Roman Gardens and Landscape Architecture

Abstract

Gardens are highly constructed spaces, where art, science, and nature intersect. The ancient Mediterranean, Egypt, and Near East had several well-developed garden traditions. Of these, the Romans developed one of the most complex gardening and horticultural traditions. Through archaeological, art-historical, and textual evidence, we can understand how Roman gardens evolved; their diverse socioeconomic, political, and cultural meanings in the Roman world; and how these gardens were constructed. Although landscape architecture would not be formally recognized as a discipline for centuries, the Romans had a well-developed tradition of landscape architecture, as well as individuals—the toparius—whom scholars can identify as proto-landscape architects. Ancient Greece had gardens, although on a more limited scope and scale than the Romans, within houses and sacred groves. Alexander the Great’s conquests in the East transformed the garden traditions of the Mediterranean. His visits to major gardens and palaces of the Persian Empire brought him into direct contact with the complex gardening traditions, horticultural practices, and plants of western Asia, which were then transmitted to the Mediterranean. His successors and subsequent Hellenistic rulers constructed elaborate palatial gardens. Philosophical gardens, which had developed in the late classical period, remained popular during the Hellenistic era, although there is no archaeological evidence for such gardens. Rome, the ascendant power at the end of the first millennium bce, had an indigenous domestic garden tradition, where ownership of a garden was viewed as essential to the identity of the Roman citizen. The Romans developed the most extensive garden tradition of antiquity. Roman gardens ranged from domestic, villa, and palatial gardens to public parks and gardens associated with temples or sanctuaries. Garden and landscape paintings were an integral part of Roman houses and villas. Until the second half of the twentieth century, the study of Roman gardens was primarily a textual endeavor; however, W. F. Jashemski pioneered the use of garden archaeology at Pompeii and its environs. Archaeology is vital to the study of Roman gardens and landscape architecture because it provides direct information about landscape architecture, garden design, plantings, and use. While ancient sources are still critical to interpreting the physical remains of Roman gardens, archaeological discoveries enable scholars to consider sophisticated questions about design, plants, and horticultural techniques, as well as the meanings, purpose, and function of Roman gardens. Most studies examine Roman landscape design and theory in the context of specific gardens, because there are no surviving treatises about Roman landscape design or theory. As such, these issues will be considered alongside the discussions of different types of gardens.