The Olive in the Roman World

Who would've guessed that olives were so essential to Roman life? The thought of an olive usually brings to mind a little salty, black food with a hole in it. This is a very great misinterpretation of the value that this incredible typical cuisine carries with it. With dozens of uses, olives have been a very undervalued and little understood fruit for what an important role they have played throughout history.

The use of olives goes back thousands of years. There have been archeological findings in the past that has found that the olive was one of the main fruits produced in Rome. In the site they discovered that the olive made up 60% of the orchard ground area. It was discovered that the expansion of the olive farming was formed through large investments in olives presses, nurseries, and real estate. It required a significant amount of risk as well from the farmers and landowners as well. Whether food, fuel, or flavoring, there is no denying that olives played a significant role in the Roman culture.

Olives played a valuable role in the health and economic stability of the Romans. Since the olive is a plant that prefers a temperate climate, it grows only in select places, but luckily for the Romans, it was abundant in Italy. The long-distance trade of the olive also was a large part of the Mediterranean sea traffic, so the olives were also a key component in trade and wealth distribution. From olive oil to food for livestock, it is hard to imagine how the Roman economy would have fared without the olive. The olive was known as a delectable fruit that could be preserved through salting, smoking, and pickling processes, but was far from limited to that single use.

Lighting was another key role that the olive played in history. The oil from the olives could supply over 100 hours of light per liter, so it is thought that the Romans may have used millions of liters per year of olive oil to light their city. This would be made through the use of olive mills to pulp the flesh and nut to make a paste for the press.

The tree itself is quite the spectacle. Some olive trees can live to be centuries old, and others over a thousand years old. There are olive trees in existence today that were planted by the Romans. These amazing trees are able to survive for so long due to their ability to recover from fire, disease, old age, and frost damage. New suckers rise from the root bowl, and rejuvenate the tree.

Throughout our travels, we have seen the value of the olive and the products that came from it. These travels and first-hand experiences have helped us to gain a new appreciation for these everyday products that we sometimes take for granted. From the thousand-year-old olive stone crushers in Orvieto to the delicious olives and olive oil that we ate in Rome, olives still play a large role in Italian society today.