Rome, so old that they had no metallic implements.  An entire black
and shrivelled Crab-Apple has been recovered from their stores. 

Tacitus says of the ancient Germans that they satisfied their hunger
with wild apples, among other things. 

Niebuhr [Footnote: A German historical critic of ancient life.]
observes that "the words for a house, a field, a plough, ploughing,
wine, oil, milk, sheep, apples, and others relating to agriculture
and the gentler ways of life, agree in Latin and Greek, while the
Latin words for all objects pertaining to war or the chase are
utterly alien from the Greek." Thus the apple-tree may be considered
a symbol of peace no less than the olive. 

The apple was early so important, and so generally distributed, that
its name traced to its root in many languages signifies fruit in
general.  maelon (Melon), in Greek, means an apple, also the fruit of
other trees, also a sheep and any cattle, and finally riches in
general.