Boston Flora

Tag: Roman Gardens

  • Tuesday, March 12, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Ancient Roots: How the Romans Invented Our Public Parks, Online

    Join The Gardens Trust and Gillian Hovell and discover how the ancient Romans set the seeds of the shape and uses of our modern gardens. Explore the truly ancient, vibrant and fascinating origins of our personal garden spaces and of the grandeur of public gardens. Find out why, if the Romans could have had ‘House and Garden’ magazines, they would have reveled in them! See gardens anew through ancient kitchen gardens, mythological stories, attitudes to wildlife and public parks that all still flourish in our green spaces. Then stroll through the gardens of Roman Pompeii, now blossoming with new insights. This fifth session on March 12 will discuss the origins of public parks.

    Just as our towns are adorned with green open spaces and public gardens open to all, so were the urban spaces of the Greeks and, later, to a greater degree, the Romans. Discover how the Romans invented the actual idea of public parks as we know them today. We follow the intriguing tale of how and why public spaces were first created. It’s not as altruistic or philanthropic as you might hope, but the results changed our town lives for ever.

    So what were the motives and the uses of this new concept? We explore the many and varied reasons that public gardens came into being and their diverse uses. Sacred, commercial, political, social, artistic, well-being, romantic and ritual moments, as well as a celebrity factor, are all here. Join Gillian for this special session that really does change the way you imagine Roman town life; it will also help you to see afresh how we use our own modern public garden spaces.

    After graduating with 2-1 (Hons) in Latin and Ancient History from Exeter University, Gillian Hovell worked in BBC Television and became an award-winning freelance writer, author, public speaker & broadcaster in the media and online. As an independent expert in the ancient world she specializes in archaeology, prehistory and in the Greek and Roman eras. She is a lecturer at York University and can be seen and heard on TV & Radio.

    Gillian has excavated at major sites in the UK and Europe (hence ‘The Muddy Archaeologist’) and she shares her expertise and her passion with diverse audiences in the UK and internationally. For history and archaeology are everywhere, and they add colour, depth and meaning to every aspect our lives today.

    Her series of The Muddy Archaeologist Online Courses enables you to explore ancient history, archaeology and Latin with her at any time. An ever-growing collection is available, and they can also be found on Gillian’s website here.

    This ticket (REGISTER HERE) is for this individual session and costs £8, and you may purchase tickets for o the entire course of 6 sessions at a cost of £42 via the link here. [Gardens Trust members may purchase tickets at £31.50 for the series or £6 each talk]. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

  • Tuesday, February 27, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Ancient Roots: Classical Stories Growing in Your Garden, Online

    Join The Gardens Trust and Gillian Hovell and discover how the ancient Romans set the seeds of the shape and uses of our modern gardens. Explore the truly ancient, vibrant and fascinating origins of our personal garden spaces and of the grandeur of public gardens. Find out why, if the Romans could have had ‘House and Garden’ magazines, they would have reveled in them! See gardens anew through ancient kitchen gardens, mythological stories, attitudes to wildlife and public parks that all still flourish in our green spaces. Then stroll through the gardens of Roman Pompeii, now blossoming with new insights. This third session on February 27 will follow the storytelling element in Roman gardens.

    We travel back, over 2,000 years to see the plants in our own gardens in the way the ancients did – as a wealth of stories. It seems that almost every plant in the Roman gardens had a story, myth or divine connection that added depth and atmosphere to their use in a garden. Join Gillian as she digs deep into our gardens and plants so that we discover and enjoy colorful and fantastical tales of myths, legends and gods and heroes that determined what plant you put where. It also created a hunger for outdoor works of art that were talking points and prompts to fill your gardens’ social spaces with remarkable stories.

    This is a session full of story-telling, rich with magical transformations, tragic tales and romance that will delight and entertain. Join Gillian and add a wealth of stories, colour and new connections to the plants in your garden today; you will see your trees and flowers in a whole new light!

    After graduating with 2-1 (Hons) in Latin and Ancient History from Exeter University, Gillian Hovell worked in BBC Television and became an award-winning freelance writer, author, public speaker & broadcaster in the media and online. As an independent expert in the ancient world she specializes in archaeology, prehistory and in the Greek and Roman eras. She is a lecturer at York University and can be seen and heard on TV & Radio.

    Gillian has excavated at major sites in the UK and Europe (hence ‘The Muddy Archaeologist’) and she shares her expertise and her passion with diverse audiences in the UK and internationally. For history and archaeology are everywhere, and they add colour, depth and meaning to every aspect our lives today.

    Her series of The Muddy Archaeologist Online Courses enables you to explore ancient history, archaeology and Latin with her at any time. An ever-growing collection is available, and they can also be found on Gillian’s website here.

    This ticket (REGISTER HERE) is for this individual session and costs £8, and you may purchase tickets for o the entire course of 6 sessions at a cost of £42 via the link here. [Gardens Trust members may purchase tickets at £31.50 for the series or £6 each talk]. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

  • Tuesday, February 13, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern (but recorded) – Ancient Roots: How the Romans Set the Seeds of Garden Design

    Join The Gardens Trust and Gillian Hovell and discover how the ancient Romans set the seeds of the shape and uses of our modern gardens. Explore the truly ancient, vibrant and fascinating origins of our personal garden spaces and of the grandeur of public gardens. Find out why, if the Romans could have had ‘House and Garden’ magazines, they would have reveled in them! See gardens anew through ancient kitchen gardens, mythological stories, attitudes to wildlife and public parks that all still flourish in our green spaces. Then stroll through the gardens of Roman Pompeii, now blossoming with new insights. This first session on February 13 will follow the blossoming of the amazing 2,000-year-old story of why we have gardens at all.

    This is a fascinating tale of how they grew in the Roman world to become so much more than a productive space by a house. As the Empire expanded and the ordinary people aspired to have show-off homes, the gardens rapidly became a work of art in themselves. Now, for the first time in history, they became the personal creative spaces we know and love today. You’ll be astonished at how much the Romans have shaped our modern gardens today: from practical suppliers of food to homely open spaces and grand vistas and landscapes. They all have fascinating ancient roots that reveal how gardens came to be our own social, spiritual and physical spaces. Greenery, space, status, pleasure and fun, places of togetherness and of meditative solitude … all these aspects have truly ancient roots.

    After graduating with 2-1 (Hons) in Latin and Ancient History from Exeter University, Gillian Hovell worked in BBC Television and became an award-winning freelance writer, author, public speaker & broadcaster in the media and online. As an independent expert in the ancient world she specializes in archaeology, prehistory and in the Greek and Roman eras. She is a lecturer at York University and can be seen and heard on TV & Radio.

    Gillian has excavated at major sites in the UK and Europe (hence ‘The Muddy Archaeologist’) and she shares her expertise and her passion with diverse audiences in the UK and internationally. For history and archaeology are everywhere, and they add colour, depth and meaning to every aspect our lives today.

    Her series of The Muddy Archaeologist Online Courses enables you to explore ancient history, archaeology and Latin with her at any time. An ever-growing collection is available, and they can also be found on Gillian’s website here.

    This ticket (REGISTER HERE) is for this individual session and costs £8, and you may purchase tickets for o the entire course of 6 sessions at a cost of £42 via the link here. [Gardens Trust members may purchase tickets at £31.50 for the series or £6 each talk]. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

  • Spring 2015, Mondays, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Roman Gardens

    Kathleen M. Coleman will present a new course at Harvard College’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences during the Spring, 2015 term entitled Roman Gardens. This seminar will study the botany, landscaping, cultivation, terminology, and social function of gardens in the Roman world, employing literary, epigraphic, papyrological, iconographic, and archaeological sources. Among the literary texts to be studied, including both prose and poetry, special emphasis will be placed on Latin treatises on horticulture from the Republic to Late Antiquity. To learn more about the course, visit http://isites.harvard.edu/course/colgsas-51347.  You may also email kcoleman@fas.harvard.edu.

    Professor Coleman is the James Loeb Professor of the Classics and Director of Undergraduate Studies. Her research interests include Latin literature, especially Flavian poetry, history and culture of the early Empire, arena spectacles, and Roman punishment.