While Roman agriculture and gardens have been the focus of numerous scholarly studies, horticulture, particularly arboriculture and the development of new fruit varieties, has been neglected. Beyond its economic dimension, horticulture clearly had a cultural role in the Roman world. In the late Republic, it was used to construct the public persona of many élite Romans, and introducing new plants from overseas or developing new fruit varieties became part of their competitive display. Ancient texts tell of prominent figures, such as L. Lucullus and Cn. Pompeius, introducing new fruit trees into Italy and personally engaging in grafting. Exotic plants were also displayed as trophies in the military triumphs, the plant being at once a symbol of a newly conquered region and, in the case of valuable plants, an indicator of the revenues now under Roman control.
My research project focuses on the cultural and economic role of horticulture in the Roman world and examines élite mentality through the contextual analysis of this previously neglected aspect of Roman agriculture. It applies an interdisciplinary approach, combining the evaluation of ancient texts with the analysis of archaeobotanical data, as well as consideration of the spread of new plants into the provinces in the context of colonisation and commercial contacts.
By evaluating the ideas expressed in literary texts, the project investigates élite interest in horticulture from an ideological perspective. The study of the archaeobotanical data from a series of key geographical areas, on the other hand, aims at revealing which new plants were cultivated, when they were introduced into a given area, and what economic and social impact (for example, changes in local dietary habits) the introduction of new cultivars had. By combining these two approaches and perspectives in one comprehensive study, my project ultimately aims to shed light on what the determining factors behind the development and introduction of new plants were: that is, to what degree practical and economic considerations intersected with ideological ones.
During my three-month stay at the British School at Rome I focused on the first phase of this project, which has since received funding from the Leverhulme Trust and which will continue over the next two years. While in Rome, I worked on the analysis of the literary texts and on the collection of relevant archaeobotanical data for Italy, largely from published sources. The BSR library was an unparalleled resource for this research, since many of the publications I had to consult are not available in UK libraries.
The stay at the BSR has also allowed me to meet with various officials of the Soprintendenza Archeologica to discuss recent discoveries in the Rome metropolitan area, which are to be incorporated into my book as key case-studies. I am most grateful to the Director, Christopher Smith, and the Permissions Officer, Stefania Peterlini, for facilitating these meetings, and in particular to Rossella Rea from the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Colosseo for agreeing to meet me and discuss at length some of the exciting discoveries related to the Metro C works. Last but not least, I am thankful to the BSR and every member of staff for providing such a wonderful and stimulating research environment, and for looking after its award-holders so well: being able to focus on research without any distracting worries was the best thing one can hope for while on research leave!
