Hailed for the incredible lavishness of its formula, no less than twenty-four herbs imported at great expense from the most distant lands, this “royal perfume” was the idol of the wealthy Romans. They enthusiastically soaked themselves with it at every opportunity, as was the fashion of the time. Reinterpreted by Dominique Ropion, Artaban is a pure concentrate of the wonders of the plant universe. Delight in its fragrant scents – bitter and sweet marjoram, cardamom with a spicy fruity taste, nard with earthy, resinous and woody accords, and green and herbaceous calamus with multiple fragrant facets. — Astier de Villatte
Artaban, one of three fragrances in Astier de Villatte’s Trois Parfums Historiques collection (the others are Les Nuits and Le Dieu Bleu), was inspired by a recipe recorded by Pliny the Elder of a lavish perfume created in Parthia (and used with gusto by ancient Romans). The perfume’s list of ingredients was long: ben nut juice and oil (extracted from the Moringa oleifera), wine, honey, costus, cinnamon, cardamom, mint, myrrh, cassia, styrax, labdanum (rockrose), balsam, aromatic reeds, fragrant rush from Syria, oenanthe (water parsley flower), henna, broom, opoponax, saffron, souchet (tiger nut), marjoram, lotos (the yellowish resin provided by a ferrule from Syria or the seed of the lotus from Egypt) and spikenard (also known as ‘nard’ or Indian lemongrass).
Ancient Romans went even further than today’s biggest buyer of perfume…
