Reportedly discovered in the Orient and brought to Breece by Alexander the Great, the lemon was called malum medicum (the fruit or apple of the Medes) by the Romans.(1) Wall-paintings in the House of the Fruit Orchard in Pompeii show trees laden with lemons, along with cherries, yellow and purple plums, pears, pomegranates, grapes and strawberries, interspersed with a wide variety of flowers and birds.(2) A cold-sensitive tropical plant, it was carefully acclimatized, through hothouse cultivation then in the open air.(3)
footnotes & bibliography
(1) Giacosa, Ilaria Gozzini; A Taste of Ancient Rome; University of Chicago; 1992; p12
(2) Johnson, Stephen; Rome and its Empire; Routledge; 1989; p140
(3) Giacosa; p12