The origin of the fig, olive, and vine trees kept in the forum are told to us by the elder Pliny:

"There is a tree of the same kind yet living, which came to grow of it selfe, no man knoweth how, in the middest of the Forum Romanum, and that in the very place where was the deepe chinke and gaping of the ground, that menaced the ruine of the Romane Empire, which fatall and portentious gulfe, the renowned knight Curtius filled up with the best things that were to be found in the citie, to wit, his Vertue & Pietie incomparable, testified by a most brave and glorious death. In the very same place likewise there is an Olive and a Vine, which came thither by as meere a chaunce, but afterwards well looked and trimmed by the whole people for to enjoy of the shade thereof."

To read more of Pliny, click here.