THE GARDENS OF ANCIENT ROME 
AND WHAT GREW IN THEM 
By ST. CLAIR BADDELEY 
T he word bortus in early days seems to 
have signified an orchard or a garden 
indifferently. And perhaps no argument is 
needed to persuade us, that, with an agricul¬ 
tural people such as the ancient Romans, 
the garden was for a long period a purely 
practical adjunct to the residence; the 
necessary and increasingly important com¬ 
panion to the house which it supplied ; and 
the refuse of which fed the dog and the pig. 
We may thus take for certain that this 
humble position was fulfilled by it long 
years before it became so matured as to give 
birth to the separate flower-garden. What 
flowers, sacred and others, were grown, 
probably grew as strips in what we should 
call a kitchen-garden. 
The villa, of course, had no being as yet. 
Pliny states that he finds no mention of the 
villa in the XII Tables, “ nusquam nominatin' 
villa," but only the word bortus , signifying 
the “ bin a jugera" or two acres inheritable 
by the heir to the house. 
In those early days of Rome, the wood¬ 
lands, with their dark ilex shadows and 
gnarled trunks, were not regarded as places 
of delight and attraction ; they were not yet 
“ vocales ” or “ venerabiles" so much as dan¬ 
gerous, black and oracular, as were our own 
forests to the medieval mind; they were 
looked upon with awe and fear, as “ selve 
oscure" “ caligantes nigra Jormidine." In 
them you would be likely to meet wild beasts, 
bandits or apparitions. But, besides these, 
there were many strips of woodland, or at any 
rate preserved portions left over from clear¬ 
ings, which were consecrated to one or other 
divinity, which might neither be cut nor 
utilized for “ mast ” or fuel, by man or pig, 
without due and formal act of expiation. 
Such were the “ nemus ” and the “ Incus ”—a 
subject for separate treatment. 
So too, in the garden, there came to be 
cultivated plants which, besides being good 
for food, were raised for ritual uses, garlands, 
decorations and sacrificial fuel, and also, no 
doubt, for salves and medicines. 
The semi-volcanic soil of Rome possesses 
innate genius for growing good vegetables. 
For variety of salads, no city in Europe 
should excel Rome; though it may be 
thought that the hotel-keepers might, rather 
oftener than they do, permit their guests to 
experience these pleasant possibilities. Yet 
it is certain that, in the early days to which 
I am referring, the number of fruits and 
vegetables was strictly limited, as compared 
with imperial and modern days, when im¬ 
portations from all parts of the then known 
world continually arrived to enrich both 
garden and cuisine of the Roman house or 
villa. It is perhaps impossible now to de¬ 
termine precisely all the strictly indigenous 
vegetables which the early Romans used— 
I mean in those days when the meat-meal 
occurred but once a day, and when libations 
were made, not yet with wine, but with 
milk or honey. 
Referring to those days of simplicity, 
Varro says, “ avi et atavi nostri , cum allio ac 
c<epe eorum verba olerent, tamen optime animati 
eranti.e., vigorous folks as they were, 
our forebears flavored their speech with 
onion and garlic; and if we turn for a 
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