by The Perfumers and Scent Merchants of the Ancient Luxury Trade
This nomination for the Unguentarii of Capua, the renowned perfumers and merchants who specialized in the production and sale of essential oils, cosmetics, and Roman perfume. Located in a prosperous Campanian city, these artisans and traders dealt in one of the most intimate and evocative categories of luxury goods. They mastered the extraction of scents from flowers, spices, and resins, blending them into oils and unguents used for personal adornment, sensual pleasure, and elaborate burial rituals. The Unguentarii likely engaged in early forms of sensory marketing and branding, with certain workshops or cities (like Capua) gaining reputations for particular qualities or scents. Their trade connected distant sources of raw materials (Arabian frankincense, Indian spikenard) with elite consumers across the empire. They catered to the Roman obsession with personal aroma and status display, proving that luxury is not always visual or tangible, but can be olfactive. The Unguentarii demonstrated how specialized craft knowledge, combined with access to exotic imports, could create a high-value niche industry that served both the living and the dead, turning ephemeral scents into enduring symbols of wealth and refinement.
