In the 1st century A.D. Dioscorides Pedanius mentions that pistachios are produced in Syria and have pharmaceutical qualities. Dioscorides was the most distinguished pharmacologist of the ancient world. His book “Regarding Medical Matters” (De Materia Medica in the Latin translation) remained in use until the Middle Ages.
Pliny wrote in the 1st century A.D. that at the end of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius (around 30 B.C) the pistachio tree was introduced into Italy from Syria by Vittelius and the same year into Spain by Flaccus Pompeius..
In the 2nd century A.D. (131-200 ?) the famous Greek physician Galen of Pergamum mentions that the pistachios at Alexandria, and above all those at Verroia in Syria, are useful for the health of the liver.
In the 2nd century A.D. Athenaeus of Naucratis, who lived for the greater part of his life in Alexandria, in his work Deipnosophistai wrote that the pistachios that are served at the tables of the wise are produced in Syria and are exceptionally tasty.
Around 900 A.D. the Arabs took possession of Sicily from the Byzantines and introduced the cultivation of the pistachio, “grafting the wild ones to domesticate them” as it says in relevant texts.
Cultivation extended over a wide area on the slopes of Mount Etna, which possessed the ideal combination of volcanic soil and favourable climatic conditions.