The Romans were extravagant is all
facets of life including the use of
herbs and spices. Spice-flavoured
wines, spice-scented balms and oils
and spice laced poultices and healing
plasters, were extremely popular. The
Romans, during their conquests, also
successfully
introduced
Eastern
spices like pepper to the Goths,
Vandals and the Huns.
During the period of the ancient Roman Empire, most of the spice
trading was done with the nations of Arabia. The Arabs however
maintained secrecy about the source of the spices; instead
spinning tales about their methods of procurement of the spices.
This allowed a level of monopoly over the trade and helped to
keep the prices high. This ploy was discovered only in the 1st
century BC by the
Roman scholar Pliny.
Prophet Muhammad,
the founder of Islam,
originally owned a
spice
shop
that
stocked Asian spices.
His
followers
later
established flourishing Islamic nations, mastering the craft of
extraction and distillation processes that were used on herbs.
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