BOTANIZING RULERS AND THEIR HERBAL SUBJECTS: PLANTS AND POLITICAL POWER IN GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE

This paper argues that plants are sometimes made to play the role of “biographical objects” in Greek and Roman texts. The stories linking plants and three rulers (Attalus iii, Mithradates vi, and Juba ii) suggest that the rhetoric of power associated with the Greek or oriental practice of botany was...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhoenix (Toronto) Vol. 66; no. 1/2; pp. 122 - 144
Main Author Laurence Totelin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Classical Association of Canada 2012
Subjects
Bibliographies
Botanical gardens
Frankincense
Gardens
Herbs
Plants
Slaves
Street trees
Treatises
Trees
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Summary:This paper argues that plants are sometimes made to play the role of “biographical objects” in Greek and Roman texts. The stories linking plants and three rulers (Attalus iii, Mithradates vi, and Juba ii) suggest that the rhetoric of power associated with the Greek or oriental practice of botany was only progressively accepted by the Romans.
ISSN:0031-8299
1929-4883
DOI:10.7834/phoenix.66.1-2.0122