Dendroepigraphy: Botanical Realities in a Bucolic Motif

Abstract

The dendroepigraphy motif, in which characters carve texts into trees, can be read in light of botanical science as a hermeneutic tool for Latin bucolic poetry. Widespread interest in arboriculture among Roman elites, including agricultural treatises discussing tree and bark damage, suggests that readers and writers of bucolic were familiar enough with tree science to understand the botanical effects of carving long texts into trees. This approach reveals that the dendroepigraphy motif does more than signal the intrusion of elegy into the bucolic world, but also encourages ironic readings of inscribed texts or metaphorizes the poet's engagement with bucolic predecessors.