deserts, was the most valuable,

16 Lys. 20. 17 Ar. Nub. 45-51.

281 2000]



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

being the least viscous and the most receptive. The most commonly used oil, however, was that made from green olives. Bitter almond oil was also used,

mainly in Cilicia, where almonds were plentiful. Theophrastus also mentions sesame oil, especially

for fixing the smell of roses. After being made astrin-

gent by adding aloe, jennet, or sedge, these oils had to be heated with flower petals in order to dissolve their essential elements. "To make rhodinon, they mix

bulrush, jennet and fragrant reed and these are

steeped (in sweet wine)" (Sens. 25). "To make rose-

perfume, they put in ginger-grass, aspalathos and

sweet-flag; and these are steeped, as in the case of

kypros (in sweet wine)." Spices, coloring agents, thick-

eners, and preservatives were added later. He recom-

mends, for example, adding salt to rose oil and other

perfumes to prevent rancidity and corruption. The

perfume was then put into bottles as opaque and hermetic as possible: at first pottery containers were used (lecythus, unguentaria), then occasionally metal containers (particularly lead and silver), and finally glass bottles.

In Athens during the Classical period the perfumers' shops were often social meeting places; from Demosthenes and Lysias we learn that citizens en-

joyed spending time in the shops near the agora, es-

pecially in the perfumeries.18 At least some of these were opulent-looking and their owners quite prosperous. In one of Lysias's speeches, a certain Aes- chines fell deeply in debt in order to acquire such a

shop.19 This fragment from Lysias's speech, Against Aeschines the Socratic, mentioned in Athenaeus, gives us some insight into the social rank and income of a

perfumer in Athens at the beginning of the fourth

century. Aeschines had asked Lysias for a loan to re- imburse the large sums borrowed to open a perfumery. He could not meet his debts. Lysias accused him of having borrowed money from everybody and se- duced the old wife of Hermaios the perfumer, "whereas he promoted himself from the condition of peddler to that of perfume-seller."20 This clearly indicates that some perfumers were not simple shop- keepers but ran prosperous businesses. Unfortu-

nately traces of these establishments and their equipment are rarely found. There is no archaeological

18Lys. 20; cf. Dem. Arist., A.786: "Aristogiton never calls at the barber's or the perfumer's or any other shop in the city. He is implacable, restless, unsociable; he has no charity, no friendliness, none of the feelings of a decent hu- man being."

L9 ys. 37.5. 20Ath. 13,612e.

evidence of a perfumery from the Archaic and Classi- cal periods, and the traces at Delos (below) date only from the Hellenistic period, when the production of

perfumes may have changed in scope. It is possible that while perfume making had been a small-scale

process done by artisans, it later became quasi- industrial, requiring permanent installations that

ultimately left more easily identifiable traces.

PERFUMERIES IN DELOS

Delos experienced a long period of prosperity ow-

ing largely to its panhellenic sanctuary to Apollo. This

prosperity entered its most affluent stage in 16 B.C. when the Roman Senate handed it over to the Athe-

nians, granting it free port privileges. The city then

developed very rapidly and attracted a large cosmo-

politan community of merchants and artisans,

mostly Italian, especially after Corinth and the ori- entals came under Roman rule. This boom ended

abruptly when Mithradates sacked the city in 88 B.C., followed in 69 B.C. by the fall of the city to Atheno- doros's pirates. Rapid decline ensued, hastened by the eradication of piracy, which deprived the city of its lucrative trade in slaves.21

Archaeology Numerous wine and oil presses have been found

in the city of Delos.22 Most remarkable is the great number of press beds, most of them carefully carved in marble. Several were found early in the excavations of the theater district, a busy shopping area in

antiquity. Considering that olive trees are almost to-

tally absent, while vineyards are omnipresent, in the inscriptions describing the farming leases for the

Apollo temple properties, the question arises of the intended use of the presses dated from the Hel- lenistic period: Are these wine presses or oil

presses?23 Following a critical inventory of these stones and after conducting new excavations, I elsewhere suggest a new interpretation for many of these remains.24

Extracting oil from olives involves three main steps: crushing the olives, pressing them, and finally sepa- rating the oil from the water; the water includes both the fruit and any water added during the process.25

21 Wilson 1966, 142-3; Ferrary 1980, 38-44. 22 Chamonard 1906, 561; 1922-1924, 22-6; Bruneau

and Fraisse 1981, 127-53; 1984, 713-30; Bruneau 1987, 339-41.

23 Brunet 1990, 669-82; 1993, 203-7. 24 Brun 1999. 25 On these questions see Amouretti and Brun 1993.

[AJA 104 282




Fig. 3. Plan of Delos showing the location of the press beds and counterweights. (DrawingJ.-P. Brun)

The first step involves treading the olives with clogs, crushing them with a stone or a roller, or pounding them in a mortar. In a more technically advanced

stage, millstone crushers are used; the oldest known

examples come from the city of Olynthus, destroyed by Philip of Macedon in 348 B.C. On Delos crushers are almost totally absent with the exception of one marble trapetum millstone. On the other hand, deep mortars in the shape of truncated cones are found in

surprisingly large numbers. W. Ddonna lists 19 mortars of this type at Delos, usually in marble, one of them decorated with palmettes and volutes. They cannot all be related to presses, but it may be noted that the press bed in the Granite palestra was found near such a mortar and that, in the House of Diony- sos where two press beds were found, one mortar, one monolithic tank, and two stone rollers were also uncovered.26

Two types of stone blocks were used in presses: the

press beds and the counterweight blocks. The former are quadrangular blocks with a carved circu-

26 Chamonard 1906, 561. 27 Bruneau 1968, 633-709. 28 We denote them here as "type 41" as a complement

to the typology published in Brun 1986, 120-4. 29 Alexandrou 1977, 16-34.

Fig. 4. Delos, press bed from the House of the Dionysos. (PhotoJ.-P. Brun)

lar channel and an outlet groove. Used as a base for the matter to be pressed, olive or grape pulp contained plant fiber baskets. Twelve press beds were uncovered during the large-scale excavations at the

beginning of the century (fig. 3). Although they were found throughout the site, six came from the theater district shops, while two were found to-

gether in one house in the stadium district. With one exception all are quadrangular and finely carved in marble. Six press beds feature a heart in low relief behind the spout (fig. 4), all carved by the same craftsman. Two were discovered in the stadium district shop dated to the early first century B.C.27 The entire series is likely to belong to the late second century or early first century B.C. Twelve counterweights from lever presses, belonging to two distinct groups, have also been uncovered. The first are counterweights with two mortises carved in their upper face, which are typical of the Hellenistic period.28 Two are in situ in the house III, O installation in the theater district, while the others have been found on several sites occu-

pied during the same period: Megara,29 Halieis,30

Mycenae,31 Sifnos (Aspros Pyrgos),32 and Cher- sonesos (Kleros 39a).33 The second series includes

counterweights with lateral dovetail mortises, a well-known type in the oil mills of the Roman period.34 Some date to the Early Christian period as indicated by carved Christian symbols, such as on the one found in the late wine-making shop in street

30 Boyd and Rudolph 1978, 350. 31 Touchais 1988, 626.

32Young 1956, 51-5; Hohmann 1983, 31. 33Yanuchevitch et al. 1985, 115-22. 34 See Brun 1986, 248-50.

2000] 283



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

5.35 Philippe Bruneau and Philippe Fraisse suggest that the equipment in Early Christian installations were wine presses on the basis of the following arguments.36 First, the inscriptions regarding the sacred farms rented by the priests from the Apollo temple mention olive trees only once, while other fruit trees and especially vineyards are mentioned quite fre-

quently. Second, in the 18th century, Pitton de Tournefort reported that there were vineyards on Rinia and Myconos and that these islands produced wine and figs, but few olives; this proves nothing, however, regarding the situation 2,000 years earlier. The Delos inscriptions relating to Myconos mention a

great number of wild olive trees, proving that the land was not unfavorable to olive trees. Third, the type of

equipment found in street 5 is adapted to wine but not to oil, but this argument is only valid for this one

particular installation. Fourth, Bruneau and Fraisse

argued that there are no mills to crush the olives, but we have seen that this is no longer the case.

In fact, the answer is not clear-cut. While the archi- tectural setup of the Early Christian presses favors an association with wine, the pressing facilities in the

city block III, O of the theater district, with no tread-

ing floor, two twin presses, and small gathering re-

ceptacles seems to point towards an oil mill. The lack of context for the isolated blocks precludes a defi- nite attribution for those, although the press beds found in the shops are very likely to have been linked to vertical wedge presses and therefore used to extract olive oil. In fact, it seems to me that the importance of the olive tree has been underestimated by recent authors as a result of the evidence in the epi- graphic documentation.

The Inscriptions The inscriptions found in Delos (noted hereafter

as ID), particularly the farming leases for the domains belonging to the Apollo sanctuary, provide an accurate picture of agricultural life on the island.37

They mention cereals, fruit trees, and vineyards often but olive trees rarely, in fact only three times: ID 366, B, 18-2538 is an inventory dated from Stesileos II (208 B.C.) that lists vineyards, fig trees, apple

3 Bruneau and Fraisse 1984, 713-7, block no. 4. 36 Bruneau and Fraisse 1981, 141-5; 1984, 720-1. 37 Kent 1948, 243-338, esp. 288-9 regarding the two

domains of Myconos. 38 Durrbach 1926, 166; Brunet 1990, 678 n. 51. 39 Durrbach 1921, 280. 40 Kent 1939, 244. 41 Durrbach and Roussel 1935. Very recently, Brunet et

al. (1998, 211-45) have provided a new commentary on

trees, 157 olive trees, 87 grafted oleasters, and 200 oleasters on the domain of Thaleon which, in con-

text, can be located on Myconos;39 ID 452, 26-29 is an inventory that mentions 25 oleasters on the domain of Dorion-Chersonesos, also on Myconos;40 and ID 1416, B, I, 4341 is a general regulation insti- tuted by the Athenian administration in 157/6 fol-

lowing the expulsion of the Delians. It deals with the leasing conditions for the farms belonging to the

Apollo sanctuary. Among other obligations, the farm- ers were required to prove that the number of fig trees, olive trees, and vines they left was the same that

they had found; otherwise they would be fined.42 These inscriptions show that olive trees existed on the islands in relatively significant numbers-over 150 on one domain alone-and that they were included in

general regulations. The fact remains, nonetheless, that their presence

in inventories is extremely rare. M. Brunet43 has

clearly demonstrated how the inscriptions distort our vision of Delos, its land, and its agricultural production. They provide information only about the sacred domains and neglect to mention most of the other arable land on the island.44 Moreover, the inscriptions deal exclusively with contracts and inventories related to short-term farming leases.

During the period of independence, the norm was 10 years but some leases were limited to 5 years. Since olive trees take 10 years to begin being pro- ductive and reach full production capacity only after approximately 20 years,45 it was not in a lease holder's interest to immobilize land, capital, and

manpower for a long-term benefit that was un-

likely to be his. The case of Delos is not an isolated one. The ta-

bles of Heraclea in Lucania, dated from the late fourth to early third centuries B.C., list general regulations for the sacred domains of Athena and Diony- sos. Whereas Athena's domains are leased for very short periods and planted with vines, Dionysos's domains carried long-term hereditary leases in order to allow new vines and olive trees to be planted (1,113-15 and 173-74). In Attica farming leases are

normally offered for 10 years, but the domain of

this text. 42 Roussel 1987, 163. 43 Brunet 1990, 674-6. 44Vial (1984, 321-32) shows that the landowners be-

longing to the island's social elite owned gardens and property on Delos at the beginning of independence and later, after 250, on Rinia.

45 Loussert and Brousse 1978, 62-3.

284 [AJA 104




Neleus and Basile provides for 20 years because the leaseholder must plant 200 olive trees.46 In Mylasa, when a property includes olive groves it is leased for life and the lease is transferable.47

Thus the short duration of the Delos leases explains in part why olive trees are rarely mentioned in inventories.48 The way the sacred domains were managed im-

posed other, more quickly profitable land uses-such as cereals, vineyards, dairy products, meat cattle, and wool-which are not necessarily representative of general agricultural activity on the islands. Private landowners who could plan for long-term harvests that

might eventually profit several generations may have had olive groves.49 If the regulation of 157/6 did mention olive trees, whereas during the period of independence the sacred domains have none, it must be that some were planted on farms linked to the sanctuary.

It is thus difficult to evaluate the place of the olive tree on Delos because of the nature of the epi- graphic sources, but it was probably more important than previously believed. Furthermore, all the texts

describing the sacred domains date from the period of independence, and it seems likely that large-scale olive cultivation dates only from the time of Athe- nian domination onwards in response to growing demand from the population for table oil and oil for

lamps, sports, and perfumes.

The 1997 Excavations In April and May 1997, Brunet and I conducted

excavations on the two most typical and best pre- served installations in the city: one found in house

III, O in the theater district, and one in house I, B in the stadium district. The first turned out to corre-

spond to an oil press built in the very late second

century or early first century B.C. inside a house

originally built in the fifth century B.C. It was

equipped with two lever and weight presses and included a set of three settling basins and jars in which some charred olive stones were found (fig. 5). The installation was completed by six pithoi, making it

46 IG 1 suppl. 53a. 47 Blmel 1987, no. 207. 48 This also means that the Hieropoioi did not think it

necessary to encourage olive cultivation, or that they found it risky to alienate for a long period of time the necessarily exiguous land belonging to the temple.

49 It would seem that the ownership of the land remained stable throughout the period of independence: children follow their parents and grandparents and repay their loans. See, e.g., the family of Xenon.

50 The principle of the lever and screw press was already known in the first century B.C. (Vitr. 6.6.3 and Pliny HN 18.317), but apparatuses in which the screw exerts pres-

possible to store about 4,000 liters of oil. This was an oil mill intended for producing table oil, compara- ble to others of the same period already known in

Sifnos, Argolis, and Megaris. Their characteristic fea- tures are to be cramped to a wall and to have a stone

press bed and a lever operated by a windlass fastened to a type 41 counterweight (fig. 6).

The press installation in the stadium district is no-

ticeably different. Built around the beginning of the first century on the leveled remnants of a house, it was composed of two vertical presses with posts deeply anchored into a powerful founding masonry (figs. 7, 8). Two finely-worked marble press beds were embedded between the posts. Four furnaces had been built at the same time against a wall at

right angles to the presses. This plan rules out lever presses and implies presses with uprights. Be- cause direct screw presses did not appear throughout the Roman empire until the first century A.D.,50 it is highly probable that the presses were

wedge presses.51 During a third phase (after 88

B.C.?), the entire building was restructured. The

presses were demolished but the furnaces were kept and included an Ionic exedra opening onto the peri- style by a large bay adorned with oval columns and marble pillars. Stonework benches coated with hy- draulic mortar were built along the walls of the exedra and of two other rooms. The building may have been associated with a bathing complex, but this remains to be confirmed.

A Small-Scale Perfume Industry ? The shops that lined the street leading from the

harbor to the theater had limited space, making it

quite difficult to install anything other than vertical

wedge presses. These vertical presses had a stone base on which the baskets filled with olive paste were

placed and a wooden structure into which wedges were driven to compress the baskets and extract oil from the olives (or from other fruits or seeds). Ac-

cording to Hero of Alexandria,52 this type of press,

sure directly on the olive pulp only became widespread, according to Pliny, one century later. In fact, there are no archaeological examples prior to the first century A.D. (Brun 1993, 543-50).

51 Brun 1986, 82-3. 52 In the mid-first century, Hero refers to it as a standard

type of press: "The fourth simple machine which follows the others, is the one called wedge. Perfumers use it for some of their preparations." This translation of the Arabic text of the Mechanika 2.1.4 by Carra de Vaux must be completed by a passage from Pappos: "It is in great service in presses for perfumery" (Drachman 1988, 215-305).

2000] 285



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

l 1 II

Fig. 5. Delos, plan of the installation in house III, O in the theater district. (DrawingJ.-P. Brun)

found often in the eastern Mediterranean, was used

mainly for extracting oil for perfumes. A sentence in Pliny (HN 13.4) confirms that per-

fume artisans were active in Delos during the Helle- nistic period. Pliny writes, "In the old days, the most

appreciated perfume came from Delos." The needs of the panhellenic cult required the production of

perfumes, beginning in the very early period.53 The statues were smeared with perfumes (daily in the case of the omphalos of Delphi, for example). Per- fume was used profusely in funeral preparations for the corpses and the cloths, on the funerary bed, in the pyre, or with inhumations. Aside from religious

53 In several cases, the Delos inventories mention the purchase of oil and perfume for religious purposes (IG 112. 161.A, 1. 102: three drachmae and three obols of perfume, probably for the statue of Hera; IG 112 287, A, 1.53-

uses, perfume was in constant demand by women, athletes, and those who went to the palestrae, gymna- sia, and baths. Perfume consumption must therefore have increased considerably, starting in the second

century B.C., because of apparent economic prosperity and the immigration of a cosmopolitan population primarily from the Orient.

This may help explain several enigmas at Delos. The first is the relative disparity between the large number of presses in the city and the small quantity of arable land. We have seen that the place of the olive tree in Delos was certainly underestimated, but this need not imply that all presses were for olives. If

54: purchase of oil for anointing (officiants?), ID 442, A, 1. 184: purchase of perfume. I extend my heartfelt thanks to Jean-Charles Moretti (CNRS) for having researched these texts for me.

286 [AJA 104

0 lom




Fig. 6. Delos, general view of the oil press in house III, 0. Notice the two type 41 counterweights. (Photo J.-P. Brun)

even one half of the pressing installations were used

by perfumers, then we do not have to imagine re-

markably extensive olive groves on the island. A second enigma: Why are at least eight of the

twelve press beds so carefully cut and decorated with a heart-shaped design? Nowhere else, except in

Paestum, are press beds so neatly carved and decorated. Perhaps these press beds, in addition to ex-

tracting olive oil and plant juices to make perfumes, also represent a brand image, an identifying symbol like the apothecary's mortar or the early printing press.

Third, the virtual absence of olive crushers and the presence of mortars in association with the

presses may be a further indication that we are deal-

ing with perfume-making operations. A mortar is suf- ficient to extract oil intended to serve as a base for

perfumes made from small quantities of green ol-

ives; besides crushing the olives, it may also be used to grind together and mix the different ingredients, in particular the resins, gums, and salts. Two Pompeii paintings suggest these practices, which we will dis-

54 Delorme 1961, 30-40. 55 Plassart 1916, 171. See also Bruneau and Ducat 1983,

cuss later together with perfume production in Cam-

pania. A large mortar in the shape of a truncated cone was found in the Paestum perfume shop, which will be described below.

This hypothesis would also explain the incongru- ous presence of the press bed and the mortar in the

gallery of the Granit palestra. The circumstances of the discovery are not clearly explained in the excavation report,54 and these two stones could have been carried there by chance or could come from the dis- mantled wall of Triarius; but if they are in place, and I believe that they are, they could have been part of an installation used to produce the oil, fragrant or

not, that athletes used before exercising, wrestling, or massage. According to Pliny (HN 15.29) the oil used in the gymnasiums was scented with marjoram.

Finally, in 1997, we resolved the enigma of the "inn" located in the stadium district, long thought to be a "restaurant" based on the presence of a battery of four furnaces.55 I now propose to identify the

presses as wedge presses and furnaces for the hot enfleurage of fragrant oils (fig. 9). The combination of

205, no. 79.3.

2000] 287



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

pi

I .r X Furnas

0.x .Sm

Fig. 7. Delos, plan of the installation in house I, B in the Stadium district. (Drawing J.-P. Brun)

two oil presses together with furnaces suggests a

large perfumery indicative of the famous "industry" echoed in Pliny. The furnaces could indeed have been used to heat the oil and perfume ingredients, particularly the flowers and aromatics imported by oriental merchants, who took advantage of their

knowledge of the Semitic countries and languages to

56 Rauh 1993, 52. 57 Durrbach (1921, 207-8), who cites two inscriptions

and points out that Tenos had also granted proxeny to the Nabataeans in the second half of the second century. It

act as middlemen. N.K. Rauh recently mentioned56 the case of the Gerizim Samaritans who used their

privileged relationship with the large Jewish commu-

nity of Babylon to act as middlemen in the trade of the luxury goods coming from China and India. We also know of several Arab merchants, mainly Sa-

beans, offering dedications to their national gods;57

should also be pointed out that one of the sanctuaries north of the Cynthe (Bruneau and Ducat 1983, no. 109) was dedicated to the Arab god Sin de Alam (ID 2329).

288 [AJA 104




Fig. 8. Delos, press beds and furnaces in house I, B from the stadium district. (Photo J.-P. Brun)

it seems to me that the presence of these merchants in Delos must be linked to the trade of aromatics,

mainly incense, myrrh, and oriental spices, for which

they were the go-betweens.58 Prior research suggests we can take this a step fur-

ther. J. Hatzfeld and, more recently, N.K. Rauh have

pointed out the increasing importance of Italian merchants in Delos.59 Rauh tried to identify the inhabitants of certain houses and showed that many Italians lived in the Stadium district (attested, for instance, by altars to the Lares and a Tullii inscription in house I, D). We know also that several Italian families from

Campania were involved in the perfume trade. Cicero mentions P. Granius from Puteoli because of his con- flict with Verres (Verr 2.5.254); Granius belonged to a

family that had been preeminent in Delos since 166

(ID 2180) and involved in commerce throughout the Orient. In 73-71 B.C., Verres arrested one of their freedmen who had arrived from Egypt with a cargo of

purple dye from Tyre, incense, linen, jewels, pearls, Greek wines, and Asiatic slaves. Furthermore, one of their freed slaves, P. Granius Euhodus, was thurarius in

58 De Romanis 1996. 59 Hatzfeld 1919.

Nuceria in Apulia.60 In a series of inscriptions found in Rome, L. Lutatius, a freed slave, calls himself thurarius familia rege Mitredatis.61 Hatzfeld thinks he was a trafficker who first settled in Campania before taking advantage of the Peace of Dardanos tojoin the entou-

rage of Mithridates Philopator. Like Lutatius, many Italians, often slaves freed by powerful families, were able to settle in the Orient and set up perfumery businesses. One may easily imagine, therefore, that the

large installation in the stadium district at Delos be-

longed to Italians. Several perfumeries of more modest dimensions in the theater district must have belonged to rich owners; some could have been from Italy and others from the Orient.

Considering the high commercial value of these

products, the relatively small amount of raw materials required, and the difficulties in preserving the

fragrant oils, it was most profitable to produce them on Delos. There, in a cosmopolitan commu-

nity with a dynamic port, a wide variety of supplies could be purchased in large quantities. Market op- portunities were also expanding on Delos because of

60 ILLRP 1156. 61 CIL 6.21728, 21730, 5639, 5640.

2000] 289



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

Fig. 9. Delos, hypothetical reconstruction of the perfumery in house I, B in the stadium district. (Drawing N. Bresch)

its rich local clientele, central geographical location, and free port status, which favored exports throughout the entire Aegean.

ROME

Luxuries suggesting the Orient, such as perfumes, were not appreciated in Rome in the early Republic, but this changed after the conquest of the eastern Mediterranean and the war against Antiochos III. Al-

though ineffective, the measures passed by the cen- sors in 189-188 B.C. banning the use of exotic perfumes attest to their rapidly growing popularity across the social spectrum.62 For the plebeians there were cheap or adulterated perfumes, such as the sweet flag oils used by the prostitutes in Plautus's Poenulus (264). Produced on a large scale during the

empire, these common perfumes used a base made from green olives together with Mediterranean plants such as iris, rose, saffron, and genista.

Dioscorides has several recipes for fragrant oils that were used as both perfumes and medicines. All are made in basically the same way using hot or cold

enfleurage of the oil with the aromatic plant. "This is

62 Regarding the introduction of oriental perfumes in Rome and the edict of P. Licinius Crassus and L. Julius Caesar: Pliny HN 13, 24. In the Censoriae tabulae it was de- creed that magistrates should be anointed with myrrh and unguents on the occasion of lustrum ceremonies (Varro

how you make myrtle oil. You take tender leaves from a wild black myrtle or a cultivated one and you crush them. You mix their juice with the same quantity of oil from green olives and you heat slowly on a charcoal fire while skimming the foam from it" (De materia medica 1.39).

Perfume production was common in Rome and

throughout Italy. Palestrina and Tusculum were renowned for their roses and violets (Pliny HN 13.5, 21.16, 20-27). Salunca was cultivated in Ivrea (HN 21.43). Gubbio was known for its medicinal oils (HN 15.31, 23.31). Nardum was produced in Liguria and Istria (HN 13.18, 21, 135). Dioscorides tells us that Flaccus Apulus had production facilities in Sicily, Etruria, and the Samnium. But it is in Campania, because of its considerable production of oil and its abundance of flowers, particularly roses, that perfume production reached near-industrial levels. Capua was the capital of the perfumers whose very name, se-

plasiarii, was derived from Seplasia, the square where

they conducted their business. It is logical that this

activity would have left traces both in the archaeological remains and in paintings representing perfum-

Ling. 6.87). In 78 B.C., during the funerary ceremonies of Sulla, the matrons offered 120 baskets of aromatics in addition to enough incense and cinnamon to make a statue of Sulla and one of a lictor (Plut. Vit. Sull. 76.3).

290 [AJA 104




ers' work. Perfume production was an important ac-

tivity in Pompeii, as W. Jashemski, D. Mattingly, and C. Giordano and A. Casale63 have recently noted. Ja- shemski has shown that flowers and aromatic plants were cultivated in the gardens of Pompeii.64 The names of two perfumers known from inscriptions65 had their shops in the vicinity of the forum. There is a shop with an oil press in the Via degli Augustali,66 which A. Maiuri thought contained a direct screw

press but D. Mattingly has proven was a wedge press, the only type shown in paintings representing cupids as perfumers pressing olives67 (fig. 10).

Further south, the Paestum region was renowned for its roses at the end of the Republic and at the be-

ginning of the Empire; Virgil, Ovid, Propertius, and Martial mention its perfume and the extent of the rose gardens that bloomed twice each year. Below I consider these literary texts, together with the natural evidence, as proof of an important perfume production in and around Paestum.

A Perfumery in Paestum

Chronology of the Shop. Poseidonia was founded by Greeks from Sybaris around 600 B.C., but very little is known about the city in the first half of the sixth

century. In the second half of the sixth century and the beginning of the fifth century, a form of town

planning appeared with the temenos of Hera to the

south, the Athena temenos to the north, and a street

connecting the two. Over the course of the fifth cen-

tury, the construction of the ekklesiasterion and later of the "temple of Neptune" rounds out the city's urban topography. Toward the end of the century, the Poseidoniates were defeated by the Lucanians who took the city, giving rise to a mixed culture. Further

upheaval followed at the beginning of the third cen-

tury: as a consequence of the war between Pyrrhus and Rome, Poseidonia became the Roman colony of Paestum (273 B.C.). From that moment, the need to bring Paestum into line with the model of other Roman cities led to important modifications of its urban fabric: ramparts were constructed, the ekklesiasterion was leveled, a comitium and later a

63Jashemski 1979, esp. 267-88; Mattingly 1990, 71-90; Giordano and Casale 1992.

64 "Agronomists" recommended flowers be grown in suburban gardens to make garlands intended for religious celebrations, funerals, etc., as well as for perfume, as early as the second century B.C. (Cato, Agr. 8.2). Varro specifies "roses and violets" (Rust. 1.16.3). On this question see Car- andini 1985, 66-74.

65 Phoebus was a regular visitor to the brothel (CIL 4.2184) and M. Decidius Faustus offered a dedication in the temple of Apollo (CIL 10.892).

Fig. 10. Perfumer's press from Via degli Augustali in Pompeii. (PhotoJ.-P. Brun)

temple of the Italic type were erected, while a forum and a network of orthogonal streets appeared. The forum, a vast 200 X 60 m esplanade surrounded from the beginning by tabernae, under- went an extensive remodeling under Augustus, in which porticoes were constructed and the shops re- built. During the Empire it grew in beauty with the addition of several buildings, including a basilica, a

macellum, places of worship such as the "lararium," and an adjacent sanctuary dedicated to the cult of the

emperor. The forum seems to have served its traditional purpose up until the fifth century.68

66 Giordano and Casale (1992, 13-4) further signal the presence of two presses in VII 4, 51 and VII 14, 4 as well as a perfume workshop in II 8, 6.

67 Regio VII, ins. 4.24-25; Mattingly (1990, 86-7) has in fact demonstrated that, rather than a direct screw press as reconstructed by Maiuri and Jacono, a wedge press would be more appropriate. On the reconstruction of this press see Maiuri 1929, 517-20;Jacono 1941, 99-103.

68 Greco 1979, 219-34; Greco and Theodorescu 1983, 1987; Torelli 1988, 33-130.

2000] 291



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

Fig. 11. Paestum, location of the perfume shop on the northeast corner of the forum. (Schematic plan J.-P. Brun)

Archaeological excavation in the 1920s uncovered a marble press bed in a taberna in the northwest corner of the forum (fig. 11).69 In October 1995 I di- rected an archaeological investigation on this site with three specific goals: fixing a date for the installation and use of the press, identifying the type of

press, and attempting to determine what type of shop may have been on this site.70

The room measures 4.3 X 3.5 m. Despite the de- struction of some of the stratigraphy from previous archaeological work, we were able to establish the

general chronology of the shop and the press installation. On the site of a street dating from the Archaic and Classical Greek periods, a first shop was constructed at the same time as the forum of the Roman colors was created, after 273 B.C. Small rubbish

dumps containing unguentaria have been uncovered in these levels. Similar finds have been re- corded in neighboring shops, which might indicate that this section of the forum was used by perfumers as early as this period.

A second shop, the walls of which still stand, dates from the second quarter of the first century A.D. The press was assembled no earlier than the second half of the century. First the press bed was installed,

69 Greco et al. 1986. 70 I wish to thank Emmanuelle Greco for his invitation

and the Centre Jean Berard in Naples, headed by Michel Bats, for its support. Thanks also to my assistants: Xavier Chadefaud, Martine and Eric Leguilloux, Brigitte Oberti, and Muriel Vecchione. A full description of the results of these excavations has been published in Brun 1998,

i Phase 5 Phasex 5 41 Stone !f-J Stone staked out IP BPha~

5 iN Tile 3 Post hole

.m 3 Lime /Excavation limit

Fig. 12. Paestum, plan of the shop. (DrawingJ.-P. Brun)

two holes were carved to secure the chassis of a vertical press, and an opus signinum surface was laid (fig. 12). A sewer was installed some time during the second century (fig. 13). The shop and the press seem to have been in use until at least the third century A.D.

During the late empire the floor of the room was

raised, the press destroyed, and the press bed bur- ied. A front wall was built with large stone blocks. From then on the shop appears to have been used for another purpose.

A late first century or second century A.D. date for the press would seem to exclude the possibility of its use for agricultural purposes, since the forum was

being used at that time as a public place and market.71 Furthermore, the press bed is very carefully sculpted. Typically the handiwork is quite rough for these utilitarian blocks.72 The only examples compa-

419-72. 71 During the late Empire, the forum continues to fill its

traditional function: the curia and the macellum are constructed during this period: Greco and Theodorescu 1980, 35-6.

72 See, e.g., the San Rocco villa: Cotton and Metraux 1985, 69-70.

292 [AJA 104




Fig. 13. Paestum, general view of the shop as seen from the south. (Photo J.-P. Brun)

rable to the Paestum block are those at Delos, mentioned above. Paintings from Pompeii and Hercu- laneum depicting cupids as perfumers show that the

preparation of perfumes as well as the pressing and

enfleurage of the oil were sometimes done in the

presence of the customers. These compact presses could easily have been installed in shops and may have been a characteristic type for perfume merchants. It appears logical that such a tool of the trade would have been so carefully sculpted and even dec-

orated, as is the case on Delos. The early presence of

perfume shops in this section of the forum's northwest corner (as early as the third century B.C.), is further attested by the presence of unguentaria rubbish dumps. These, along with the incongruity of a

press dedicated to agricultural use in a public square, the careful handiwork of the press bed, and the decorative quality of the material used are com-

pelling arguments that the shop was a perfume shop and the press an olive press for the production of

perfume bases.

The Press. What type of press was used? The press bed is carved into a marble block 1.49 X 1.19 m X 0.48 m high (fig. 14). In the center a 0.98 m circle is surrounded by a drain channel that deepens at the level of a ledge in the rock to form a spout (fig. 15). There are six irregular radial grooves in the surface of the circular area, as if from erosion. A comparison with the deeply eroded limestone press beds found in Tunisia (those from Thuburbo Majus, for in-

stance) shows that this erosion, still not too visible in this case, is caused by the release of oleic acid during the slow and cumulative pressing operation. This confirms that it was indeed olive oil being pressed on this press bed over a long period of time. Despite the

damage to the shop from previous archaeological excavations, it is certain that there was no collection and decantation installation dug and built into the

ground. We must then suppose that the liquid was collected in metal basins.73

Traces of the wooden part of the unit survive

only in the western section. The remains of a sup-

73 The four paintings show what appear to be bronze basins used both for the collection and heating of oil.

2000] 293



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

Fig. 14. Paestum, axonometric projection of the press bed. (DrawingJ.-P. Brun)

port for a vertical post with a 45 X 30 cm section are deeply embedded in the ground (about 1 m below the press bed surface) (fig. 15). Its counter-

part was most likely set in the same way on the east side of the block. The two upright posts were probably connected by a horizontal beam passing under the rock, the traces of which are still visible in the

stratigraphy. These clues allow us to reconstruct the type of

press used. It could not have been an all-purpose lever press such as those used in the surrounding countryside;74 this would be out of place in a shop that was only 4.3 m long. We must conclude that the

press was positioned vertically, confirmed by the hole securing the upright.

It is likely to have been a direct-screw press, in which the screw exerts a vertical force on the baskets filled with olive paste. This type of press was first em-

ployed by dyers: its use is depicted in several Pompe- ian paintings, and a carbonized specimen made en-

tirely of wood was uncovered at Herculaneum. Textile

presses are not usually equipped with stone press beds; these were generally reserved for oil extraction. The use of direct-screw presses for oil extraction is only mentioned by Hero, who speaks of single- and double- screw presses. Because these presses were often en-

tirely of wood a precise estimate of their distribution is difficult, but there can be no doubt that they were

74 Brun 1986, 84-124. 75 In the oecus of the Villa Imperiale in Pompeii, a frieze

with a black background runs along the bottom of the paintings in the Third Style. Several scenes are depicted: processions of Bacchantes, Psyches, Cupids. The frieze on the south wall shows two similar scenes of Cupids heating oil on a furnace: in one of the scenes, the Cupid is stirring

common in small shops and perhaps even used by perfume makers.

Perfume makers during the Roman era, however, most often used the wedge press, which Hero of Al- exandria specifically calls a perfume press. Mattingly points out that depictions of wedge presses are al-

ways related to the preparation and sale of perfume. Four paintings from Pompeii and Herculaneum de-

pict wedge presses being used in perfume shops, and a fifth shows scenes of perfumes being heated.75 The oecus in the Vettii House is decorated in the Fourth

Pompeii style, with large red panels separated by bands decorated with candelabras. At mid-height stands a frieze with a black background, on which

appear several scenes showing Cupids and Psyches engaged in various economic activities: grape har-

vesting, wine making, wine selling, metallurgy, the

gathering of flowers, and the production and sale of

perfume. The last image on the frieze depicts, from

right to left, the entire production process (figs. 16-

18). Similar scenes can be found in a painting in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and in another

painting, now lost, uncovered in house VII 5,7. A

painting from the Casa dei Cervi at Herculaneum il- lustrates the production of perfumes but only shows the press and the oil being heated on a furnace (fig. 19). When we consider these pictorial elements in the context of the excavations, a more precise reconstruction can be proposed (fig. 20). The two uprights of the press, situated on the stone's median

axis, were connected by a heavy beam passing under the block. The size of the cupids implies a height of

approximately 2.25 m for the uprights: about 2.25 m based on the proportions in the Vettii House painting and 2.5 m according to those of the Casa dei Cervi painting. In the Casa dei Cervi, Pompeii house VII 7,5, and Fitzwilliam Museum paintings, the tops of the two uprights are connected by a heavy wooden

crosspiece. In the Vettii frieze, by contrast, there is a smaller crosspiece at the level of the mortises. Ac-

cording to Mattingly, the paintings do not faithfully represent the upper part of the press, which would have been attached to the timberwork of the build-

ing housing it. We cannot be certain about this, since there are cases of freestanding wedge presses, such as the press with stone uprights from Meursault at

the oil with a stick. The parallels with the paintings of the Vettii House and the Casa dei Cervi suggest that these scenes depict steps in the preparation of perfume rather than the preparation of defrutum, the liquid being stirred by the Cupid thus being oil: Pappalardo 1985, 4, fig. 4; 1987, 130. See also Giordano and Casale 1992, 11.

294 [AJA 104




Fig. 15. Paestum, the press bed and the bracing of the western upright. (PhotoJ.-P. Brun)

the Beaune Museum, the Tkout press, and presses from Romania.76 Furthermore, the mass of the press bed and the solidity provided by the posts would have ensured that the apparatus remained stable even when struck with mallets.

In the Vettii House painting, a long vertical mor-

tise, which guides the chocks, is carved into the uprights (fig. 16).77 This detail is not depicted elsewhere. The number of chocks varies (three in the Casa dei Cervi painting, four in the Vettii painting, and five in the Fitzwilliam Museum painting). The lower beam probably pressed against a circular press board, but the paintings are unclear on this point. The chocks were progressively separated by means of wedges placed between them. The number of chocks appears to vary from 8 through 12, or 16

through 24 when counting the second set on the other side of the press. The parallel epipedal press bed with its typical spout is clearly depicted in the

paintings, and a mass representing the baskets can also be seen above the press bed. The baskets can be

positively identified in the Casa dei Cervi painting. The paintings show the final stages of pressing, when all the wedges have been hammered in and the bas-

76 Camps-Fabrer 1953, fig. 10; Guillou 1986, 835. 77 I call "chock" (fibulae in Cato Agr. 12) the wooden ba-

tons that swing inside the chassis of a lever press, regulat- ing the height of the praelum according to the shrinkage of the olive pulp. In view of the physical resemblance and the similar function, perhaps the horizontal beams of a wedge press had the same name.

kets are totally flattened. The height of the pile indicates that there were few of them and that the production run was small (fig. 19).

Aside from being compact, these wedge presses worked slowly, allowing a finer grade of oil to be extracted. Columella (Rust. 12.54.2) gives the follow-

ing directions for the production of perfume oil: "Break up the olives in a hanging mill, and put them either upon the disks of the press and squeeze them in such a way that you do not strain the vessels but allow only ever so little at a time to be squeezed out by the weight of the press (prelum)."78 In the perfume shops, the necessary quantity of olives must have been ground up in mortars, and then the oil was extracted using wedge presses; these produced a lower

yield but were powerful enough and far less cumber- some than the large lever presses.

Perfume Production in Roman Campania Production Processes. In Italy, olive oil, which made

a relatively late appearance (around the eighth to seventh century B.C.),79 was used as the base for perfumes: "The recipe for making unguents contains two ingredients, the juice (sucus) and the solid part

78 Columella Rust. 12.54.2. The reference here is to a lever press.

79Vallet (1962, 1554-63) showed that olive cultivation was introduced to the peninsula by the Greeks from the eighth century; the native inhabitants, notably the Etrus- cans, only began to produce oil in the sixth century.

2000] 295



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

Fig. 16. Painting depicting a wedge press, Vettii House in Pompeii. (Photo B. Sachs-Oberti)

(corpus): the former usually consists of various sorts of oil and the latter of scented substances, the oil be-

ing called 'astringents' (stymmata) and the scents

'sweetenings' (hedysmata)" (Pliny HN 13.7). Efforts centered around the production of the

most neutral and least viscous oils possible, extracted

chiefly from olives that were still green or picked as

they were ripening: Theophrastus (Sens. 15) writes that the ben oil produced in Egypt was the best, but that the most commonly used oil came from green olives. It was called oQt&xtvov/oleum omphacium. Ac-

cording to Pliny (HN 12.130), "There is also the oil of unripe berries, which is made of two varieties and

by two processes, one kind being made from the olives and one from the wine. The olive is pressed while still white or an inferior oil is obtained from the druppa-which is the name given to an olive not

yet ripe enough to eat but already beginning to

change color-the difference being that the inferior kind is green and the other white."

Columella (12.54) adds that the mottled olives must first be pressed, dilacerated in an oil mill without grinding them completely, then placed in new baskets to extract the first pressing without tighten- ing the press. Theophrastus (Sens. 15) notes also that it was best to use freshly extracted oil and not the

previous year's, which explains why the more consci- entious perfume makers had their own presses, especially since it was sometimes necessary to use the press for the preparation of other ingredients such as

myrrh, from which staktewas extracted (Theophrastus Sens. 29; Dioscorides De Materia Medica 1.73).

Certain oils from Campania, such as that from

Venafrum, were especially sought out for their quali- ties as an excipient in the perfume-making process: "It is unguents that have given it this eminence, because its scent is so well adapted to them: Unguenta hanc palmam dedere accomodato ipsis odore"

(Pliny HN15.8). Martial (13.101) writes that the perfume retains the scent of Venafrum oil: "This oil the

berry of Campanian Venafrum has distilled for you; your unguent, as often as you use it, smells too of that oil." Besides ben and olive oils, oils extracted from bitter almonds and sesame were also used;

Theophrastus (Sens. 20) notes that the latter is especially appreciated for its use in rose perfume.

These oils were processed by either cold enfleu-

rage, in the case of oenanthe oil oivdv0q, cited in Dioscorides (1.43) or ykExV%vog, used for medicinal

purposes (Columella 12.53), or by using hot enfleu-

rage, in which both the oil and the aromatic plant are heated in a cauldron on a furnace. According to Dioscorides (1.56) the ratio for iris perfume was 9 lb, 5 oz of oil to 6 lb, 8 oz of stems of male palm flowers; the mixture was boiled in a copper cauldron until saturation of the oil with plant essences. Theophras- tus warns that the oil should be heated in a double boiler and that the cauldron must never come into direct contact with the flame, to avoid the oil taking on a burnt odor (Sens. 22). He also recommends

adding salt to rose oil, probably, as Dioscorides advises (2.53 and 5.112. 2), to delay rancidity.

For a long time, producers of perfume oil simply pressed the olives in fabric sacks. It seems credible

296 [AJA 104




Fig. 17. Painting representing perfume production by cupids as perfumers, Vettii House in Pompeii. (B. Sachs-Oberti)

that this was the technique used by perfume makers in Paestum itself during the Republican era; how-

ever, the exchange of one type of press for another

suggests an increase in production. This production process is illustrated in the four paintings from

Pompeii and Herculaneum. The process begins with the oil being pressed. As the beams move apart, they press baskets filled with olive paste that are placed on a quadrangular stone equipped with a spout. The oil pours from a spout into a metal basin. The next scene shows a cupid stirring a liquid in a basin rest-

ing on a tripod above a fire. This is the enfleurage of the oil using heat: the oil is heated together with the aromatic ingredients and stirred constantly until the essential oils have dissolved into the olive oil (Vettii House, Casa dei Cervi, Villa Imperiale) (figs. 17, 19). In the Vettii frieze, which is the most intact, two cu-

pids grind (or mix) in a mortar additional ingredients such as coloring agents, resins, or fixatives. Next to them stands a cupid at the shop counter holding a

spatula and a scent bottle. In front of him are a volu-

men, on which the recipe for the perfume being prepared is written, and a set of scales to weigh the different ingredients according to the recipe. Behind him is an open cupboard containing glass scent bottles and the statuette of a deity, obviously Venus, rest-

ing on a column. In the section of the shop open to

customers, beyond a third basin on a tripod, a cupid holds a bottle and an applicator, both made of glass. He has evidentlyjust applied perfume to the wrist of a seated Psyche, who is raising her hand to her face to smell the fragrance (fig. 18). A servant stands nearby

and is carrying a fan, perhaps suggesting the heat of summer.

The relation between the painted scenes and the Paestum shop is admittedly incomplete. No trace of a counter, basin, or furnace remains at Paestum, but

previous excavations destroyed these ground levels, and it is possible that a portable furnace was used, as in the Herculaneum painting. What remains, how-

ever, are the basic elements: the press and a deep mortar, uncovered during excavations in the 1920s. In the Vettii House and the house VII 7,5 paintings, the cupids seem to be mixing oil with other substances using long pestles: in the VII 7,5 painting a

cupid is preparing to add ingredients in the mortar. These deep stone mortars must have also been used to crush olives to prepare the paste for the press. The perfume shops would have been too small to ac- commodate a bulky and costly mill, poorly adapted to small production runs of perfume oil.

Rosaria Paesti and 'Pi6tvov 'Iraltx6v. We must also consider the archaeological evidence on perfume production in light of the poetic texts describ-

ing Paestum's rose gardens at the end of the Repub- lic and the beginning of the Empire. Virgil (G. 4.119), Ovid (Pont. 2.4.28 and Met. 3.15.708), Pro-

pertius (4.4.69), Martial (4.42.10; 5.37.9; 9.26.3; 9.60.1; 12.31.3) celebrate the rose fields that flow- ered twice yearly. The vocabulary used (rosaria, fields of roses) and the emphasis on productivity seems to indicate that these were large-scale cultivations rather than simple garden decorations. These refer- ences support Pliny's observations regarding the

2000] 297



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

Fig. 18. Painting representing a Psyche trying on different perfumes (detail), Vettii House in Pompeii. (M. Pagni)

economic importance of rose cultivation in Campa- nia (HN3.40 and 21.16) and are in line with Varro's comments on the benefits of large-scale rose and vi- olet cultivation at the gates of cities (Rust. 1.16.3). The presence of such rose fields could only be justi- fied by their supplying an "industry" likely to gener- ate profits from the production of garlands80 and of rose-based perfumes. Pliny writes: "I am inclined to believe that the scents most widely used are those made from the rose which grows in great abundance

everywhere; and so the simplest compound was for a

long time that of oil of roses though additional in-

gredients used are omphacium, rose and saffron- blossoms, cinnabar, reed, honey, rush, flower of salt or else alkanet, and wine."81

Rhodinum, a perfume strong enough to overpower other scents (Theophr. Sens. 45), was produced on a

large scale in Campania. Athenaeus (15. 688e) re- lates that in his IIeQl [tJOCtOv, Apollonis declares the best rose perfume to be produced in Phaselis, Naples, and Capua. Pliny (HN 13.5) says the same. Pliny (HN 21.19) also describes the roses at Cyrene as being

80Mural decorations and sacrificial ornamentations suggest that a considerable quantity of flowers was needed for religious occasions. Varro writes that it is profitable to possess large gardens close to cities for the production of violets and roses. In the Vettii House painting, part of the frieze shows the gathering of flowers and production of garlands. On the production and sale of flowers in

very fragrant as a result of the dry climate, and mentions that large quantities of rose oil were produced there, but elsewhere writes (HN 13.26): "In other re-

spects Egypt is of all the countries in the world the best adapted for the production of unguents, but

Campania with its abundance of roses runs it close." In another passage (HN 18.111) he adds, "In spring, the fields having had an interval of rest produce a rose with a sweeter scent than the garden rose, so far is the earth never tired of giving birth; hence there is a common saying that the Campanians produce more scent than other people do oil." This passage can also be applied to the region of Paestum where rose cultivation and Q66ivov production may have constituted one of the region's economic resources as early as the fourth century B.C., a period in which a local unguentaria production came into being.82

If the presence of a purely agricultural activity seems out of place in the forum, perfume shops were a typical part of the forum, where they were able to

produce the perfume and supply the needs of tem-

ples, funerary ceremonies,83 and the public baths,

Pompeii, seeJashemski 1963; 1979, 267-73. 81 Pliny, HN 13.9. 82 With thanks to Emanuelle Greco for this information. 83 For the fourth century B.C., this is attested by the fre-

quent presence of lecythi and alabasters (Pontrandolfo and Rouveret 1992, 305-400). Even after the burial, perfume was still used in ceremonies on the anniversary of the death.

298 [AJA 104




Fig. 19. Painting depicting wedge press and heating of the perfumes, Casa dei Cervi in Hercu- laneum, Museum of Naples. (M. Pagni)

which were increasing in popularity.84 As in Athens, and probably in Delos, the perfume shops also served as meeting places where people from different classes met and exchanged news and information.85

Archaeological excavations at Paestum in the

shops in the forum's northwest corner seem to indicate that from the time the colony was founded until the third century A.D., if not later, there was a section reserved for perfume makers, as in Pompeii and

Capua. In Rome at the end of the Republic and at the beginning of the Empire, perfume merchants had their shops along the via sacra,86 then along the vicus unguentarius, south of the Forum Romanum.87 In

Pompeii these merchants set up shop near the fo-

rum; in Pozzuoli they shared a district with glassmakers who produced unguentaria,88 and in Capua they congregated in the city center, in the vicinity of the Seplasia, one of Roman Italy's most prosperous markets.89

84 Pliny HN 13.20-22. The body was covered head to toe in pefume (Ath. 689f). In Trimalchio's banquet slaves brought basins of perfumed oil to cover the guests' feet and to scent the lamps (Petron. Sat. 70) and Trimalchio himself comes out of the bath perfumed and rubbed with towels (Sat. 28.47).

85 Cicero, for instance, complains that it was Plotius, a perfumer, who revealed the details of an inheritance to Balbus (Att. 13.46.2).

86 CIL 6.1974 and AEpigr 1932, no. 22 (dated from A.D.

CONCLUSION: PERFUME PRICES AND PERFUME

MAKERS IN ROMAN SOCIETY

The production and sale of perfumes was a lucrative venture. Pliny provides a price list of ingredients used in perfumes, particularly the aromatics im-

ported from the Orient (Arabia, Persia, and India). The most expensive, balsam ofJudea, sold for up to

1,000 denarii per setier (Pliny HN 12.111-123). Cin- namon was also very expensive (300 denarii per lb.), but other ingredients (for instance, styrax, henna, costux, galbanum, cardamom, and mirobalan) could sell for between one and 17 denarii. As for the perfume oils themselves, Pliny gives no indication of

price, and little information exists for the early Em-

pire. The Graux 10 papyrus, a letter addressed to

Nemesion, a leading citizen of Philadelphia (Fay- oum, Egypt) in the first century A.D., proves that the

Q66lvov iTakLx6V, certainly produced in Campania, was in high demand in Egypt, where a cotyle of the

35). 87 The vicus unguentarius is said to have been situated, in

the fourth century, in the Regio VIII of the Notitia Regionum Urbis Romae. According to Rodriguez-Almeida (1985- 1986, 111-7), the vicus unguentarius was situated between the Forum Romanum and the Forum Boarium immediately south of the Basilica Iulia.

88 ILS 1224b: clivi vitrari sive vici turari. 89 Varro. Sat. Men. 103.6. The oldest attestation of Seplasia

is a passage from the grammatician Pomponius (Frag. 160).

2000] 299



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

Fig. 20. Paestum, hypothetical reconstruction of the wedge press. (DrawingJ.-P. Brun)

best quality perfume sold for eight drachmai, or a 0.24-liter bottle for eight sestertii (around 12 HS

per lb.).90 By way of comparison, an artab of wheat

(39 liters) cost eight HS in the second century,91 representing four days' pay for an agricultural laborer.92 In the third century at Theadelphia in the Fayoum, where an artab of wheat cost around 12 drachmai, agricultural laborers were paid between one drachma five oboli (at the beginning of the third century) and two drachmai two oboli (near the middle of the cen-

tury).93 The proportions are thus similar. Diocletian's edict of 301 offers a new basis for

comparison.94 At that time one pound (327 g) of the

highest-quality rose oil cost 80 denarii (devalued), and the second-rate oil cost 50 denarii; which was sub-

stantially more than iris oil (30 denarii) but far below

90 Cuvigny 1995, 23-4. The price of eight drachmae per cotyle seems to be a good price, which pleases the buyer. The use of o66tvov is also attested around A.D. 100/120 in the fort of the Mons Claudianus: a certain Menelaus had his perfume stolen and asks his correspondent to send him another flask, which he refers to as a lecythe. (Billow- Jacobsen 1992, 171, nn. 4-5). As the origin of the perfume is not specified, we might suppose it is produced locally.

91 Duncan-Jones 1976, 249.

myrrh (400-600 denarii). With an agricultural laborer's salary being fixed at a maximum of 25 denarii, a one cotyle bottle of o66vov ilkhitxov (0.24 It or about 230 g), costing about 56 denarii, would have been a little over two days' salary for an agricultural laborer.

The information is less precise on the ratio between the cost and the sale price. For the early Em-

pire, we can only estimate by using the price of olive oil: one sestertius in Pompeii. The ratio would thus be 1:12, if we rely on the sale price at Philadelphia. We must also consider on the one hand transporta- tion costs and taxes, and on the other hand that the

price in Pompeii quite certainly refers to table oil, which was theoretically too impure for perfume production. In the edict on prices (3.la), a sextarius

(0.547 It) of the highest-quality olive oil (flos), the

type recommended for use in perfume, is valued at 80 denarii; a pound of this oil was thus worth around 40 denarii. Pliny (HN13, 17) lists the other

necessary ingredients for rhodinum but omits their

quantities or relative proportions. It is therefore difficult to speculate even roughly on production costs. What quantity of rose petals, fixed at 4 denarii per 100 in the edict (6.68),95 was needed? And how much saffron, cinnabar, sweet rush, honey, sweet calamus, salt, and wine per pound of oil? If we assume very roughly that the ingredients ac- count for a quarter of the production costs, then the value added scarcely exceeds a quarter of the fixed sale price. It would then seem that the bulk of the profits went to the owners of the olive groves and rose fields. The high cost of raw materials must have served as a strong incentive for merchants to adulter- ate their products.96 A fortune might be made in

passing off perfumes made with the second-rate oil

(having a base price fixed at 24 denarii) as the

prized E6ilvov ialXtx6v. Due to the high cost of certain ingredients and the high added value, the production of perfume proved lucrative during the entire

Imperial era for the owners of the olive groves and rose fields, as well as for perfume makers, especially those of Campania. A part of the locally produced olive oil, especially the renowned oil from Venafrum, was undoubtedly dedicated to this production.

92 Duncan-Jones 1982, 54. In Pompeii a modest house- hold spent approximately two sestertii per person per day (Etienne 1977, 209-12).

93 Rathbone 1991, 155-61. 94 Giacchero 1974, 217. 95 We estimate that one kg of roses was needed for each

liter of oil (Amouretti 1986, 186). 96 Pliny HN 13.17 speaks of the officinarumfurta.

300 [AJA 104




It remains to be determined how the profits were distributed. Was the production and sale in the hands of independent producers, or controlled by leading citizens who owned the olive groves and rose gardens, or even by members of the aristocracy? Rostovtzeff

hypothesized that certain scenes depicted in the houses of the leading citizens of Pompeii relate to their economic activity.97 The Vettii, for instance, would have had their principal sources of income

represented allegorically: first wine making, then the fabrication of jewelry, dye working, fabrication of flower garlands, and perfume making, all activities in which they would have held financial interests. This hypothesis was contested by M. Della Corte and

J. Andreau,98 but it seems that certain leading citizens nonetheless controlled the entire chain of production through slaves and freed men. In Pompeii and other towns throughout the empire, the leading citizens owned large houses that included two or more shops opening on the street, which were man-

aged by their slaves or their freedmen.99 At Capua, in five inscriptions mentioning unguentarii, four of them belong to freed slaves, and the fifth probably the son of a freed slave. Of the two known perfume makers in Pompeii, one is a freedman, the other

probably a slave. In Pozzuoli, the gens Gessia involved in glass production based on Syrian models might have had parallel interests in perfume imports and

production.?00 At the end of the Republic, the seven oriental freedmen in the service of G. and P. Trebon- ius exercised the profession of thurarii, and the profits from this supplemented the incomes of the gens, a member of which had been a suffect consul in 45 B.C.'10 The freedmen L. Faenius Telesphorus, unguen-

97 Rostovtseff 1957, 92. 98 Corte 1965, 70; Andreau 1974, 226-30. 99 Wallace-Hadrill (1994, 119-42) shows that this prac-

tice was the rule and that the benefits grew the agrarian profits that left the base of noble wealth.

100 Regarding the production of glassware, among which are the perfume bottles made by P. Gessius Amplia- tus, freedman of P. Gessius, see Scatozza Horicht 1991, 76- 85. Gessius Florus, procurator ofJudea under Nero whose misdeeds aggravated social unrest (Joseph B.J. 2, passim), may have been involved in the importing of perfumes (no- tablyJudean balm) and, as in the case of glassware, in the local production.

101 CIL 1.1334b; 6.5638; 6.9993. Pavis d'Escurac 1977, 347-9.

102 CIL 6.9998, 5680, 9932 and CIL 10.1962. The patron- age of these important characters may have benefited the production and trade of perfumes. Loane (1938, 143) suggests that the dedication of C. Popilius Primus to Nero (CIL 6.845) was linked to the crisis between a certain Deme- trius, whom she supposes was a publican, and the entire

tarius lugudunensis, L. Faenius Primus and L. Faenius Favor of Rome, L. Faenius Alexander of Pozzuoli, L. Faenius Polybius, thurarius of Bovillae, L. Faenius Ursio of Ischia, were clients and most likely freedmen from the equestrian family of L. Faenius Rufus, a knight who was prefect of the Annona in A.D. 55 and prefect of Praetorium in 62.102 The high initial cost of equipment and raw materials and the low social status of the profession in the face of considerable potential profits usually led to the following solution: a rich family, local leading citizens, knights, or even senators, charged a slave or more often a freedman with running the perfume business. The

patronus advanced the necessary financing and re- ceived in exchange the interest on the loan, half of the profits or, from the second half of the first cen-

tury B.C. on, half of the freedman's inheritance.103 Because of the low social status of perfume mak-

ing, in the life of Heliogabalus (Hist. Aug. 30. 1) the

profession of Seplasarius is put on the same level as those of the popinarus (tavern keeper), tabernarius

(shopkeeper) and leno (brothel keeper). Yet because their production and business were relatively lucrative activities, some freed slaves managed to improve their social position considerably. In Rome L. Lu- tatius L. l(ibertus) Paccius prided himself on having supplied perfume to the royal court of Mithridates. In Pompeii M. Decidius Faustus was named a Minis-

terAugusti and made a consecration in the temple of

Apollo.104 In Lyon Pisonius Asclepiodotus was named an Augustan sevir. At Grazzano the seplia- siarus T. Vettius Hermes was wealthy enough to have himself built a funerary monument with a garden. A few even went as far as Germania to do business with

perfumers' corporation (tota seplasia), who accused him of trying to form a monopoly; cf. Pliny HN 33.164. D'Arms (1981, 167-8) goes on to posit that the fiscal measures taken by Nero (Tac. Ann. 13.50) were partly intended to placate the perfume makers. According to him, among the powerful protectors of the unguentarii, L. Faenius Ru- fus was well placed, through his administrative position and his personal interests, to advise Nero in this direction. But all these hypotheses can be called into question. First, it is not at all certain that Demetrius was a tax collector; he is not otherwise known and could have been just a speculator. Furthermore, the tax dispensations to which Tacitus refers do not mention perfume makers. Every connection between the two events disappears. Finally, Popilius Primus' inscription is not dedicated to Nero; it only carries a consular date naming Nero and Piso.

103 Pavis d'Escurac 1977, 345-7. 104 CIL 10.892. Regarding the ministri augusti, a function

bestowed upon promising slaves or rich freedmen, see An- dreau 1974, 205-7.

2000] 301



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

a regular clientele of legionnaires, as in the case of a certain Lucius Virius Dexter, perfume merchant linked to the First Adjutrix legion stationed in Mainz. In Rome freedmen were first associated in the col-

legium aromatariorum105 from the time of Augustus, then in the collegium thurariorium et unguentariorum106 under the Empire. Their precise relationship with the saponarii, attested as late as the end of the sixth

century A.D. by Gregory the Great,107 is not very well known. The rise of Christianity did not put an end to their craft and trade. Despite warnings and prohibi- tions from Christians, who saw incense and perfume as only being worthy of use for the True God or medicinal purposes, people continued to use perfumes lavishly. Even the Fathers of the Church admitted the need for the public baths for hygiene, but warned

against the dangers of promiscuity, and of treat- ments, massages, and oiling administered by slaves. The perfume trade flourished in the West so long as urban civilization and the use of public baths continued. Thereafter, the only demand came from the ar-

istocracy and above all the Church, a consistent patron throughout the high Middle Ages. The clergy was always in need of liturgical oils: consecrated oil, thanksgiving oils, oil for the sick, and oil for the last sacrament.

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE

SCIENTIFIQUE

UMS 1797 CENTRE JEAN BERARD

86 VIA F. CRISPI, NAPOLI

ITALY

[email protected]

[email protected]

Appendix Latin Inscriptions Mentioning Perfumers

Below is the text of 56 inscriptions mentioning perfumers. In these texts perfumers are called either thurarius, unguentarius, or seplasarius. The name thurarius (or turarius) was used for merchants selling

105 They then make a consecration to Jupiter Optimus Maximus: CIL 6.384. On this question see Loane 1938, 142.

aromatics for burning, especially incense (thus/tus) used for sacrifices (in Greek, thurarius is translated kjiavwToJtOXog). The word unguentarius applied pre- cisely to the maker and seller of unguents, vegetal fat (oil), or animal fat (grease) made fragrant with aromatics. They also sold cosmetics and drugs. The term seplasarius, as mentioned above, came from the name of a

square in Capua where perfumers had their shops; since they also sold medicines, the term seplasarius was eventually used only for those who sold drugs.

Among the inscriptions 46 are epitaphs; 22 specifically mention freedmen, 3 mention seviri and 1 a slave. Most of the others, considering the cogno- mina, can be considered as referring to freedmen or sons of freedmen. Only three perfumers indicate their filiation. The high quality of some funerary monuments shows that the leading perfumers were

usually freedmen who ran the business of powerful families. L. Faenius Telesphorus, who died in Rome, had set up his business in Lyon, where his activity could have been linked to the equestrian family of the Faenii. From the same gens we also know two other freedmen, perfumers in Rome, one in Poz- zuoli, two others in Bovillae and one in Ischia.

An inscription from Rome (CIL 6.36819), mentions the Thurarii and Unguentarii guild. In Pompeii, the unguentarii, together with the pauperes, formed a

pressure group pushing a candidate for the aedile-

ship (CIL 4.609 and 9932a). Two inscriptions in Rome and in Greece (CIL 6.1974 and BCH [1930] 490) indicate the location of perfume shops along the Via Sacra in Rome, one of the most fashionable districts in the city.108 In Pozzuoli there was a clivius vitrarius et turarius, since the activities of the perfumers and the glassmakers manufacturing bottles were

complementary (ILS 1224B). In Gaul two perfumers offered dedications toJupiter (CIL 13.5356) and to a god whose name started with Ogl. (CIL 13.11295). In Africa a funerary inscription including the words Thus and Piper was found in Madauros. As this city was known to have been an important olive oil producing center during the Empire, it may be that the deceased, besides dealing in spices and incense, also sold the aromatics for liquid perfumes.

106 CIL 6.36819. 107 Migne PL, 10.26. 108 Wallace-Hadrill 1994, 129-31.

302 [AJA 104




ROME

CIL 6.845; Rome, Santo- Sebastiano

CIL 6.1974; ILS 7610; Rome

CIL 6.4039; Rome

CIL 6.5639; ILS 7612; Rome (via Appia)

CIL 1.1334, 6.5638; ILS 7613; ILLRP 823; Rome (via Appia)

CIL 6.21730; Rome

CIL 6.5680; Rome (vigna Codina)

CIL 6.9932; Rome (villa Strozzi): Altar decorated with heads of

Ammon, eagles, pateras, birds

CIL 6.5681; Rome

CIL 6.9998; ILS 7611; Rome

(via Appia)

CIL 6.9999c; Rome, on a marble

plate carrying three other

inscriptions

CIL 6.10000; Rome

CIL 6.10003; Rome

CIL 6.10004; Rome

CIL 6.10005; Rome

CIL 6.10006; Rome

CIL 6.10007; Rome

CIL 6.33928; Rome, bank of the Tiber, alla Regola

CIL 6.37830 (= CIL 6.10001-

10002); Rome, between via Salaria and via Pinciana

NERONE CLAUDIO CAESARE/AUG. GERMINICO II/L. CALPURNIO PISONE/C. POPILIUS PRIMIO/UNGENTARIUS FECIT

M' POBLICIUS NICANOR UNG(UENTARIUS)/ DE SACRA VIA

MAXIMUS/ACCENSUS VELATUS

[. . .]S AMAN/[. . .] LIB(ERTUS)/[. . .]US TURARIU(S)

EGO SUM/L. LUTATIUS/PACCIUS THURARIUS/DE FAMILIA REGE MITHREDATIS

C. QUINCTILIUS/C.L. PAMPHILUS/UNGENTARI/SIBI ET PATRONO/ ET LIBERTEIS SUIS/POSTERISQUE/EORUM ET FAUSTAE L. NOSTRAE/L. LUTATIUS/PACCIUS THURAR./SIBI ET SELEUCO/PAM- PHILO/TRYPHONI/PHILOTAE LIBERTEIS/POSTERISQUE EORUM

L. LUTATIUS THUR[ARIUS] 109

L. FAENIUS/PRIMUS/THURARIUS/HOSTIA/HELENA

L. FAENIO/L.L/THURARIUS/FAVORI/THURARIO

OSSA/CN CORNELI/AMPHIONIS/UNGUENTARI

DIS MAN(IBUS)/L. FAENI TELESPHORI/UNGUENTARI/LUGDUNEN- SIS/ET FAENIAE/RESTITUTAE/UXORI EIUS/FECIT SERGIA/TYCHE

L. FULVIUS L. L. FELIX/UNGENTARIUS/CURTIA Q.L. PRIMA/FULVIA L.L. PRIMA/FULVIA L.L. SYNTYCHE/L. FULVIUS L. L. FAUSTUS/ LIBERTIS LIBERTABUS/POSTERISQUE EORUM/IN AGRO P. XXXII

DIS MANIB(US)/C. IULIO C.F. HOR/CLEMENTI UNGEN(TARIO)/IULIA PRISCA UXOR/CONIUG(I) BENE MER(ERENTI)

C. POPILIUS C. L./PHILEROS AEQUITAS/UNGUENTARIUS

M. VERGILIUS M.L. ANTIOCHUS UNGUENT[ARIUS]/VERGILIA M. L. HELENA/M [VER] GILIUS M.L. HILARUS [MAIO] R/M VERGILIUS M.L. LUCULLUS

[D] M/[A]THENODORUS ET IULIA FELICISSI/[MA...] HANG MACERIAM PERTINENTEM/[AD MONU]MENTUM SUUM ET CHRYPTAM ET/[. ..] NEM MONUMENTI LAPIDEI VIBI/ [SIBI PAR]AVERUNT ET EREXERUNT ET LIBERTIS/ [LIBERTA] BUSQUE POSTERISQUE EORUM/ [HOC MO]NUMENTUM CHRYPTA ET MACERIA/[.. .] HEREDEM NON SEQUETUR UNGUENTARIO

[.. .]BIENA COR [.. .]/UNGUENTARIAAB D[.. .]/NON HIC OLLA MEOS CINERES AV[.. .]/SET PASSIM MATER TERRA TEGIT I [.. .]/CONIUGIS HOC FECIT CARI MIH[. . .]/PRAESTARIT IUNCTAE VIVA QUOT ANI [. . .]/CUM QUO TRIGINTAVIXI SINI IA[. . .]/IN CUIUS MANIBUS

FAUSTUS POM[. . .]/INSTITOR UNGUENT(ARIUS)

Q. UMMID[IUS]/[U]MMIDI[A]/[U]MMIDI[A]/POBLICI [. . .]/ UNGUENTA[R .. ]

DOMITIA C. L. PLECUSA/MONUMENTUM FECIT/C. POPILLIO ANTHO/UNGUENTARIO VIRO SUO/CUM QUO VIXIT ANNOS XXXV/ET C. POPILLIUS C.C.L. HERMER/LIBERTUS

109 L. Lutatius Paccius also attested with no mention of profussion in CIL 6.21728.

2000] 303



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

CIL 6.36819; Rome, between via Branca and the Tiber

Chr. Lo Giudice, "Unguentarii," in Epigrafia della produzione e della distribuzione (Coll. EFR 193, Rome 1994) 745-51 = AEpigr 1994, no. 300; Rome, first half of the first century B.C.

SALUTI DOMUS AU [GUSTAE]/COLLEGION THURARIOR[UM ET]/UN- GUENTARIOR(UM) CURA AG[ENTE]/[. . .]NOVIO SUCCESSO

QUAES[TORE]

[. . .]US DIOSCUR[. . .]/[.. ] UNGENTARIUS/[.. .] L(IBERTA) FELICULA/ [... C]ONSORS

ITALY

G.M. De Rossi, Bovillae, vol. 15 (Florence 1979) 286, no. 275

AEpigr1979, 37, no. 124; Rome, via Appia, marble plate dating from the first half of the first

century A.D.

CIL 5.2184; Altinum in Venetia, low relief showing two busts, one male one female

CIL 5.3827; in the Verona region

CIL 10.1965; Naples

CIL 10.892; ILS 6393; Naples, third century A.D.

CIL 10.3968; Capua

CIL 10.3974; Capua

CIL 10.3975; Capua

CIL 10.3979; Capua

CIL 10.3982; Capua

CIL 10.1962; ILS 7615; Pozzuoli

ILS 1224B; Pozzuoli

CIL 4.609; Corte (1965), no. 339; Pompeii on the forum corner; electoral inscription painted on a wall

CIL 4.9932a, Corte (1965) no. 340; Pompeii (Reg. 7, ins. 9) on the forum corner; electoral inscription painted on a wall

L. FAENIO POLYBIO THURAR(IO)/L. FAENIO CELADO THURAR(IO)/ L. FAENIO IUCUNDO/FAENIAE MOSCHIDI/FAENIA L. F. PROCULA FECIT ET/M. LIVIO MAXIMO PARENTIBUS ET FRATRI ET FILIO ET SIBI ET LIBERTIS LIBERTABUSQUE SUIS/POSTERISQUE EORUM OMNIUM

P. HERENNIUS P. L./PRIMU[S TU]RARIUS

M. VERGILIO M. F./ANTHIOCO UNIGENITOO10/SIBI ET PAMPHILO

D M/LICINIAE PRIMIGENIAE/UNGUENTARIAE/LIC. AMONUS F. MATRI B. M./V. A. LXXI

MESSIUS ARRIUS/SILENUS/M. DECIDIUS M.M.L./ [F]AUSTUS UNG(UENTARIUS)/MIN(ISTER) AUGUSTI/M. NUMISTRIO

FRONTONE/Q. COTRIO Q.F.D.V.I.D./M. SERVILIO L. AELIO/ LAMIA COS

M. FULVIUS/APOLLONIUS/UNGENT. SIBI ET/VALERIAE RODIAE/UX- ORI FULVIAE LAINI/L. CAESIO GLICONI CAESIAE L.L./NARDINI

L. NOVIUS/LUCRIO UNGUENT/PATRONO ET SIBI

L. NOVIUS L.L.L. LIBER[/PREPO DIONYSI[/UNGUENTARIEI

C. SATRIUS C. L. HILARUS/UNGUENTARIUS SIBI POSTE/RISQUE HOC MONUMENTUM HEREDEM NON SEQUETUS/C. SATRI C. L. EU- HODI/O.H.S.S.

[M. STAT//O M. L.] PHILADAM[/ [UN] GUENTARIO [/PHILOXENES ET] HILARIO LIBER[/HILARAE] CONLIBERTAE

SACRUM/L.FAENIUS L.L. ALEXANDER/THURARIUS PUTEOLANUS/ VIR OPTUMUS VIXIT BENE

REGION CLIVI VITRARI SIVE VICI TURARI

[V]ERUM AED(ILEM) O(RO VOS) F(ACIATIS)/UNGUENTARI FACITE ROG(O)

MODESTUM AED (ILEM) / [UNGUEN]TARI ET PAUPER(ES) FACITE

0 Cyrique's reading should probably be corrected to UNGUENTO.

304 [AJA 104




CIL 4.2184; Pompeii, on the forum corner

CIL 9.5905; Ancona, Cathedral

CIL 11.1621; ILS 7607; Firenze

GIL 9.471; ILS 7609; Venosa, near Melfi in Basilicata

CIL 10.6802; Ischia; cinerary urn in the Santa-Restituta church

CIL 10.8264; Terracina; marble base

ILS 7614; Torino

CIL 5.7454; ILS 8342; Grazzano

GAUL

CIL 12.1594; Die (Vaucluse)

CIL 12.4518; Narbonne; reused in the curtain between the two bastions

CIL 12.5974; Narbonne; reused in the curtain between the two bastions at the "Porte de Beziers"

CIL 13.8354; ILS 7606; Koln

CIL 13.2602; Near Chalon, Saint-

Loup-de-Varennes, on a sar-

cophagus

CIL 13.5356; Saint-Germain-

la-Montagne (Lons-le-Saunier, Jura), bronze plate

CIL 13.11295; ILS 9310; Rheims

CIL 13.6778; Mainz

M. Le Glay, BAntFr (1980-1981) 295-304 = AEpigr 1982, no. 702; Sarcophagus dated from the second half of the second

century A.D.

PHOEBUS UNGUIINTARIUS/OPTU MII FUT VIIT

[T] ASINIO/SEVERO U[NGUENT]ARIO/ET VECILIAE LEVE CON/ IUGI VIVI SIBI POSUERUNT

ADIECTO/SEX. AVIDI/EUTYCHI/SEPLASARI/NEGOTIANTIS/SER. INSTITORI/COMMUNIS/ ... / ... AMI/CO. B. M.

[...]/C.L. PHILAR/GYRO UN/GENTARIO/ISQUE FAMI/LIAM SUAM/ MANUMISIT /PECUNIAMQ(UE)/[...]

DIS MANIBUS/L. FAENI VRSIONIS/THUR(ARIUS) CONIUGI BENE/ MERENTI TYCHE/LIBERTA FECIT

L. POMPONIUS BITHUS/UNGENTARIUS SIBI ET/POMPONIAE PRIMAE PATRONAE/L. POMPONIO OFENTINO FILIO/POMPONIAE GLYCERAE UXORI/L.POMPONIO L.F.OUF ADITO F. SUO/SCIRTIAE S. P. FILIAE PRIMIGENIAE

L. FLAVIUS L.F. STE. CELER/THURARIUS VIVIR/AUGUST. SIBI ET PETRONIAE/SALVIAE T. F. I.

V(IVUS) F(ECIT)/T. VETTIUS/T. L. HERMES/SEPLASIARIUS/MATER GENUIT/MATERQUE RECEPIT./HI HORTI ITA UTI O (PTIMI) M(AXIMI)/ QUE SUNT CINERIBUS/SERVITE MEIS NAM CU/RATORES SUBSTITUAM/UTI VESCANTUR EX HO/RUM HORTORUM REDI/ TU NATALE MEO ET PER/[fortasseferant]/ ROSAM IN PERPETUO./ HOS HORTOS NEQUE DIVI/DI VOLO NEQUE ABALIENARI

D/[...]MIAE UNGUENTARIAE POMP IPHIGENIAE/[ . .] AN IX M XI D XXIII ET SIBI VIVI FECER/M

[NI?]GRO TURARIO LIBERTO/[. .]EURIORUS CASIUS NIGER

[...]AL PR[.... ]/[...]RTIO [...]/[SEP]LASIAR[. ..]/[. ..]PUS L. E [...]/[...]ATIAE [. . .]/[FR]RONTINAE

SEX. HAPARO/NIO IUSTINO/NEGOTIATO/RI SEPLASIA/RIO FRATRES/FAC. CUR.

D./M./ET MEMORIAE AETERNAE/PISONIUS ASCLEPIODOTUS UNGENTA/RIUS IIIIVIR AVG. C.C.C. LUG. VIVUS SIBI POSU/IT ET SEVERIAE SEVERAE CONIUGI KARISSI/MAE CUM QUEM VIVET ANNIS XXXV SINE/ULLA ANIMI LAESIONE VICTURI QUAM/DIU DEUS DEDERIT PONENDUM CURA/VERUNT ET SUB ASCIA DEDICAVERUNT

I. 0. M./C. I. SENECIANUS/THURAR[IUS]/[STA]T(UAS ?). QUATTUOR/V.S.L.M.

OGL. AVG. SAC/ATEURITUS/SEPLAS. V.L.S.M.

VOTOSUS/CEPTO/L. VIREIUS/DEXTER SE/PLASIAR IN/LEG I AD/ V.S.L.L.M.

D(IS) M(ANIBUS)/ET M[EMORIAE A]ETER/NA[E.. .]AT/TAL[I (SE)VIR(I) AUG(USTALIS)] LUG(UDINI)/NEG[OTIATOR(IS) S]EPLA/SI(ARII) N[AUTAE RHODAN(ICI) (OU ARAR(ICI) COR/ POR[ATI INTER CEN]TO/NA[RIOS LUGUD(UNI) C]ON/ S[ISTENTES]/CAL[.. .] NUS/EPIC[TETUS ? ARTE ?]MON/LIB(ERTI) [PATRONO OPTI]MO/INC[OMPARABILIQ(UE)] PO/NEN[DUM CURAVER] UNT/ET S [UB ASCIA DEDI] CAVE/ [RUNT]

2000] 305



JEAN-PIERRE BRUN

F. Benoit, "Nouvelles epaves de Provence 3." Gallia 20 (1962) 153-4 = AEpigr(1963) no. 108; On the stopper of an amphora made of pozzolona from the Planier 3 shipwreck

GREECE

BCH (1930) 490; AEpigr (1932) no. 22; ILLEP826; Ithaca, A.D. 35

DALMATIA

CIL 3.15088; Prozor, Dalmatia, on a sarcophagus

AFRICA

CIL 8.16878; Madauros,

Algeria; in three parts, very worn; the right side, completely worn, is not given here. On both sides of the inscription were two low relief sculptures representing, on the left, a draped woman holding a bag of incense with a THUS

inscription, and, on the right, a second figure with a PIPER

inscriptionl12

BRITAIN

AEpigr(1991) no. 1155; Carlisle; fragment of a writing tablet with an address

Works Cited

Alexandrou, 0. 1977. "G Eforeia storikon arcaiothton." ArchDelt 32:B

Amouretti, M.-C. 1986. Le pain et l'hui tique: Evolution des techniques agraire phraste. Centre de recherche d'hist Besancon 67. Paris: Belles Lettres.

Amouretti, M.-C., andJ.-P. Brun, eds. I Production in the Mediterranean Area Athens: Ecole francaise d'Athenes.

Andreau,J. 1974. Les affaires de Monsieu Ecole francaise de Rome.

Aufrere, S. 1991. L'univers minera egyptienne. Cairo: Institut franca orientale.

1 I Benoit expands this to read unw seems to be a cognomen.

M. ALFI M.F. UNG.111

EPAPHRODITUS NOVI (SERVUS)/UNGUENTARIUS DE SA/CRA VIA HIC

FUIT/K(ALENDIS) OCT(OBRIBUS) QUO ANNO/L. CORNUFICIUS/SEX. POMPEI/US CO(N)SULES FUERUNT

D.M./T.FL. MARCELLUS/SEPLASIARIUS/AN LXX/S. V. F.

(on the left: 7 lines:)/. . .]DE/[S. C]URAV[IT]/H.S.E.

(in the center:) [...]/SATUR/IUS DATI/ANUS/POMPONI/ANUS/ V(IXIT) AN/NO UNO/MENS(IBUS) IIII/DIEB(US) VI

[...]ALBANO/SEPLASIARIO

Avigad, N. 1980. The Upper City ofJerusalem. Jerusalem: Shikmonah.

klasikon kai pro . 1983. DiscoveringJerusalem. Nashville: Thomas 1, 16-34. Nelson. le dans la Grice an- Barag, D. 1976. "En-Gedi." In Encyclopedia of Archaeologi- ,s d'Hesiode a Theo- cal Excavations in the Holy Land, edited by M. Avi- :oire ancienne de Yona, 370-80. London: Oxford University Press.

Bardet, G., F. Joannes, B. Lafont, and D. Soubeyran. 1993. Oil and Wine 1984. Archives administratives de Mari 4. Paris: Editions z. BCH Suppl. 26. Recherche sur les Civilisations.

Blimel, W. 1987. Die Inschriften von Mylasa 1. Bonn: R. trJucundus. Rome: Habelt.

Boyd, T.D., and W.W. Rudolph. 1978. "Excavations at :I dans la pensee Porto Cheli and Vicinity, Preliminary Report IV: tis d'archeologie The Lower Town of Halieis, 1970-1977." Hesperia

47:333-55.

g(uentarius), but it 112 de Villefosse 1874, 485, no. 211; 1875, 377-496.

306 [AJA 104




Brun, J.-P. 1986. L'oleiculture antique en Provence: Les huile- ries du departement du Var RANarb Suppl. 15. Paris: Edi- tions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

. 1993. "Les innovations techniques et leur diffu- sion dans les pressoirs." In Oil and Wine Production in the Mediterranean Area, edited by M.-C. Amouretti and J.-P. Brun, 539-50. BCH Suppl. 26. Athens: Ecole francaise d'Athenes.

. 1998. "Une parfumerie sur le Forum de Paes- tum." MEFRA 110:419-72.

. 1999. "Lautissimumfuit antiquitus in Delo insula: La maison IB du quartier du Stade et la fabrication des parfums a Delos a l'epoque hellenistique." BCH 123.

Bruneau, P. 1968. "Contribution a l'histoire urbaine de Delos a l'epoque hellenistique et a l'epoque imperiale." BCH92:633-709.

. 1987. "Deliaca 50. Encore les pressoirs." BCH 111:339-41.

Bruneau, P., and J. Ducat. 1983. Guide de Dlos. 3rd ed. Paris: Ecole francaise d'Athenes.

Bruneau, P., and P. Fraisse. 1981. "Un pressoir a vin a Delos." BCH 105:127-53.

. 1984. "Pressoirs deliens." BCH 108:713-30. Brunet, M. 1990. "Contribution a l'histoire rurale de

Delos aux 6poques classique et hellenistique." BCH 114:669-82.

. 1993. "Vin local et vin de cru, les exemples de D6los et de Thasos." In Oil and Wine Production in the Mediterranean Area, edited by M.-C. Amouretti and J.-P. Brun, 202-12. BCH Suppl. 26. Athens: Ecole francaise d'Athenes.

Brunet, M., G. Rougemont, and D. Rousset. 1998. "Les contrats agraires dans la Grece antique, Bilan histo- riographique illustre par quatre exemples." Histoire et societes rurales 9:211 -45.

Biulow-Jacobsen, A. 1992. "The Private Letters." In Mons Claudianus, Ostraca graeca et latina I (O.Claud. 1 a 190), edited byJ. Bingen et al., 123-71. Cairo: Insti- tut francais d'archeologie orientale du Caire.

Camps-Fabrer, H. 1953. L'olivier et l'huile dans 'Afrique ro- maine. Alger: Impr. Officielle.

Carandini, A. 1985. "Hortensia, Orti et frutteti intorno a Roma." In Misurare la terra: Centuriazione e coloni nel mondo romano: CittG, agricoltura e commerci: mate- riali da Roma et del suburbia, by Ministero dei beni cul- turali, Soprintendenza archeologica di Roma, 66- 74. Modena: Edizioni Panini.

Chamonard, J. 1906. "Fouilles de Delos executees aux frais de M. le Duc de Loubat, La maison du Diony- sos." BCH 30:486-606.

. 1922-1924. Dlos. Vol. 8, Le quartier du the'atre. 2 vols. Paris: Editions de Boccard.

Corte, M.D. 1965. Case ed abitanti di Pompei. 3rd ed. Napoli: Faustino Fiorentino.

Cotton, M.A., and G.P.R. Metraux. 1985. The San Rocco Villa at Francolise. London: British School at Rome.

Cuvigny, H. 1995. Papyrus Graux II (P Graux 9 a 29). Hautes etudes du monde Greco-romain 19. Geneva: Droz.

D'Arms, J. 1981. Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Rome. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Davies, N. 1935. Paintings from the Tomb of Reich-Mi-RE at Thebes. New York: Metropolitan Museum.

Delorme, J. 1961. Dlos. Vol. 25, Les palestres. Paris: Edi- tions de Boccard.

De Romanis, F. 1996. Cassia, cinnamono, ossidiana. Rome: "L'ERMA" di Bretschneider.

de Villefosse, H. 1874. ArchMiss 2. . 1875. ArchMiss 3:2.

Drachman, A.G. 1988. "Complementary Notes in Hero of Alexandria." In Les mcaniques ou I'elvateur des corps lourds, edited by B. Carra de Vaux, 215-305. Paris: Belles Lettres.

Duncan-Jones, R.P. 1976. "The Price of Wheat in Ro- man Egypt under the Principate." Chiron 6:241-62. - . 1982. The Economy of the Roman Empire, Quantita-

tives Studies. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- sity Press.

Durrbach, F. 1921. Choix d'inscriptions de Dlos. Paris: E. Leroux.

. 1926. Inscriptions de Dlos. Paris: H. Champion. Durrbach, F., and P. Roussel. 1935. Inscriptions de Delos,

Actes desfonctionnaires atheniens prposes a l'administration du sanctuaire apres 166 av. J.-C. Paris: H. Champion.

Ebeling, E. 1948. "Mittelassyrische Rezepte zur Berei- tung von wohlriechenden Salben." Orientalia Nova Se- ries 17:129-45.

Etienne, R. 1977. La vie quotidienne a Pompei. 2nd ed. Paris: Hachette.

Faure, P. 1987. Parfums et aromates de l'antiquite. Paris: Fayard.

Ferrary, J.-L. 1980. "Delos vers 58 avantJ.-C." In Insula sacra, la loi Gabinia Calpurnia de Dlos, edited by Cl. Nicolet, 35-44. Rome: Ecole francaise de Rome.

Fisher, M. 1978-1979. "A Desert Oasis, 'En Boqeq-An Industrial Unit from the Period of Herod, an Archae- ological-Historical Survey (Hebrew)," Nofim 11- 12:21-38.

Forbes, R.J. 1965. Studies in Ancient Technology 3. Leiden: EJ. Brill.

Giacchero, M. 1974. Edictum Diocletiani et Collegarum de pretiis rerum venalium. Genova: Istituto di storia antica e scienze ausiliarie.

Gichon, M. 1993. "En Boqeq." In The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, edited by E. Stern, A. Lewinson-Gilboa, and J. Aviram, 395-9. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and Carta.

Giordano, C., and A. Casale. 1992. Profumi, unguenti e acconciature in Pompei antica. Rome: Bardi.

Greco, E. 1979. "Poseidonia entre le Vie et le IVe siecle avantJ.-C., quelques problemes de topographie his- torique." RA:219-34.

Greco, E., and D. Theodorescu. 1980. Poseidonia- Paestum 1. Rome: Ecole francaise de Rome.

.1983. Poseidonia-Paestum 2. Rome: Ecole francaise de Rome.

. 1987. Poseidonia-Paestum 3. Rome: Ecole francaise de Rome.

Greco, E., S. Aurigemma, A. Spinazzola, and A. Maiuri, eds. 1986. Iprimi scavi di Paestum. Salerno: Ente per le antichita e i monumenti della Provincia di Salerno.

2000] 307



J.-P. BRUN, THE PRODUCTION OF PERFUMES IN ANTIQUITY

Guillou, A. 1986. Les outils dans les Balkans du Moyen Age a nos jours. Paris: Editions de l'Ecole des hautes 6tudes en sciences sociales et Maisonneuve et Larose.

Hatzfeld,J. 1919. Les trafiquants italiens dans l'Orient helle- nique. Paris: Editions de Boccard.

Hohmann, H. 1983. "Ein Rundbau auf Sifnos Aspros Pirgos." AntW14 (4):27-38.

Jacono, L. 1941. "Torcular olearium (saggio di recos- truzione archeologia)." Rivista di Studi e di Vita Ro- mana 19:99-103.

Jashemski, W. 1963. "The Flower Industry at Pompeii." Archaeology 16:112-21.

. 1979. The Gardens of Pompeii. New Rochelle: Car- atzas Bros.

Joannes, F. 1993. "La culture materielle a Mari (5), les parfums." Mar 7:251-70. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les civilizations.

Kent, J.H. 1939. "Notes on the Delian farm accounts." BCH63: 232-45.

. 1948. "The Temple Estate of Delos, Rheneia and Myconos." Hesperia 17:243-338.

Loane, HJ. 1938. Industry and Commerce of the City of Rome (50 B.C.-200 A.D.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.

Loussert, R., and G. Brousse. 1978. L'olivier. Paris: Mai- sonneuve et Larose.

Maiuri, A. 1929. "Strada degli Augustali: Ricostruzione di un torcular olearium." BdA:517-20.

Mattingly, DJ. 1990. "Painting, Presses and Perfume Production at Pompeii." OJA 9:71-90.

Melena, J.L. 1983. "Olive Oil and Other Sorts of Oil in the Mycenean Tablets." Minos 18:89-123.

Montet, P. 1960. "Quelques pretres et fonctionnaires du dieu Min."JNES 9:15-30.

Patrich, J., and B. Arubas. 1989. "A Juglet Containing Balsam Oil (?) from a Cave Near Qumran." IEJ 39:43-59.

Plassart, A. 1916. "Fouilles de Delos ex6cutees aux frais de M. le Duc de Loubat, Quartier d'habitations privees a l'Est du Stade." BCH40:145-256.

Pappalardo, U. 1985. "Die 'Villa Imperiale' in Pompeji." AntW16:3-15.

. 1987. "La 'Villa Imperiale' a Pompei, rapporto preliminare." DialArch 5:125-34.

Pavis d'Escurac, H. 1977. "Aristocratie s6natoriale et profits commerciaux." Ktema 2:335-55.

Pontrandolfo, A., and A. Rouveret. 1992. Le tombe dipinte di Paestum. Modena: Franco Cosimo Panini.

Rathbone, D. 1991. Economic Rationalism and Rural Soci-

ety in Third-Century A.D. Egypt: The Heroninos Archives and the Appianus Estate. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- versity Press.

Rauh, N.K. 1993. The Sacred Bonds of Commerce: Religion, Economy and Trade Society at Hellenistic Roman Delos, 166-87 B.C. Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben.

Rodriguez-Almeida, E. 1985-86. "Note di topografia romana: Cosmus myropola, il vicus Unguentarius e i

penetralia Pallados nostrae [Martial, 4. 53]," Riv- IstArch 3 (8-9):111-7.

Rostovtseff, M. 1957. The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Roussel, P. 1987. Reprint. Ddlos, colonie athenienne. BEFAR 111. Paris: Editions de Boccard. Original edition, Paris: Editions de Boccard, 1916.

Scatozza Horicht, L.A. 1991. "Syrian Elements among the Glass from Pompeii and Herculaneum." In Ro- man Glass: Two Centuries of Art and Invention, edited by M. Newby and K. Painter. London: Society of Anti-

quaries of London. Torelli, M. 1988. "Paestum romana." In Poseidonia-

Paestum, Atti del 27e convegno di studi sulla Magna Gre- cia, 1987. Taranto: Istituto per la storia e l'archeologia della Magna Grecia.

Touchais, G. 1988. "Chronique des fouilles et decou- vertes arch6ologiques en grece en 1987." BCH 112: 611-96.

Vallet, G. 1962. "L'introduction de l'olivier en Italie cen- trale." In Hommages i Albert Grenier, by Marcel Renard, 1554-63. vol. 3. Latomus 58. Bruxelles: Berchem.

Vial, C. 1984. Delos independante. BCHSuppl. 10. Athens: Ecole francaise d'Ath&nes.

Wallace-Hadrill, A. 1994. Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Wilson, AJ.N. 1966. Emigration from Italy in the Republi- can Age of Rome. New York: Barnes and Noble.

Yanuchevitch, Z.V., G.M. Nilolayenko, and N.N. Kuzmi- nova. 1985. "La viticulture en Chersonese de Tauride au IV-IIeme s. avant n. e. d'apres les recherches archcologiques et paleoethnobotaniques." RA: 115-22.

Young, J.H. 1956. "Ancient Towers on the Island of Siphnos." AJA 60:51-5.

308



Documents

The Production of Perfumes in Antiquity: The Cases of ... · PDF fileThe Production of Perfumes in Antiquity: The Cases of Delos and Paestum JEAN-PIERRE BRUN Abstract Perfume production