PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY

BOOK XII

...to speak of trees before other things, and to introduce the origins of our customs.

3II. These [trees] were the temples of the gods. In ancient times, even in simple rural areas, people dedicated trees of exceptional stature to a god. We do not worship statues gleaming with gold and ivory any more than we worship groves and the very silence within them. Certain kinds of trees are kept perpetually dedicated to their own deities: the oak to Jupiter, the bay to Apollo, the olive to Minerva, the myrtle to Venus, and the poplar to Hercules. Furthermore, we believe that the Silvani and Fauns, as well as various types of goddesses, are assigned to the forests as their own special divinities from heaven.
4Later, trees with juices more pleasant than grain softened the life of man. From them, the liquor of oil refreshes the limbs, and draughts of wine restore strength. Finally, there are all the flavors provided by the spontaneous generosity of the year, and fruits—which, though we might fight wild beasts for them, and though fish fattened on the corpses of shipwrecked men are sought after, are even now considered a second course.
5Furthermore, there are a thousand uses for them without which life could not be lived. With a tree, we furrow the seas and bring lands closer together; with a tree, we construct roofs. The statues of the deities were also made of wood, before the value of the corpses of beasts was conceived, and before the privilege of luxury, born from the gods, led us to use that same ivory...