BOSCHI E FORESTE NELL’ITALIA ROMANA FRA SACRALITÀ E SFRUTTAMENTO

Abstract

In the economy of the ancient world, woods and forests had an economic importance incomparably greater than the modern one, wood being
almost the only fuel of the time and much more used than today both in architecture and in the manufacture of war machines. Furthermore,
the trunk of some conifers was used to obtain the resin called pix, used to waterproof both ships and amphorae and also as an instrumentum inscriptum.
However, with the exception of the woods from which tree resin was obtained, the most prized quality of which was Bruttia, which
had to be preserved for exploitation, the Romans did not develop an ecological sensitivity. The intangibility of the sacred groves, in fact, was
determined by religion and they were protected from exploitation and commercial activities (res extra commercium): they also ignited the imagination
of the Romans because they were considered the site of wonders and semi-divine creatures that instilled fear or even erotic attraction, like
the Nymphs: it was believed that the Nymph Egeria had dictated the laws to Numa Pompilius and that the old king had been conquered by the
sensuality of the young goddess in a relationship of ‘role reversal’; on the contrary, the nymph Aura, the breeze that blows in the woods, had
been raped and impregnated by Dionysus. The sacred woods, due to their pagan connotations, were the first victims of Christian fanaticism and
its sexophobia, while the ‘profane’ woods continued to be exploited and there is news that Pope Gregory the Great sent 20 enormous beams to
Rome from Bruttii to St. Peter's Basilica. Exploitation began deforestation which, worsened by climate change, has consequences to this day.
However, the Romans, taking into account the technologies of the time, were able to deal with hydro-geological emergencies much better than
the moderns: the Roman bridges and aqueducts are still standing and often functioning, while the bridges that collapsed from Italy to India and
the loss of product from modern cement aqueducts confirms the unsurpassed quality of Roman lime.

KEYWORDS
Aura, Bruttii, Egeria, lex luci, Numa, pix.