Parker, John Henry: The archaeology of Rome (1,text): I. The primitive fortifications (Oxford [u.a.], 1874)

Section II. The Pomcerium of the Kings.

It is evident that it was at all times the custom to plant fruit-
trees, such as apples and pears, in the trenches round a city which
formed part of the defences, as may still be seen in most of the
great fortresses of Europe, and probably in other parts of the world
also. This custom is frequently mentioned in the historical books
of the Bible from the earliest period, long before the foundation of
Rome.
“ When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take
it, thou shalt not destroy the fruit-trees thereof by forcing an axe against them :
for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of
the field is man’s life) to employ them in the siege : only the trees which thou
knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down ;
and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until
it be subdued14.”
These trenches in Rome were from the earliest time called the
pomcerium, probably because they were chiefly orchards. In the
time of the Empire, seven hundred years afterwards, the original
meaning of the old local name of the time of the Kings had been
lost sight of; and the best definition of the word pomcerium that
Aulus Gellius could obtain, was post-murum, that is, behind the
outer wall, between that and the cliff which formed the inner
defences1. This ground cannot be allowed to be built upon, and
in order that it may not be wasted, it is used as a garden. In modern
Rome itself, at the present time, this is the case in the great trench
and slopes of the fortress of S. Angelo. In ancient Rome the Augurs
gave a religious sanction to the pomcerium, in order that the super-
stitious character of the people might be brought to bear for its
preservation.
The Etruscan rite of marking out the pomcerium was by per-
ambulating the space required for the defence of the city with

k Deut. xx. 19, 20.
1 There is always a space left inside
the wall, also to serve for a path for
the soldiers to man the walls and for
the sentinels.
The ancient Latins, equally with the
modern Italians, had the word poma-
rium, pomerium, or pomerio for a place

set with fruit-trees, an orchard, 7raptL
8eia-os ; and Seneca informs us that, at
Rome, they planted pomaria on the tops
of towers. See Senec., epist. 72. med.,
122, and cf. de Ira, lib. i. c. 16, § 31 ;
Controv., liv. v. c. 5 ; and Plin., Hist.
Nat., lib. xv. c. 14.

C 2