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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.
...
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.
...
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
...
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 ...
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Whoa that is quite a tree. Yours?
We just planted a dozen of them. At 75 I doubt I’ll lay under their shade but what wonderful trees to grow
That is so cool. History leaves many signs, not all of them are monuments or ruins.
Alright, but apart from the Chestnut Trees, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Did you plant chinese chestnuts, american chestnuts or the new hybrids?
(I wonder why the european chestnuts mentioned in this article were not hit by the blight—like their american chestnut counterparts.)
I would assume that since the US has looked to the chinese chestnut for blight resistance—the european chestnut trees did not have such resistance. If so why were they not struck by the blight—as happened in the USA
Water’s role in the rise and fall of the Roman Empire..
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3236958/posts
All right, but apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, public health, (and Chestnut trees), what have the Romans ever done for us?
Roman ship had on-board fish tank: Hand-operated pump would have kept catch alive during long trips..
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2729030/posts
Rome’s Ancient Aqueduct Found..
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/2591055/posts
The Barbarian sacks of America would have signalled the beginning of the end of the USA if the American People had not been smart enough to elect Donald Trump to the Presidency and thus reverse the Decadence of Western Civilization in America and the restoration of the USA to ascendancy.
We didn’t need Rome for any of these things....not even a tad.
Yet we must be grateful for the Chestnut Trees, for without them what would be put our holiday tables under and whom would we run to?
Thanks george76.
LOL!
Our Republican form of government is a nearly direct copy of the Roman Republic, especially our Senate and Executive.
Water pipes, aquaducts , sewage systems all trace directly to Roman tech.
Same for the way we build roads and bypasses. You can go to the UK and still drive over Roman roads.
Check this out...
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1f2gnmt/cross_section_of_a_road_in_england/
The Romans were a few years from industrial age achievements they had a primitive steam turbine the aeolipile that has all the principles of a turbine. Hero’s water pump and wind organ both have the types of cylinders you need for steam engines. They were but a single thought away from an industrial kick off. Imagine the world today if the industrial revolution started in 50 BCE not the 1800s we would be at least everywhere in the solar system and probably out in interstellar space with fusion or antimatter starships real starships the kind you spend a lifetime on never coming back to earth.
https://foresightguide.com/50CE-a-steam-engine-in-ancient-rome/
The Romans fundamentally changed our species trajectory it was the blood feud between Venice and Genoa that prompted Columbus who was from Genoa to look for a way to get to India via sailing west since Venice controlled the Eastern route.
Lead poisoning stopped them.
Not my tree. I posted it from the article. Impressive!
Trees
By Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
mark
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