Most publications on Roman plants focus on their dietary or economic contributions, with the final product, the edible fruit, cereal, or vegetable component, being of primary concern. This book takes a novel approach to plant usage in the Roman world by stepping back to look at the plants and trees themselves. In eight chapters plus a conclusion, Marzano divides her time between the economics of ancient arboriculture and its role in Roman cultural discourse. Making use of a wide array of ancient literary, archaeological, and archaeobotanical evidence, the cultural complexity and practicalities of arboriculture are brought to life. She demonstrates how, as with many aspects of Roman culture, plants and their resultant products could lie on either side of a divide concerning the morally appropriate use of land. Focusing on the late Republic and early Imperial period, the book argues for an Augustan ‘horticultural revolution’ whereby the pax Romana combined with elite interest and investment in plants, particularly fruit trees, brought about a boom in both the variety and spread of new agricultural commodities. Grafting, a topic rarely explored by scholars of the ancient world, is also given ample attention.