Opium was used with poison hemlock to put people quickly and painlessly to death, but it was also used in medicine. "Spongia somnifera", sponges soaked in opium, were used during surgery. The Egyptians cultivated "opium thebaicum" in famous poppy fields around 1300 BC. Opium was traded from Egypt by the Phoenicians and Minoans to destinations around the Mediterranean Sea, including Greece, Carthage, and Europe. By 1100 BC, opium was cultivated on Cyprus, where surgical-quality knives were used to score the poppy pods, and opium was cultivated, traded, and smoked. Opium was also mentioned after the Persian conquest of Assyria and Babylonian lands in the 6th century BC.