For both common and elite inhabitants of ancient Rome, urban agriculture contributed greatly to their food security. It was not just an elite pastime which occurred on sumptuous villas in and around the city. Inhabitants rich and poor produced their own food in densely populated areas, even those not usually considered conducive to agriculture. The implications of urban food production in ancient Rome are momentous, as attested by examples in the modern day. Urban agriculture has sparked considerable interest in recent years with the proliferation of community gardens and even organic restaurants which serve produce grown on-site. It is not a new trend, however, as this study will illustrate. The presence of cultivars and even livestock in urban areas is probably as old as the idea of settlement itself.

Similarly, environmental concerns are paramount. Agriculture was vital to the lives of ancient Romans. Studying how they envisaged gardens, nature and farming enhances our understanding of how ancient populations interacted with their environments. This analysis of urban agriculture moves beyond simply focusing on the aesthetic aspects of elites' pleasure gardens to illuminate an often-ignored aspect of production. Gaining greater insight into how ancient populations fed themselves under adverse circumstances such as demographic shifts due to displacement from warfare or natural disasters which resulted in food shortages also makes a connection to modern agricultural production, urbanization and poverty, especially in the developing world. Ascertaining how ancient peoples generated food sufficient to support a city of perhaps a million inhabitants (in the case of Rome at its height), to say nothing of the vast numbers in the provinces without the advantages of modern agricultural technology such as synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, genetically modified crops and livestock or even the efficient use of animal power may offer beneficial applications in modern pre-industrial societies, most of which still feature economies based on agricultural production.

Until recently, scholarship regarding Rome's economy in general has largely ignored urban production and its role in shaping the empire's institutions, both in the heart of Roman Italy and throughout its provinces. M.I. Finley's consumer city model has become ever more problematic in light of recent archaeological evidence, however. As a consequence, reconsiderations of long-held beliefs regarding the ancient city have resulted in methodological changes for the study of Rome's economic, political and social history. This study contends, contra Finley, that ancient cities were more than parasitic entities devouring goods from the suburbium and rural zones by examining an often-overlooked aspect of rural and urban interaction: agricultural production in densely populated urban areas.

Urban agriculture made a vital contribution to the urban food supply. It also affected the ancient city politically, economically and socially, shaping the daily lives of residents from all social classes, income levels, ages and genders. Because of chronic dietary insecurity, home-produced foods often mean the difference between life and death for the poor living on the edge. There were also other tangible benefits: plants produced locally were used for medicinal and religious purposes. Rome's green spaces enhanced its air quality. These are just a few tangible benefits urban agriculture yields. In short, examining food production in and around cities yields a more complete view of the role of urban zones as consumers in the ancient world by acknowledging their role as producers.