The relationship between human activity and the forest seemed to coincide, in Greek and Roman civilisation, mainly with the exploitation of its forage resources for livestock feeding, but we can say without mistake that the Italian forest landscape, from the Roman period and until the second post-war period, was largely dominated by wild grazing, as we will demonstrate in the following chapters. The terms pasture and the terms forest and pasture were indeed used synonymously, at least until the twelfth century, when referring to pasture, it referred to a forest granting grazing rights. The term wood, according to Di Bérenger, derives from the Greek equivalent βοσκω (wood) which also meant pasture (Di Bérenger in Archeologia forestale, ossia, Dell’antica storia e giurisprudenza forestale in Italia. Longo, Treviso, 1863); the terminology used in the Roman period referred instead to the words silva, nemus and lucus. As we will see, the term forest is a Germanic origin word (Forst), indicating a high forests, often enclosed, but also forests with different characteristics from those present in the Mediterranean area. For Italy, it is probably more correct to speak of a wood. In roman times the nemus referred probably to a high forest with a low density, suitable for grazing. The lucus was instead a sacred forest dedicated to a pagan god, and was entrusted to the custody of a priest. Silva was instead a term that indicated any wooded place, but was further distinguished into caedua (coppice) and non caedua, silva palaris (wood for producing poles) and silva fructifera (wood for producing nuts), the latter also called silva pascuaria. The Latin authors give us news of a few wooded areas present in the peninsula that were used both for the production of timber, were intended for religious purposes: they probably represent remnants of ancient forests still present in the country in Roman times. Some are described for their large extension, but also smaller woods are mentioned by the authors.