Antiquity of Smoking

The passage is in Herodian. In the time of Commodus there was a pestilence in Italy. The emperor went to Laurentum for the benefit of the smell of the laurel trees. "In ipsa quoque urbe de medicorum sententia plerique unguentis suavissimus nares atque aures opplebant, suffituque[3] et odoramentis assidua utebantur, quod meatus sensuum (ut quidem dicunt) odoribus illis occupati, neque admittant aëra tabificum: et si maxime admiserint, tamen eum majore quasi vi longe superari." This has nothing to do with the practice of smoking, nor is it clear that they smoked these things with a pipe into the…