Focusing on the transitional period of the late Republic to the early
Principate, Trees in Ancient Rome offers a sustained examination of
the deployment of trees in the ancient city, exploring not only the
practicalities of their cultivation, but also their symbolic value. The
Ruminal fig tree sheltered the she-wolf as she nursed Romulus and Remus
and year's later Rome was founded between two groves. As the city grew,
neighbourhoods bore the names of groves and hills were known by the
trees which grew atop them. From the 1st century BCE, triumphs included
trees among their spoils and Rome's green cityscape grew, as did the
challenges of finding room for trees within the congested city.
This volume begins with an examination of the role of trees as
repositories of human memory, lasting for several generations. It goes
on to untangle the import of trees, and their role in the triumphal
procession, before closing with a discussion of how trees could be grown
in Rome's urban spaces. Drawing on a combination of literary, visual and
archaeological sources, it reveals the rich variety of trees in
evidence, and explores how they impacted, and were used to impact, life
in the ancient city.