Some of the 27 ingredients Pliny described were hard to come by nearly 2,000 years later, and getting the proportions right was a challenge too – since in Pliny’s time raw materials weren’t distilled or synthesised, but crushed and burned. It took all [perfumer Jean] Kerléo’s skill, and a year of his life, to achieve a harmonious balance. But achieve it he did, and the hedonistic parlours of ancient Rome sprang to life in a haze of cinnamon, honey and wine.

— Read more in Is There Such A Formula As The Perfume Of God? And Other Fragrance Dreams From A Perfume Conservatory In Versailles (that would be the Osmothèque perfume museum) at Vogue UK.