We turn to historical and philological records to see whether the area was more limited in antiquity. The ancient Egyptians called the fig _teb_,[1478] and the earliest Hebrew books speak of the fig, whether wild or cultivated, under the name _teenah_,[1479] which leaves its trace in the Arabic _tin_.[1480] The Persian name is quite different, _unjir_; but I do not know if it dates from the Zend. Piddington’s _Index_ has a Sanskrit name, _udumvara_, which Roxburgh, who is very careful in such matters, does not give, and which has left no trace in modern Indian languages, to judge from four names quoted by authors. The antiquity of its existence east of Persia appears to me doubtful, until the Sanskrit name is verified. The Chinese received the fig tree from Persia, but only in the eighth century of our era.[1481] Herodotus[1482] says the Persians did not lack figs, and Reynier, who has made careful researches into the customs of this ancient people, does not mention the fig tree. This only proves that the species was not utilized and cultivated, but it perhaps existed in a wild state. The Greeks called the wild fig _erineos_, and the Latins _caprificus_. Homer mentions a fig tree in the _Iliad_ which grew near Troy.[1483] Hehn asserts[1484] that the cultivated fig cannot have been developed from the wild fig, but all botanists hold a contrary opinion;[1485] and, without speaking of floral details on which they rely, I may say that Gussone obtained from the same seeds plants of the form _caprificus_, and other varieties.[1486] The remark made by several scholars as to the absence of all mention of the cultivated fig _sukai_ in the _Iliad_, does not therefore prove the absence of the fig tree in Greece at the time of the Trojan war. Homer mentions the sweet fig in the _Odyssey_, and that but vaguely. Hesiod, says Hehn, does not mention it, and Archilochus (700 B.C.) is the first to mention distinctly its cultivation by the Greeks of Paros. According to this, the species grew wild in Greece, at least in the Archipelago, before the introduction of cultivated varieties of Asiatic origin. Theophrastus and Dioscorides mention wild and cultivated figs.[1487] Romulus and Remus, according to tradition, were nursed at the foot of a fig tree called _ruminalis_, from _rumen_, breast or udder.[1488] The Latin name, _ficus_, which Hehn derives, by an effort of erudition, from the Greek _sukai_,[1489] also argues an ancient existence in Italy, and Pliny’s opinion is positive on this head. The good cultivated varieties were of later introduction. They came from Greece, Syria, and Asia Minor. In the time of Tiberius, as now, the best figs came from the East.