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FOOD HISTORY
Saturnalia and the Romans
Georgette McCready takes a look at the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia and finds links with modern-day Christmas festivities – although flamingo for a seasonal meal might be taking things a bit far...
I
n Monty Python’s Life of Brian film there’s a scene when the occupied British people are complaining about their Roman invaders and ask each other “apart from sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?” They might also have added ‘the Christmas spirit’ to that list because there are so many links to the way the ancient Romans celebrated the festival Saturnalia to how we enjoy the Christmas period today. Boy, did those Romans know how to party! Their Saturnalia was a week-long period of over-indulgence where workplaces such as courts shut, people gave each other presents and there was a good deal of debauched behaviour as a result of excess alcohol. There was even dancing in the streets. And as we prepare for our own Christmases, this does sound familiar. As the Roman Empire settled down after years of fighting tribes in Britain, Bath was a settlement where the Romans enjoyed peaceful times and were able to celebrate their own culture. In around 70AD the Romans had built a holy temple on the site of the natural hot water springs here in the south west of Britain before building the impressive complex of baths that we’re lucky enough to see today. In a tactful gesture to their British neighbours, who had originally built their shrine by the spring and dedicated it to Sulis their goddess of healing, the Romans named their baths The Waters of Sulis, or Aquae Sulis. All images sourced from Wikimedia Commons
Religion was an important aspect of Roman culture but they cunningly made sure that having a good time was built into the worship of their gods. The Roman calendar is full of festivals and holidays – at least one for every month of the year – and it’s here that we find the early roots of our modern-day Christmas celebrations. Lots of cultures like to mark the darkest days of winter by bringing families and friends together for feasts, to light fires and banish the cold and the Romans were no exception. Saturnalia was a hugely popular mid-winter festival which took place over a week between 17 and 23 December. During this holiday period it was traditional for wealthy people to give their slaves and servants presents and time off. They quite often swapped clothes with their servants and waited on them, reversing roles even for a brief time. It was customary to bring berries and greenery into the house as a tribute to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and gifts often took the form of small statuettes or ornaments, which were hung in the greenery – decking the halls with boughs of holly. And then there were the banquets... In her book Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking, Kate Colquhon explains how Roman food and dishes would have been such a revelation to the indigenous British people. It would have been the equivalent of the 1960s in the UK when most people had a bland diet which did not include ginger, garlic or chilli and they were suddenly introduced to the highly flavoured cuisine of curries and Chinese dishes. While the British in pre-Christian times cooked with butter, milk and ale, the Romans used olive oil and wine. They brought with them their secret recipes for a pungent, dark, salty fish sauce which they used to flavour their dishes. It was said that soldiers who had been stuck on distant outposts guarding the Roman Empire used to stand in the British rain or mists dreaming of the tasty fish relish of home. If you were invited to a Saturnalian feast in Bath what might you expect? The diners would eat lounging on couches, the most important guests nearest to the host. And dishes were announced before being brought to the table, served in a series of courses as we do now. The food would have been an expression of the host’s wealth and they prided themselves on beautiful glassware and decorative bowls.
Apicius, the collection of Roman cookery recipes thought to have been compiled in the 1st century AD, is cited by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History (77AD). Here are a some recipes from Apicius that are likely to have been used for feasting:
The Saturnalia, an Illustration by G. J. Pinwell for the poem The Saturnalia by Walter Thornbury, 1863
Stuffed dormouse (Glires) Lobster or crabmeat croquettes (Isicia de scillis vel de cammaris amplis) Brain Sausage (Isicia de cerebellis) Minutal of hare’s livers (Minutal leporinum) Boiled ostrich (In struthione elixo) Dish of sow’s matrix (Vulvulae botelli) Cuttle fish croquettes (Isicia de lolligine) Rose wine (Rosatum) and violet wine (Rosatum sine rosa) Roman vermouth (Absinthium Romanum) Varro beets (Beets a la varrobetaceous varronis) Dish of sea-nettles (Patina de urtica) Rose pie, rose custard or pudding (Patina de rosis) Homemade sweets (Dulcia domestica) .
30 TheBATHMagazine
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DeceMber 2021
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issue 226
