By the time Virgil wrote the above in his Georgics, bee keeping was well established and had been since the apiaries of Egypt nearly two and a half millennia previously¹. Pliny, a generation later than Virgil further demonstrated the Roman enthusiasm for bee keeping when he compiled his list of plants specially favoured by bees² This consisted of Thymum (Thyme), according to Tucker and DeBaggio, Coriothymus rather than Thymus³

Apiastrum (celery leaf)
Rosam (Roses)
Violas (Violets)
LIilium (Lilies)
Cytisum (Tree medick)
Fabam (Beans)
Ervillam (Vetch)
Cunilam (Cunila) now thought to be either Satureia hortensis or S thrymba
Papaver (Poppies)
Conyzam (Conyza)
Casiam (Casia)
Melilotam (Melilot)
Melissophyluum (Bastard balm)
Cerinthe (Cerinthe)

Two points to notice, firstly that the names of modern genera eg Cytisus do not always refer to the same plants in classical texts. Secondly it will be seen that “Casia” appears in both Pliny’s and Virgil’s scripts. There is considerable argument about the identity of “Casia” but there is no doubt that it was Gerard’s suggestion that it may have been lavender that made a major contribution to the legend that the Romans used lavender in everything.

So between Ancient Egypt and 2000 AD nothing had much changed in bee keeping except the development of the removable frame hive perfected by Langstroth in 1851. Pliny’s remarks about honey made from Attic Thyme are mirrored in today’s minimum pollen content demanded by regulatory authorities for named varieties of honey. Spanish thyme honey for instance has to contain more than 12% of thyme pollen . Again bee keepers today, as did Pliny’s two thousand years ago, still move their hives to coincide with optimum flowering times across latitudes, which in America involves travelling across vast distances by lorry. From the classical Greeks to the present day, honey has been wholesome gastronomic pleasure, the nymph Melissa fed the infant Zeus on honey, Melissa, the benign sorceress of Ariosto’s sixteenth century epic “Orlando Furioso “waved her wand, delicious food and choicest wine were brought, She urged him to partake….” ⁴ and Melissa, the familiar labiate is said to be the world’s most extensively cultivated herb today. In fact Tucker points out “the chemical composition of lemon balm oil is remarkable similar to the content of the worker honey-bee’s Nasonov gland,which it uses for chemical communication about food sources”....

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¹CRANE E, “The Archaeology of Beekeeping” Duckworth 1983
²PLINY The ELDER Natural History 21`:70 with trans by W H S Jones, Harvard Masachussets 1952
³TUCKER, ARTHUR & DEBAGGIO, THOMAS “The Encyclopedia of Herbs”, Timber 2009
⁴ARIOSTO, LODOVICO “Orlando Furioso” 46 : 46 Trans Barbara Reynolds, Penguin 1975

Anthony Lyman-Dixon is a member of The Herb Society and owner of Arne Herbs, Limeburn Nurseries, Chew Magna, Bristol BS40 8QW. He has studied the history and folklore of plants and has written articles and lectured about the myths and realities of them. His book, Your Herb Garden (SGC Books, 1997) has more anecdotal information and practical gardening advice.