Citrus fruits such as citrons and lemons were clear status symbols for the ancient Roman ruling elite, according to new research from Tel Aviv University.
Still life with glass bowl of fruit and vases. Roman painting from the House of Julia Felix in Pompeii, 63-79 CE.
“Today, citrus orchards are a major component of the Mediterranean landscape and one of the most important cultivated fruits in the region. But citrus is not native to the Mediterranean Basin and originated in Southeast Asia,” said Dr. Dafna Langgut, an archaeobotanist at Tel Aviv University and the author of a paper published in the journal HortScience.
“My findings show that citrons and lemons were the first citrus fruits to arrive in the Mediterranean and were status symbols for the elite. All other citrus fruits most probably spread more than a millennium later for economic reasons.”
Dr. Langgut analyzed a large collection of ancient texts, art, artifacts, and archaeobotanical remains.
“Citron, also known as etrogim, was the first citrus to spread west, apparently through Persia and the Southern Levant (citron botanical remains were found in a Persian royal garden near Jerusalem dated to the 5th and 4th centuries BC) and then to the western Mediterranean (early Roman period, third and second centuries BC),” the researcher said.
“It appears that the citron was considered a valuable commodity due to its healing qualities, symbolic use, pleasant odor and rarity. Only the rich could have afforded it. Its spread therefore was helped more by its high social status, its significance in religion and its unique features, rather than its culinary qualities.”
“The earliest lemon botanical remains, found in the Forum Romanum (Rome), date to right around the time of Jesus Christ, the end of the first century BC and early first century CE,” she added.
“It seems, therefore, that lemon was the second citrus species introduced to the Mediterranean.”
“The contexts of the botanical remains, in relation to elite gardens, show that in antiquity, both citrus and lemon were products representing high social status.”
According to the research, sour orange, lime and pomelo did not reach the Mediterranean until the 10th century CE.
“It is clear that Muslim traders played a crucial role in the dispersal of cultivated citrus in Northern Africa and Southern Europe,” Dr. Langgut said.
“It’s also evident because the common names of many of the citrus types were derived from Arabic, following an earlier diversification in Southeast Asia. Muslims controlled extensive territory and commerce routes from India to the Mediterranean.”
Sweet orange was introduced during the second half of the 15th century CE, probably via the trade route established by the Genoese, and later by the Portuguese.
Sticky-sweet mandarin reached the Mediterranean only in the early 19th century.
“It wasn’t until the 15th century that the sweet orange arrived on European tables. By the time mandarins appeared in the 19th century, citrus fruits were considered commonplace. They were cash crops rather than luxury items,” Dr. Lanngut said.
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Dafna Langgut. 2017. The Citrus Route Revealed: From Southeast Asia into the Mediterranean. HortScience 52 (6): 814-822; doi: 10.21273/HORTSCI11023-16
