4 GARDEN CRAFT IN EUROPE 



were also hung with flowers. Pindar bestowed upon the City of Pallas 

 the poetic appellation of " the brilliant city of violet wreaths." 



There is no doubt that Roman garden craft was largely borrowed from 

 the Greeks ; the same strictly formal type appears to have everywhere 

 prevailed, and the technical terms in use are frequently of Greek origin. 

 The Roman gardens of the Republican period were comparatively simple 

 ' and largely used for the growth of fruit and vegetables, but amenity 

 and formality were the groundwork of the design, and even the stern 

 ^Cato demanded that gardens, especially if in or near the city, " should 

 be planted with all kinds of ornamental trees, bulbs from Alegara, myrtle 

 on palisades, both white and black, the Delphic and Cyprian laurel. . . . 

 A city garden, especially of one who has no other, ought to be planted and 

 ornamented with all possible care." Of the earliest Roman gardens very 

 little can be gathered from ancient authors. One of the first mentioned in 

 history is that of Tarquinius Superbus, 534 e.g. It adjoined the royal 

 palace and abounded in flowers, chiefly lilies, roses and poppies. 



Four hundred years later we have records of the gardens of Lucullus, 

 which were laid out at a time when the great General, fresh from his 

 ■victories over Mithridates and Tigranes, deserted by his men and superseded 

 by Pompey, retired to his sumptuous houses and carried out the immense 

 garden works described by Plutarch. Lucullus may be said to have been 

 the real creator of the princely garden and set an example which was quickly 

 followed by other Roman nobles. His gardens were conceived upon a most 

 lavish scale at Cape Misenum near Baiae, and in their magnificence rivalled 

 the splendid pleasure gardens of the East. He expended vast sums of money 

 in cutting through hills and rocks, and finding insufficient scope for his labours 

 upon land, must needs throw out advanced works into the sea. 



Cicero, both by his writings and his example, introduced a greater modera- 

 tion of taste. In his villa at Tusculum he had covered alleys and terraces,, 

 and in imitation of the philosophic gardens of ancient Greece he called 

 one the Academy and another the Lyceum. Neither Virgil nor Horace 

 have left us descriptions of the gardens of their time, and although we have 

 frequent allusions to sylvan beauties and to flowers, these authors give us 

 no information as to the artistic disposition of gardens. But, among 

 Roman writers of the classical period, we have three, Varro, Columella 

 and Pliny, who have all left valuable accounts of the gardens of their 



