The Roseshards Story begins with tales from the ancient world of Alexander the Great, a rose aficionado and an early graffiti practitioner. (For more background on Asphalt Rainbow, check out the Olfactive Story and Brief.)

No flower in the history of perfumery has been more revered than the rose. Native to Asia, Europe, North America, and North Africa, its scent has been used for seduction and healing since early human history.

Ethnobotanists believe the rose may have originated in Central Asia roughly 70 million years ago during the Eocene epoch, before spreading across the Northern Hemisphere. Fossil evidence, including specimens discovered in the Florissant Fossil Beds of Colorado, dates back over 40 million years. While estimates vary, most botanists suggest between 100 and 150 wild rose species exist globally. Through extensive interbreeding by cultivators, thousands of varieties now exist.

Human fascination with the rose has expanded both its distribution and its range of scent profiles. Some roses carry olfactive notes reminiscent of musk, myrrh, violet, clove, and even pine. Of these, only a small number are primarily used in perfumery: Rosa damascena from Bulgaria, Rosa centifolia from southern France and Morocco, and Rosa gallica from Turkey.

Evidence suggests roses held significance in Mesopotamian cultures, but their widespread adoption is most closely associated with Greco-Roman society. Early Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans cultivated, studied, and traded roses, as documented in the writings of Pliny the Elder and Theophrastus. As these cultures expanded, rose cultivation and rose-based materials spread across the Mediterranean and beyond.

According to the Greek historian Herodotus (490 to 420 BC), the Phrygian King Midas cultivated highly fragrant roses in his Cretan gardens. Following his defeat by the Persian army, these roses were transported back to Macedonia. They are believed to correspond to Rosa damascena var. semperflorens, often referred to as the “King’s rose.” Within these Macedonian gardens, Alexander the Great may have first encountered roses in a cultivated setting.

While best known for his military campaigns, Alexander the Great (Alexander III of Macedon) is also associated with the spread of rose cultivation across Europe. He carried roses during his conquests and is said to have sent newly encountered cultivars back to Macedonia.

A student of Aristotle until the age of sixteen, Alexander was exposed to botanical study during his early education. That exposure likely contributed to a sustained interest in the rose, not only as a botanical subject but as something that could be moved, exchanged, and introduced into new environments.

The earliest known record of roses in Egyptian history appears in the form of a hieroglyph discovered in the tomb of Pharaoh Thutmose IV (circa 1600 BC). Alexander’s presence in Egypt is often linked to the broader adoption of roses within Egyptian culture. After a six-month stay in Egypt, where he was declared pharaoh in 332 BC, depictions and uses of the rose became more prominent, particularly during the Ptolemaic period.

Cleopatra VII (69 to 30 BC), for example, is described in historical accounts and later literary works as surrounding herself with rose so that its scent permeated the air and remained intimately associated with her presence. Just ask Plutarch, or Shakespeare.

In Egypt, the rose became associated with the goddess Isis, symbolizing both love and the cycle of life. Historical records suggest that texts dedicated to Alexander’s study of roses may have once existed within the libraries of Alexandria. Rose was also used as an ingredient in pharaonic kyphi preparations and in formulations discovered in Mendes. During this period, rose was used across genders and reflected social class more than identity. Within cultivated spaces, it held a position of prominence.

Viewed through the lens of movement and distribution, Alexander’s role reflects more than admiration. His actions contributed to the relocation of materials, practices, and symbolic associations across regions. The rose did not remain fixed. It traveled, adapted, and embedded itself into new cultural contexts.

“Human culture has been identifying themselves on walls and in places forever.”
– Bomb It, directed by Jon Reiss, 2007

Many street art historians consider Alexander the Great an early example of graffiti practice. As he moved through conquered territories, he is said to have marked walls with his name and associated his presence with the cities he established or renamed, with Alexandria in Egypt standing as the most well known example.

These acts of naming and marking go beyond administration. They function as assertions of presence within a physical environment. A wall, a city, or a monument becomes a surface through which identity is declared and recorded.

The parallel to street art lies in this same impulse. Marking space becomes a way of communicating existence, authorship, and position. The surface is not neutral. It becomes part of the message. The act of placing a name or mark in public space transforms that space into a carrier of meaning.

In this sense, Alexander’s inscriptions reflect an early form of spatial communication. Presence is not only demonstrated through movement or conquest, but through the act of leaving something behind that persists after the moment of contact.

In the next part of the Roseshards Story, we will look more closely at the ritual use and cultural significance of the rose within Greco-Roman society.