History
BREAD AND DORMICE: WHAT DID ANCIENT ROMANS EAT? A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE DIET IN ANCIENT ROME Martin Bennett
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We are what we eat,” according to a muchgnawed chestnut. Early ancient Romans might therefore have been categorised as porridge-guzzling barbarians by the Greeks before Greece was absorbed into the Roman empire. After 146 BC things became more complicated. To ancient porridge (or puls) – whether beans, spelt or lentils – were added new dishes and flavours, often prepared by Greek cooks brought to Rome as slaves, along with Greek schoolmasters, rhetoricians, even doctors. This created another divide, kitchen-owning rich vis-à-vis ‘kitchenless’ poor who relied on fast-food joints / thermopolia; Pompeii’s archaeological area has as many as 150. Roman fresco showing wealthy Romans dining, collection Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.
4 | January 2022 • Wanted in Rome
As the empire spread, so did the variety of foodstuffs. Spices galore arrived from within the empire in the east, from India and beyond. The two most common spices were coriander and cumin, while, to change context, saffron in powdered form would be wafted to quell the blood-and-guts-fuelled stench during the “games” at the Colosseum. Also more eastern than western was the new cuisine’s combination of sweet and sour, here deriving not from sugar but honey, the best coming again from Greece. Used to sweeten mostly dodgy Roman wine, it glazed meats as well, eliminating, according to ancient chef Apicius, the “strong goatish smell.” Elsewhere Apicius recommends
