"The (... ) Roman Army could no more fight or travel — or even eat — without wood than the US military can conduct any of these activities without petroleum.

Twenty-five hundred years ago, Plato (428 – 348 BCE) in his Critias complained that, within 

his lifetime, the loss of timber had denuded the hills and plains surrounding Athens and caused massive soil erosion; today, both Greece and Italy remain largely deforested."

Mark Plotkin