This conference proceedings from a 2013 colloquium held at the Fondation Hardt explores ‘the multiplicity of spaces that qualified as gardens in Antiquity’ (p. 2). Besides an introduction, the volume contains eight essays on ancient gardens, chronologically organised from ancient Egypt to Late Antiquity.
C. introduces the volume with an artful discussion of Statius’ description of Melior's Plane Tree in Silvae 2.3.1–5 and outlines the scope of the volume. The individual contributions focus on gardens from ‘specific moments and locations within those three millennia of ancient Mediterranean history’ (p. 2), using interdisciplinary approaches.
Loeben's paper considers garden paintings from approximately 50 tombs that appear to depict daily life and gardens of Pharaonic Egypt. Loeben demonstrates that these paintings reflect how nature had a religious and cultic role in ancient Egypt. He compares these paintings to archaeologically-known gardens from Tell el-Dab'a in the eastern Nile Delta. Loeben's contribution encourages Classical scholars to consider how Egyptian gardens related to Greek and Roman gardens.
Dalley examines the use of the male and female date palm as a sculptural motif in the interior and exterior decoration of second millennium b.c. Mesopotamian temples during the Elamite period. The representation of these date palms seems to reproduce the concept of the sacred grove in religious architecture. In light of this evidence, Dalley explores the symbolism of gendered representations of the date palm in epic literature, showing definitively that the palm frond became a symbol of order over chaos. Dalley concludes by demonstrating the continued importance of the date palm in religious rituals in the region and its role as a symbol of victory on coins in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Dalley's chapter reminds us of the Ancient Near East's lasting influence on the horticultural traditions of the Greeks and Romans.
Prioux's essay focuses on the complex relationship between gardens and Greek and Latin literature, with specific emphasis on the image of the garden as evidence for stylistic discourses in ancient literature (p. 87). This chapter, although compelling in its argument that authors used the literary trope of the garden to take a position in stylistic debates of their eras, only draws upon literary evidence.
Herod's use of Roman architectural techniques is well attested. In his essay, Taylor argues that Herod used gardens and his role as ‘garden maker’ (p. 145) to express his allegiance to Rome. Although Taylor acknowledges that Herod's architecture and landscapes had ‘radical hybridity and fluidity’ (p. 188), he argues that the sunken garden at his Third Winter Palace at Jericho and at his Summer Place at Herodium were primarily modelled on those of luxury villas in Roman Italy, an interesting and controversial hypothesis. While he makes a compelling case for the design of the sunken garden at Winter Palace at Jericho as Roman-inspired, his discussion of the landscapes and pool complex at the Summer Palace at Herodium is less so. The Summer Palace had a circular island, for which the best parallels are the island palace of Qasr el-Abd (also known as ‘Iraq al Amir) and the Petra Garden Pool Complex, both in modern Jordan. Surprisingly, the gardens and pools of the palaces of the Hasmonean dynasty, whom Herod replaced, are not discussed.
Next, Marzano explores the botanical imperialism that Romans practised in the late Republic. This topic has been well explored in the context of the city of Rome's public gardens, such as Porticus Pompeiana. Marzano's primary focus on private gardens serves as a stimulating addition to this discussion. She convincingly argues that plants were not merely symbols of military victory, or ‘souvenirs’, or a reflection of the Roman elite's desire to have new plants and fruits in their gardens, or elite self-presentation, but the new imported plants represented all of these things (p. 195). Although her approach is largely literary, Marzano integrates some, but not all the recent archaeological work on the movement of plants in the Roman world and planting techniques.
Bergmann focuses on the paramount importance of boundaries in Roman gardens and conceptions of landscape. Bergmann examines this topic through a focused study of schematic, abstract and minimalistic landscape and garden scenes with boundaries that were painted in porticos and domestic interiors in the first century a.d. Using art historical, archaeological and textual evidence, Bergmann argues that these garden vignettes function as mental ‘windows’ (p. 255) to provide views of the bounded landscape, much like those experienced in a villa. She argues that boundaries, surveying as a way of reading landscape and the new vocabulary of the Roman garden reflect the new agri-, horti- and abori-culture, as well as the new architecture that emerged in the first century b.c. (p. 274). Lastly, she demonstrates that there was a close tie between surveying and garden planning, and argues that the aesthetics of the boundary and the physical act of surveying were ‘expression of the larger spatial and cultural environment of Italy in the 1st century bce and 1st century ce’ (p. 252).
Caneva explores how representations of gardens and plants in Roman (and Pompeian) wall paintings and sculpture expressed religious and spiritual values. She includes a useful table of plant species represented in Rome and the Bay of Naples (pp. 316–28). Her analysis of several well-known paintings and sculptural gardens is problematic. Her interpretation of the garden room at the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta as an expression of divine forces seems hard to substantiate on the basis of the iconography of the plants and the depiction of the trees. Her interpretation seems largely dependent on the association of the Villa with Livia rather than on its iconography. Likewise, her discussion of the wall paintings in the Auditorium of Maecenas also suffers from the same problem of trying to locate the divine in what was clearly a sophisticated piece of architecture in a luxurious horti without sufficient evidence. Caneva's analysis of the wall paintings in the House of the Golden Bracelet in Pompeii as a representation of love in the cycle of life has the same issue. Her interpretation of the sculptural representations on the Ara Pacis is a condensed version of her previous work. Engagement with discussions of spirituality, religion and the garden in ancient literature might have made her arguments more compelling.
Late-antique and early Christian gardens remain under-researched. The final essay by Lane Fox is a particularly welcome contribution, as it explores the tension and paradoxes in early Christian gardens. Lane Fox does this by considering Christian attitudes to ‘pagan’ and Christian gardens in discrete sections: (1) the ‘pagan’ garden, (2) Christian attitudes, (3) Paradise, (4) Gardens in Christian literature, and (5) Christian gardeners. In these texts, the garden emerges as a place of spiritual retreat but also a place of temptation and eroticism with which early Christians wrestled. Lane Fox demonstrates that grand gardens and frivolous flower gardens were problematic for early Christians, but gardening in a productive vegetable garden emerged as a Christian-approved activity.
The discussions about each paper are included and allow the reader to access the views and stimulating comments of the other scholars and audience members on the papers and the discussions that ensued.
Together these essays demonstrate the potency of the garden as a dynamic moral, religious and cultural art form in the ancient world. As C. notes in her introduction, gardens need further study (p. 23), and this interesting volume should certainly spur on more scholarship on ancient gardens.
