Posted on 05/15/2025 9:24:08 AM PDT by george76
The chestnut trees of Europe tell a hidden story charting the fortunes of ancient Rome and the legacy it left in the continent's forests.
The ancient Romans left an indelible imprint on the world they enveloped into their empire. The straight, long-distance roads they built can still be followed beneath the asphalt of some modern highways. They spread aqueducts, sewers, public baths and the Latin language across much of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. But what's perhaps less well known is the surprising way they transformed Europe's forests.
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Romans had something of a penchant for sweet chestnut trees, spreading them across Europe. But it wasn't so much the delicate, earthy chestnuts they craved – instead, it was the fast-regrowing timber they prized most, as raw material for their empire's expansion. And this led to them exporting tree cultivation techniques such as coppicing too, which have helped the chestnut flourish across the continent.
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The oldest known sweet chestnut tree in the world is found in Sicily, Italy, and is thought to be up to 4,000 years old.
Wood for fortresses
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By the Middle Ages, long after the Romans were gone, many historical texts document the dominance of sweet chestnut production and the importance of foods such as chestnut flour in Ticino, says Krebs. "In our valleys, chestnuts were the most important pillar of subsistence during the Middle Ages."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Read Ancient Rome: How it Affects Us Today by Richard Maybury.
"Ancient Rome" discusses what happens when higher law principles and a free market economy are ignored. Mr. Maybury uses historical events to explain current events, including the wars in the former Soviet Empire, and the legal and economic problems of America today. Is your government making the same choices that led to the fall of Ancient Rome? Will history repeat?
Romans roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at the air…
We planted hybrids
Shame on me for not remembering the exact type.
I have 2 +- 30 year old American Chestnuts that do well … when the squirrels don’t beat us to them..
A neighboring farm has 12 ea 60 year old American chestnuts (no blight) huge trees. His other 20 acres are grapes, apples and open space. His best profit is from his chestnuts. We live in California foothills 2 hrs from the Bay Area. Very popular crop with the Asians.
I have a good publication a friend gave me on growing chestnuts + history I wish I could post here. I think blight problems are for areas of the country that have large populations. Here they are more scattered out here. Our plan is to plant several on the upper parts of the property along wooded area for the future beings.
Good publication if interested (18 pages) history, charts etc
https://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/chestnut/breeding/planting/chestnut-culture-in-california
Slavery, wealth concentration, and the destruction of the rural free holding middle class weakened them.
The unending flow of free slave labor and consequently no free mass market removed any impetus for financial or mechanical/industrial innovation.
The Roman oligarchy destroyed Rome the minute Roman virtue became a punch line. At that point their indolence and deviancy condemned them to the first vigorous race who came along.
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