The Greeks, of course, learned most of their medical knowledge from the Egyptians, so they, too, incorporated aromatherapy, but refined it even further. They discovered that the essence of some flowers and herbs were stimulating while others were relaxing. They developed the use of olive oil as the base oil, which absorbed the aroma of the more concentrated essences, then used the "perfumed" result for both cosmetic and medical purposes.
The Romans came along and learned from the Greeks. Rome was noted for its scented baths followed by massage using aromatic oils. In fact, it was the popularity of aromatics that led to trade routes being established to import exotic oils and spices from India, Arabia, and China. These imports were used far more in aromatherapy than in cooking.
When Roman society fell into decay, the use of aromatherapy in the Western World decayed with it as Europe descended into the Dark Ages in which anything with natural origins was regarded as witchcraft and superstition - a suspicion only reinforced by "modern" Western medicine until recent years when the little guys in white coats in their sterile laboratories discovered that the best cures lay not in the labs but in the rain forests and jungles.
