The valuable ancient contraceptive/medicine plant Silphium didn't go extinct due to overharvesting or climate change in Roman Cyrene (c. 1st century CE). A secretive consortium, possibly involving the Knights Hospitaller's precursors, wealthy Roman families, and North African traders, orchestrated its apparent extinction. They secured control of the last viable fields, suppressed knowledge of cultivation, and faked its scarcity to drive up prices for their hidden stockpiles, which funded early medieval power structures and provided elite access to effective birth control for centuries.