A War Over Every Branch: Why Did Roman Soldiers Sacrifice Their Lives to Save a Thorny Bush?

Nir Topper
Mar 16
4 min read

One of the most expensive products in the ancient world was produced in the Judean Desert. It wasn’t a precious metal for palaces or weapon-making, but a rare, fragrant resin extracted from the Afarsimon bush. This product was a geopolitical asset so valuable that some scholars believe it was the most influential factor in shaping the relations between the Kingdom of Judea and the superpowers of the time—Rome and Egypt.

The value of this balsam resin, when produced correctly—a secret known only to a few—at times soared beyond the price of pure gold. It is important to note that the Afarsimon of antiquity is not the persimmon fruit we know today. That ancient plant, identified as the "Balm of Gilead" ($Commiphora$ $gileadensis$), was a thorny bush whose secret lay in the aromatic resin secreted from its trunk, known as "Opobalsamum."

The production of the perfume was a secret art guarded by the communities of Ein Gedi and Jericho. Dramatic evidence of this was uncovered in the Ein Gedi synagogue, dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries CE, where an ancient mosaic inscription casts a terrible curse on anyone who "reveals the secret of the town." This was not a religious matter, but a community defense mechanism for a professional monopoly that formed the economic backbone of the entire region. Their knowledge included sophisticated desert irrigation methods, precise wounding of the bush's bark, and distillation of the resin—processes that turned the balsam into a top-tier state asset.

The history of the Judean Balsam is woven with legendary figures. According to Josephus Flavius, the Queen of Sheba brought the first balsam root as a gift to King Solomon. According to this tradition, this gift laid the foundation for the magnificent balsam orchards in the Dead Sea Valley and the Jericho area. Centuries later, this asset became the focus of power struggles between Herod the Great and Cleopatra. Around 36–34 BCE, Mark Antony granted the prestigious Jericho plantations to Cleopatra. The Egyptian queen, who coveted the secret of production, took cuttings with her to plant in Egypt. Herod, seeking to maintain his revenue from the orchards, was forced to lease them back from her for an enormous sum—a fact that illustrates that the secret of cultivation was even more precious than the bush itself.

During the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome, the orchards became a battlefield. The Jewish rebels, in an act of desperation, attempted to uproot and burn the plantations to prevent the Romans from seizing the national treasure. Pliny the Elder describes in his writings how the Romans fought fiercely to save every bush, to the point of engaging in actual battles to defend a single plant. Once the revolt was suppressed, the orchards were declared imperial property ('Fiscus') and placed under tight military guard, with the pure resin becoming one of the most expensive commodities in the Empire.

Beyond its economic value, the Afarsimon held a status of holiness and national pride. It was a component of the incense (Ketoret) in the Holy Temple, and after King Josiah hid the original anointing oil, balsam oil began to be used for the anointing of kings as its substitute. The Sages of Israel accorded it honors given to no other perfume; Rav Yehuda even designated a unique blessing for it—"Who creates the oil of our land"—expressing pride in the land's treasure, though the blessing eventually established in Jewish law is "Who creates pleasant oil." However, due to its chemical properties and high flammability (the Sages noted that its scent "flies" and spreads rapidly), its use for lighting Sabbath candles was forbidden for fear of accidents or desecration of the Sabbath, either from fire or from the strong temptation to use it as a perfume on the holy day.

👉Join one of my (quiet) Channels - Israel's History, Society & Culture:

Telegram: nirtopper.com/telegram-channel

Whatsapp: nirtopper.com/whatsapp-channel

The disappearance of the Afarsimon from the local landscape was gradual and likely completed during the early Muslim period (starting from the end of the 7th century CE), a time when Judean agriculture declined and the orchards were abandoned—a process likely exacerbated by a drop in demand for the perfume. With the abandonment of the plantations, the professional technique for extracting its resin was also lost. Today, researchers are attempting to restore the lost fragrance to the region. After several attempts in previous decades, initial success was achieved in the early 2000s, when saplings grown from seeds brought from abroad were established in the botanical garden of Kibbutz Ein Gedi; the project was later expanded to the "Balsam Farm" at Kibbutz Almog. These projects seek to reconnect modern techniques with the magnificent tradition of a perfume whose scent was part of regional geopolitics two thousand years ago.

Image 1 – A Commiphora gileadensis bush in the botanical garden of Kibbutz Ein Gedi. Source: Wikipedia, Afarsimon (perfume). Aaadir, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Image 2 – The mosaic inscription in the ancient synagogue of Ein Gedi. The inscription warns community members against revealing the "secret of the town" and imposes a severe punishment on anyone who discloses the secret: "Whoever causes a dispute between a man and his friend, or speaks slander against his friend to the gentiles, or steals his friend's belongings, or whoever reveals the secret of the town to the gentiles – He whose eyes wander over all the earth and sees the hidden things – He will set His face against that man and his offspring and uproot him from under the heavens. And all the people shall say Amen and Amen Selah."