Natural History of Gaius Plinius Secundus, Vol. 2

...balani. Of these, too, there are many kinds. They differ in the figure of roundness or elongation. They also differ in color, being darker or reddish. Nor are they said to have fewer colors than the fig. Most of all, however, the white ones please. They also differ in magnitude, according to how many make up a cubit. Some are no larger than a bean. These are the only ones that are preserved, which grow in salty and sandy soil, as in Judea and Cyrenaic Africa. Not so those in Egypt, Cyprus, Syria, and Seleucia of Assyria. Wherefore, pigs and the rest of the animals are fattened on these. A sign of this fruit being spoiled or old is that the white wart which has adhered to the cluster has fallen off. The soldiers of Alexander were choked by green dates. That happened in the Cedrosis from a kind of fruit; elsewhere, it happened from abundance. For there is such sweetness in the fresh fruit that the end of eating does not come except by danger.

Of the trees of Syria. Chapter V.

Syria, besides this one, has peculiar trees. Among the nut kind, the pistachio is known. They are reported to be useful against the bites of serpents, both in drink and food. Among the fig kind are the caricae, and the smaller ones of that genus, which are called cottana. Also the plum born on the mountain in Damascus, and the myxa, both of which are now familiar to Italy. From the myxa in Egypt, wines are also made. The Phoenicians have the cedar, which is similar to the juniper but smaller. There are two kinds of it: the Lycian and the Phoenician. They differ in the leaf. For that which has a hard, sharp, and thorny one is called the oxycedros, which is branching and infested with knots. The other excels in odor. They bear fruit the size of a myrtle, sweet in flavor. And of the larger cedar, there are two kinds: that which blooms does not bear fruit. The fruit-bearing one does not bloom, and in it, the new fruit takes the place of the preceding one.