What the Roman Emperor Tiberius
Grew in his Greenhouse
Jules Janick
Purdue University
West Lafayette Indiana 47907-2010, USA
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus
42 BCE to 37 CE; reign from 14 to 37 CE
Villa Jovis
Roman Emperor at Jesus Crucifixion
New Testament references:
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius
Caesar. Pontius Pilate being governor of
Judeae … Luke 3:1.
Render therefore unto Caesar the things
which are Caesar’s and unto God the
things that are God’s. Matthew 22:17.
Two 1st century Roman works mention
Tiberius, protogreenhouse, and cucurbits
Luciuis Junius Mereratus
Columella
De Re Rustica (On Agriculture)
Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny
the Elder) Historia Naturalis
(Natural History)
Columella
Anyone who wishes to have the fruits of cucumis ripe
earlier than usual should, when midwinter is past,
produced well-manured soil enclosed in baskets and give it
a moderate amount of water; then, when the seeds have
come up, he should place the baskets in the open air on
warm and sunny days near a building, so that they may be
protected from any blasts of wind; but if it be cold and
stormy, he should bring them back under cover and
continue to do so until the spring equinox is over. He
should then sink the whole baskets into the ground. He will
thus have early fruits. Is also possible, if it be worth the
trouble, for wheels to be put under larger vessels, so that
they may be brought out and taken indoors again with less
labour. In any case the vessels ought to be covered with
specularibus so that even in cold weather, when the days
are clear, they be safely be brought out into the sun. By
this method Tiberius Caesar was supplied with cucumis
during almost the whole year. (11, 3, 52–53)
Pliny
Cucumis was a delicacy for which the emperor
Tiberius had a remarkable partiality: in fact there
was never a day on which he was not supplied with it,
as his kitchen gardeners had cucumis beds mounted
on wheels which they moved out into the sun and then
on wintry days withdrew under the cover of frames
glazed with transparent stone (mica). (19, 23, 64)
What is cucumis referred to by both
Columella and Pliny?
Cucumis generally translated as cucumber
Gerard 1597
Ash 1941 (Columella translator)
Jones 1951 (Pliny translator)
Whitaker and Davis 1962
Kirkbride 1993
Robinson and Decker Walters 1997
Jeffrey 2001
Pliny refers to cucumis and cucurbita as:
Cartilagenous (pliable) fruits
Normally prostrate on the ground but
could also climb
Cucumis composed of cartilage (pliable
skin) and flesh
Cucurbita composed of cartilage and rind
which becomes woody when ripened
Cucumis describes various types of
“melon” (Citrullus, Cucumis, Ecballium)
Columella
Twisted
Bluish with swollen womb, hairy
Snake like
Foul juice
Whitish, turns yellow when ripe
Chate melon ‘Carosello Barese’
(top) and Bet Alfa-type
cucumber ‘Shimshon’ (bottom)
Chate melon (Vesling 1640)
Cucumber ‘Shimshon’ (left) and snake melon ‘Striped Snake’ (right)
Pliny
Vary when grown in different regions
Grow into any shaper forced to take
Blossoms covered with white down
Round (quince-like) forms in Campania, &
fruit separates from stalk when ripe,
aromatic
Very large ones in Moesia called pepones
(watermelon = Citrullus)
Wild cucumis is a source of elaterium
(squirting cucumber = Ecballium elaterium)
Wild cucumis called colocynthi (Colocynth =
Citrullis colocynthis)
Cucurbita describes bottle gourd (Lagenaria)
Columella
Swelling
Sometimes hang from arbors
Sometimes snake-like
If you want long ones, select seed from the neck
If you want globular ones, choose seed from
midbelly
Use for vessels, water pails, wine flask, or floats for
teaching boys to swim
Pliny
Long ones used for culinary purposes
Seeds nearest the neck produce long gourds
An accurate understanding of the history and
development of food plants requires critical evaluation
and comparison of widely interdisciplinary evidence
from horticulture botany, archaeology, history, and
philology (Dalby 2003)
Plant iconography has played the most important role in
the accurate identification of cucurbit taxa in the
Renaissance (Eisendrath 1961) especially with regard
to the American genus Cucurbita (Paris 2001).
Although, detailed depictions and accurate descriptions
of cucurbits are much scarcer in medieval times and
antiquity they are scattered but they exist.
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)
Egyptian Old Kingdom
(3100–2100 BCE)
Villa Farnesina (1515–1518)
Korea (1504–1551)
Caravaggio 1603
Roman Watermelon
Carthage 4th century
Greece 4–5th century
Greece 6th century
Melon (Cucumis melo) from Egypt
Egyptian Old Kingdom
(1550–1300 BCE)
Egyptian Old Kingdom
(1550–1300 BCE)
Egyptian Old Kingdom
(1550–1300 BCE)
Egyptian New Kingdom
(1517–1192 BCE)
Melons from Roman Empire 2nd–6th century
Tunisia 2nd century
Thessaloniki 3nd century
Egyptian
Old Kingdom
(1550–1300 BCE)
Pierce vires
Mérida, Spain
approx.
4th century
Shimauri stripe
Cucumis melo Flexuosus
Lebanon 6th
century
Tunisia 3rd
century
Tunisia 3rd century
Green snake
Stripe snake
Roman Melons
Rome 4th century
Tunisia 4th century
Bottle gourd
(Lagenaria siceraria)
Bottle gourd
Pompeii cupping vessel 1st century
Cucurbitula Latin
Sikya Greek
Tunisia 2nd century
Jonah and the gourd
Tunisia 3rd–4th century
Turkey 270–280
Aquileia, Italy 4th century
Villa Farnesina 1515–1518
Lagenaria siceraria var. longissima
Lagenaria siceraria var. a fiasco
Bottle gourd
(Lagenaria siceraria)
Greece 1677
Sicily
Colocynth
(Citrullus colocynthis)
Dioscorides, De Materia Medica
Aniciae Julianae Codex, ca. 512
Squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium)
Temple of Karnak 1450 BCE
Israel 2007
Juliana Anicia Codex 512
Cucumber
(Cucumis sativus)
1335
Lochis Madonna, 1480, Carlo Crivelli
Villa Farnesina 1515–1518
Cucumis sativus
Cucumber
Pisa Cathedral 1601
Still Life with Vegetables and Fruits, 1602–1603
Juan Sanchez Cotan
Conclusions
The cucumis beloved by Tiberius appears to be Cucumis melo
Flexuosus Group and not cucumber based on:
1. Descriptions of cucumis in Columella and Pliny excludes
cucumber (snake-like, hairy).
2. The tubercules common on the fruit which would have been
noticed are not mentioned.
3. Absence of any cucumber images in antiquity.
4. First images of cucumber are found in 1335 suggesting
cucumber arriving late in Europe probably with mogul
invasions of the west beginning with Genghis Khan.
5. Subsequent images of cucumber in the West are very
similar indicating the introduction of one specific type.
The mistranslation of cucumis for cucumber is probably due to the
similarity of its name with cucumis and cucurbita.