Food in ancient Rome
Food in ancient Rome reflects both the variety of food-stuffs available through the expanded trade networks of the Roman Empire and the traditions of conviviality from ancient Rome's earliest times, inherited in part from the Greeks and Etruscans. In contrast to the Greek symposium, which was primarily a drinking party, the equivalent social institution of the Roman convivium (dinner party) was focused on food. Banqueting played a major role in Rome's communal religion. Maintaining the food supply to the city of Rome had become a major political issue in the late Republic, and continued to be one of the main ways the emperor expressed his relationship to the Roman people and established his role as a benefactor. Roman food vendors and farmers' markets sold meats, fish, cheeses, produce, olive oil and spices; and pubs, bars, inns and food stalls sold prepared food.
Food
The main Roman ingredients in dishes were wheat, wine, meat and fish, bread, and sauces and spices. The richer Romans had luxurious lives, and sometimes hosted banquets or feasts.
Grains and legumes
Most people would have consumed at least 70 percent of their daily
Legumes included the
Puls (
Urban populations and the military preferred to consume their grain in the form of bread.
Maintaining a bread oven is labor-intensive and requires space, so apartment dwellers probably prepared their dough at home, then had it baked in a communal oven.[15] Mills and commercial ovens, usually combined in a bakery complex, were considered so vital to the wellbeing of Rome that several religious festivals honored the deities who furthered these processes—and even the donkeys who toiled in the mills. Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, was seen as complementary to Ceres, the goddess of grain, and donkeys were garlanded and given a rest on the Festival of Vesta. The Fornacalia was the "Festival of Ovens". Lateranus was a deity of brick ovens.
Other produce
Because of the importance of landowning in the formation of the Roman cultural elite, Romans idealized farming and took a great deal of pride in serving
Provinces exported regional
Berries were cultivated or gathered wild. Familiar nuts included almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pistachios, pine nuts, and chestnuts.[20] Fruit and nut trees could be grafted with multiple varieties.[21]
Meat and dairy
While there were prominent Romans who discouraged meat eating– the Emperors Didius Julianus and Septimius Severus disdained meat[22]–Roman butchers sold a variety of fresh meats, including pork, beef, and mutton or lamb.[23] Due to the lack of refrigeration, techniques of preservation for meat, fish, and dairy were developed. No portion of the animal was allowed to go to waste, resulting in blood puddings, meatballs (isicia), sausages, and stews.[23] Rural people cured ham and bacon, and regional specialties such as the fine salted hams of Gaul were items of trade.[23] The sausages of Lucania were made from a mixture of ground meats, herbs, and nuts, with eggs as a binding ingredient, and then aged in a smoker.[24]
Fresh milk was used in medicinal and cosmetic preparations, or for cooking.[25] The milk of goats or sheep was thought superior to that of cows.[26] Cheese was easier to store and transport to market; literary sources describe cheesemaking in detail, including fresh and hard cheeses, regional specialties, and smoked cheeses.[27]
Oils and fat
Olive oil was fundamental not only to cooking, but to the Roman way of life, as it was used also in
Butter was mostly disdained by the Romans, but was a distinguishing feature of the Gallic diet.[32] Lard was used for baking pastries and seasoning some dishes.[23]
Seasonings and sweeteners
Salt was the fundamental seasoning: Pliny the Elder remarked that "Civilized life cannot proceed without salt: it is so necessary an ingredient that it has become a metaphor for intense mental pleasure."[33] In Latin literature, salt (sal) was a synonym for "wit".[34] It was an important item of trade, but pure salt was relatively expensive. The most common salty condiment was garum, the fermented fish sauce that added the flavor dimension now called "umami". Major exporters of garum were located in the provinces of Spain.
Locally available seasonings included garden herbs,
Other imported spices were
Sweeteners were limited mostly to
Agriculture and markets
The
Food vendors are depicted in art throughout the Empire. In the city of Rome, the Forum Holitorium was an ancient farmers' market, and the Vicus Tuscus was famous for its fresh produce.[42] Throughout the city, meats, fish, cheeses, produce, olive oil, spices, and the ubiquitous condiment garum (fish sauce) were sold at macella, Roman indoor markets, and at marketplaces throughout the provinces.[43]
Annona
Maintaining an affordable food supply to the city of Rome had become a major political issue in the late Republic, when the state began to provide a grain dole (
The dole cost at least 34 percent of state revenues,[39] but improved living conditions and family life among the lower classes,[45] and subsidized the rich by allowing workers to spend more of their earnings on the wine and olive oil produced on the estates of the landowning class.[39]
The grain dole also had symbolic value: it affirmed both the emperor's position as universal benefactor, and the right of all citizens to share in "the fruits of conquest".[39] The annona, public facilities, and spectacular entertainments mitigated the otherwise dreary living conditions of lower-class Romans, and kept social unrest in check. The satirist Juvenal, however, saw "bread and circuses" (panem et circenses) as emblematic of the loss of republican political liberty:[46]
The public has long since cast off its cares: the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses.[47]
Romans who received the dole took it to a mill to have it ground into flour.[48] By the reign of Aurelian, the state had begun to distribute the annona as a daily ration of bread baked in state factories, and added olive oil, wine, and pork to the dole.[49]
Commercial food preparation
Most people in the city of Rome lived in apartment buildings (insulae) that lacked kitchens, though shared cooking facilities might be available in ground-level commons areas. A charcoal brazier could be used for rudimentary cookery such as grilling and stewing in a pot (olla), but ventilation was poor and braziers were fire hazards.[51]
Prepared food was sold at pubs and bars, inns, and food stalls (tabernae, cauponae, popinae).[52] Some establishments had countertops fitted with openings for pots that may have kept food warm over a heat source (thermopolium) or simply served as storage vessels (dolia).[53]
Mills and commercial ovens were usually combined in a bakery complex.[15]
Dietary theories
The importance of a good diet to health was recognized by medical writers such as
Menus and recipes
The Latin expression for a full-course dinner was ab ovo usque ad mala, "from the egg to the apples," equivalent to the English "from soup to nuts."[57] A multicourse dinner began with the gustatio ("tasting" or "appetizer"), often a salad or other minimally cooked composed dish, with ingredients to promote good digestion. The cena proper centered on meat, a practice that evokes the tradition of communal banquets following animal sacrifice. A meal concluded with fruits and nuts, or with deliberately superfluous desserts (secundae mensae).[58]
Roman literature focuses on the dining habits of the upper classes,
A Roman recipe:
Parthian Chicken
asafoetidain warm water and baste chicken as it cooks. Season with pepper to serve.
Apicius, De Re Coquinaria 6.9.2[62]
Roman books on agriculture include a few recipes.[63] A book-length collection of Roman recipes is attributed to Apicius, a name for several figures in antiquity that became synonymous with "gourmet":[64] "the recipes are written haphazardly, as if someone familiar with the workings of a kitchen was jotting down notes for a colleague."[65] Although often imprecise, particularly with measurements, Apicius uses eight different verbs for techniques for incorporating eggs into a dish, including one that might produce a soufflé.[66]
Recipes include regional specialties such as Ofellas Ostiensis, an
Roman "
The most spectacular dish of the emperor
Wine and fermented beverages
Although food shortages were a constant concern, Italian
The major suppliers for the city of Rome were the west coast of Italy, southern Gaul, the
In addition to regular consumption with meals, wine was a part of everyday religious observances. Before a meal, a
Romans drank their wine mixed with water, or in "mixed drinks" with flavorings. had an excessive love of wine, and drinking wine "straight" (purum or merum, unmixed) was a mark of the "barbarian". The Gauls also brewed various forms of beer.
Dining at home
Since restaurants catered to the lower classes,
In upperclass households, the evening meal (cena) had important social functions.[78] Guests were entertained in a finely decorated dining room (triclinium), often with a view of the peristyle garden. Diners lounged on couches, leaning on the left elbow. The ideal number of guests for a dinner party (convivium, "life-sharing" or "a living together") was nine.[78]
By the late Republic, if not earlier, women dined, reclined, and drank wine along with men.[79] On at least some occasions, children attended, so they could acquire social skills.[80] Multicourse meals were served by the household slaves, who appear prominently in the art of late antiquity as images of hospitality and luxury.[81]
Feeding the military
One of the chief logistical concerns of the Roman military was feeding the men, cavalry horses, and pack animals, usually mules. Wheat and barley were the primary food sources. Meat, olive oil, wine, and vinegar were also provided. An army of 40,000, including soldiers and other personnel such as slaves, would have about 4,000 horses and 3,500 pack animals. An army of this size would consume about 60 tonnes of grain and 240 amphorae of wine and olive oil each day.
Each man received a ration of about 830 grams (1.8 lb) of wheat per day in the form of unmilled grain, which is less perishable than flour. Handmills were used to grind it. The supply of all these foodstuffs depended on availability, and was hard to guarantee during times of war or other adverse conditions. The military attracted sutlers who sold various items, including foodstuffs with which the soldier might supplement his diet.[82]
During the expansionism of the Republic, the army usually had combined
Cultural values
Refined cuisine could be moralized as a sign of either civilized progress or decadent decline.[84] The early Imperial historian Tacitus contrasted the indulgent luxuries of the Roman table in his day with the simplicity of the Germanic diet of fresh wild meat, foraged fruit, and cheese, unadulterated by imported seasonings and elaborate sauces.[85]
Because of the importance of landowning in Roman culture,
"Barbarians" might be stereotyped as ravenous carnivores.[87] The Historia Augusta describes the emperors Didius Julianus and Septimius Severus as disdaining meat in favor of vegetables, while the first emperor born of two barbarian parents, Maximinus Thrax, is said to have devoured mounds of meat.[22]
For Pliny, the making of
Some philosophers and Christians resisted the demands of the body and the pleasures of food, and adopted fasting as an ideal.[89] Food became simpler in general as urban life in the West diminished, trade routes were disrupted,[90] and the rich retreated to the more limited self-sufficiency of their country estates.[29] As an urban lifestyle came to be associated with decadence, the Church formally discouraged gluttony,[29] and hunting and pastoralism were seen as simple but virtuous ways of life.[91]
Further reading
- Emily Gowers The Loaded Table: Representations of Food in Roman Literature (Oxford University Press, 1993)
References
- ^ a b c Peter Garnsey, "The Land," in Cambridge Ancient History: The High Empire A.D. 70–192 (Cambridge University Press, 2000), vol. 11, p. 681.
- ^ "Foodstuffs," in Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World (Harvard University Press, 1999), pp. 453–454.
- ^ Flint-Hamilton, "Legumes in Ancient Greece and Rome," p. 373; Edwards, "Philology and Cuisine in De Re Coquinaria," p. 257.
- 12.9.9; H.H. Huxley, Virgil: Georgics I and IV (Fletcher and Sons, 1963, 1967), p. 96.
- ^ Pliny, Natural History 18.134, 137; Flint-Hamilton, "Legumes in Ancient Greece and Rome," p. 373.
- ^ Columella, De Re Rustica 2.10.5–16; Pliny, Natural History 22.142; Flint-Hamilton, "Legumes in Ancient Greece and Rome," pp. 374–376.
- ^ Flint-Hamilton, "Legumes in Ancient Greece and Rome," p. 382; Seo, "Food and Drink, Roman," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 198.
- ISBN 978-1-4351-0121-0.
- ^ Pliny the Elder, Natural History 19.83–84; Emily Gowers, The Loaded Table: Representation of Food in Roman Literature (Oxford University Press, 1993, 2003), p. 17; Seo, "Food and Drink, Roman," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 198.
- ^ Stambaugh, The Ancient Roman City, p. 144.
- ^ John Edwards, "Philology and Cuisine in De Re Coquinaria," American Journal of Philology 122.2 (2001), pp. 258–259.
- ^ Kimberly B. Flint-Hamilton, "Legumes in Ancient Greece and Rome: Food, Medicine, or Poison?" Hesperia 68.3 (1999), p. 371; Seo, "Food and Drink, Roman," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, pp. 197–198.
- ^ Pliny, Natural History 18.68; Seo, "Food and Drink, Roman," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 198.
- ^ Carol Field, The Italian Baker: The Classic Tastes of the Italian Countryside (Random House, 1985, 2011), p. 250.
- ^ a b Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome, pp. 134–135.
- ^ a b c d Seo, "Food and Drink, Roman," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 198.
- ^ Faas, Patrick (2005). Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome, pp. 236-239. University of Chicago Press.
- Robert E.A. Palmer, Rome and Carthage at Peace (Franz Steiner, 1997), pp. 40, 45–46 (on the pomegranate).
- ^ Around the Roman Table, p. 239.
- ^ Faas (2005), p. 239.
- ^ According to Pliny, Natural History; Bowe, Gardens of the Roman World, p. 49.
- ^ a b c Montanari, "Romans, Barbarians, Christians," p. 166.
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- ^ a b Edwards, "Philology and Cuisine in De Re Coquinaria," p. 259.
- ^ Joan P. Alcock, "Milk and Its Products in Ancient Rome," in Milk: Beyond the Dairy. Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 1999 (Prospect Books, 2000) pp. 31–33.
- ^ Alcock, "Milk and Its Products in Ancient Rome," pp. 31–32.
- ^ Alcock, "Milk and Its Products in Ancient Rome," pp. 35–37; Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome, p. 150.
- ^ Andrew Dalby, entry on olive oil, Food in the Ancient World A to Z (Routledge, 2003), p. 239.
- ^ a b c "Foodstuff," in Late Antiquity, p. 455.
- ^ David J. Mattingly, "Regional Variation in Roman Oleoculture: Some Problems of Comparability," in Landuse in the Roman Empire («L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 1994), pp. 91–93, 104.
- ^ Dalby, Food in the Ancient World A to Z p. 239.
- ^ Alcock, "Milk and Its Products in Ancient Rome," p. 33.
- ^ Pliny, Natural History 31.88, as cited by Gower, The Loaded Table, p. 232.
- ^ Gower, The Loaded Table, p. 232, citing especially Horace, Epistle 2.2.60.
- ^ Edwards, "Philology and Cuisine in De Re Coquinaria," pp. 256–257.
- ^ Pliny, Natural History 19.39; Seo, "Food and Drink, Roman," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 199–200.
- ^ a b c Seo, "Food and Drink, Roman," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 200.
- ^ J. Carson Webster, The Labors of the Months in Antique and Mediaeval Art to the End of the Twelfth Century, Studies in the Humanities 4 (Northwestern University Press, 1938), p. 128. In the collections of the Hermitage Museum.
- ^ a b c d e f Hopkins, "The Political Economy of the Roman Empire," p. 191.
- ^ Peter Garnsey, "The Land," in The Cambridge Ancient History: The High Empire A.D. 70–192 (Cambridge University Press, 2000), vol. 11, p. 679.
- ^ Hopkins, "The Political Economy of the Roman Empire," pp. 195–196.
- Varro, De Lingua Latina 5.146–147, on the Forum Holitorium as a macellum.
- ^ Claire Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome: The Retail Trade in the Late Republic and the Principate (Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 207–208 et passim; Seo, "Food and Drink, Roman," p. 198, and "Cooks and Cookbooks," p. 299, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 299.
- ^ Hopkins, "The Political Economy of the Roman Empire," p. 191, reckoning that the surplus of wheat from the province of Egypt alone could meet and exceed the needs of the city of Rome and the provincial armies.
- S2CID 163672978., p. 73.
- ^ Catherine Keane, Figuring Genre in Roman Satire (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 36; Eckhart Köhne, "Bread and Circuses: The Politics of Entertainment," in Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome (University of California Press, 2000), p. 8.
- ^ Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81.
- ^ Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome, p. 134.
- ^ Stambaugh, The Ancient Roman City, p. 146; Hopkins, "The Political Economy of the Roman Empire," p. 191; Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome, p. 134.
- ^ Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome, pp. 136–137.
- ^ John E. Stambaugh, The Ancient Roman City (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988), pp. 144, 178; Kathryn Hinds, Everyday Life in the Roman Empire (Marshall Cavendish, 2010), p. 90.
- ^ Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome, p. 140ff.
- ^ Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome, p. 136ff.
- ^ Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome, pp. 148–149.
- ^ Mark Grant, Galen on Food and Diet (Routledge, 2000), pp. 7, 11 et passim.
- ^ Grant, Galen on Food and Diet, pp. 7–8.
- ^ John Donahue, The Roman Community at Table during the Principate (University of Michigan Press, 2004, 2007), p. 9.
- ^ Gowers, The Loaded Table, p. 17.
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- ^ Grimm, "On Food and the Body," p. 359.
- ^ Joan P. Alcock, Food in the Ancient World (Greenwood Press, 2006), p. 184.
- ^ Pullum parthicum: pullum aperies a navi et in quadrato ornas. Teres pipe, ligusticum, carei modicum; suffunde liquamen; vino temperas. Componis in cumana pullum et condituram super pullum facis. Laser et vivum in tepida dissolvis, et in pullum mittis simul, et coques. Pipere aspersum inferes. A modernized version of this recipe appears in Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger, The Classical Cookbook (J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996), p. 108.
- ^ Seo, "Cooks and Cookbooks," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 298.
- ^ Cathy K. Kaufman, "Remembrance of Meals Past: Cooking by Apicius' Book," in Food and the Memory: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cooker p. 125ff.
- ^ Kaufman, "Remembrance of Meals Past," p. 125.
- ^ Kaufman, "Remembrance of Meals Past," p. 125ff.
- ^ a b Edwards, "Philology and Cuisine in De Re Coquinaria," p. 258.
- ^ De Re Coquinaria 4.141.; Seo, "Cooks and Cookbooks," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 299.
- ^ Suetonius, Life of Vitellius 13.2; Gowers, The Loaded Table, p. 20.
- ^ Livy 39.6; Seo, "Cooks and Cookbooks," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 298; Gowers, The Loaded Table,, p. 16.
- ^ Peter Garnsey, "The Land," in Cambridge Ancient History: The High Empire A.D. 70–192 (Cambridge University Press, 2000), vol. 11, p. 695.
- ^ Mireille Corbier, "Coinage, Society, and Economy," in Cambridge Ancient History: The Crisis of Empire, A.D. 193–337 (Cambridge University Press, 2005), vol. 12, p. 404; Harris, "Trade," in CAH 11, p. 719.
- ^ Pliny, Natural History 14.55; Seo, "Food and Drink, Roman," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 200.
- ^ Harris, "Trade," in CAH 11, p. 720.
- ^ Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome, pp. 146–147.
- ^ Faas (2005), p. 29.
- ^ Seo, "Cooks and Cookbooks," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 299.
- ^ a b Grimm, "On Food and the Body," p. 356.
- ^ Matthew B. Roller, Dining Posture in Ancient Rome (Princeton University Press, 2006), p. 96ff.
- ^ Quintilian, Institution Oratoria 1.2.7–8, scolds parents for behaving improperly at dinner parties when their children are in attendance; Roller, Dining Posture in Ancient Rome, p. 160.
- ^ Katherine M.D. Dunbabin, "The Waiting Servant in Later Roman Art," in Roman Dining (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), p. 115ff.
- ^ Paul Erdkamp, "War and State Formation," in A Companion to the Roman Army (Blackwell, 2011), p. 102.
- ^ a b Erdkamp, "War and State Formation," pp. 103–104.
- ^ Seo, "Food and Drink, Roman," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, p. 201.
- ^ Tacitus, Germania 23; Gowers, The Loaded Table, p. 18.
- ^ Musonius 18; Grimm, "On Food and the Body," p. 363.
- ^ Massimo Montanari, "Romans, Barbarians, Christians: The Dawn of European Food Culture," in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present (Columbia University Press, 1999, originally published in French 1996), p. 166.
- ^ Pliny the Elder, Natural History 18.105; Gowers, The Loaded Table, p. 17.
- ^ Grimm, "On Food and the Body," pp. 365–366.
- ^ "Foodstuff," in Late Antiquity, p. 455; Montanari, "Romans, Barbarians, Christians," p. 165–167.
- ^ Montanari, "Romans, Barbarians, Christians," p. 165–167.