The Cultivation and Conceptualization of Exotic Plants in the Greek and Roman Worlds

Abstract

This dissertation is an investigation into how plants provide a way to explore cultural interactions between Greece and Rome and the east. I use India, a region that remained consistently exotic to most Greeks and Romans throughout antiquity, as a test case to examine how eastern plants were received and integrated into Greek and Roman culture. Throughout I use my test case as a focus and as an object of comparison: India is a constant reminder of what was conceptualized as exotic. My methodology is primarily "plants in text," an approach that incorporates both the physical reality of plants for sale at the market as well as the imagined flora that grows at the end of the earth. The results of this inquiry show the value of investigating the cultural importance of plants and the mental constructs that surround them in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds.