The period of the Roman Republic began in 509 BC when the last Etruscan king of Rome, Tarquinias Superbus, was exiled. This started a long conquest of land by the now established Roman Empire. The whole purpose of this conquest was to take over land with the sense of converting it to farmland. At the beginning, the land was owned by the state and distributed to Roman war veterans, but slowly more and more peasants began to join the army and as a result started to own land. These peasants would later become landlords. When the Romans were threatened by the Greeks they had to learn how to fight at sea, since the Greeks did not fight by land. The main goal for the Romans was to take over Sicily because the land there was very fertile. In 147 BC the Romans conquered Carthage, which consisted of modern-day Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The Romans destroyed the majority of Carthaginian culture and did not adopt any of its cultures. By the end of the Republic the Romans took over Egypt, exploiting and pillaging much of it. Unlike Carthage, the Romans found much of Egyptian fauna and flora useful in terms of cooking. They also took much of the animals from northern Africa and used them in circus performances, only to be killed and eaten after. While at war with Greece, many Roman soldiers tried to abstain from Greek cuisine; they did not want to associate themselves with the enemy in any way. The Greeks were simple farmers who's main agricultural income came from olives and grapes. After Alexander the Great took over Persia and Egypt during the 4th c. BC, Greek cuisine changed. (1)
Spices began to be introduced to the Roman Empire after they took over several several important trade routes after their conquests that led to India and China. Roman cooks began to use black pepper, cloves, and nutmeg. Black pepper became a common ingredient in Roman cuisine that cooks only pointed out when it WAS NOT being used in their foods. (2)
Believe it or not, food was even regulated under Roman law. For example, there were laws that prohibited incorporating foreign cuisine. There were other laws that prohibited the serving of foreign wine. There was also a limit on how much silver can be used at the table, as well as a limit on the number of guests. The Lex Fannia prohibited various luxurious foods; one of the purposes of this was to keep the appetites of citizens within bounds. The wealthier citizens ignored laws like these. In terms of religion there was no restrictions against food, the idea being that the gods themselves weren't even modest. The bigger the temple was, the bigger the offering had to be. The Romans of course had feast days that were associated with different deities. On these days many Romans would take a day off, either celebrating privately within their homes or publicly. Romans also had feasts to celebrate birthdays and weddings. (3)
During the Empire (7 BC-AD 476) Roman society was very diverse. It consisted of a wealthy upper class, a large number of slaves, free citizens and foreigners. The Roman Empire had stretched itself by this point and had established many colonies. This benefited the Romans because of all the resources that would be brought in from these colonies; there was no way Rome would ever starve. During this time also, Roman cuisine became less and less simple because the Romans began to crave rare and exotic foods from the lands they conquered. It also became a kind of status symbol for the more exotic and larger amounts of food a Roman could provide to his or her guest, the better of a host he or she became. Everyone in the Empire shared this goal to attain luxurious foods. This began to decline when the Romans stopped conquering new lands. No new lands meant no new farms which in turn slowed down trade and made it increasingly difficult to feed the growing population. The state then began to rely on the rich to give hand-outs of their land, but then also declined as years progressed. (4)
Just like the majority of us living today, the Romans also had three major meals during the day. Breakfast, called ientaculum, mainly consisted of bread dipped in milk or undiluted wine. Other options were curd cheese with honey, olives, raisins, fruits, or nuts. Breakfast was eaten at home or out in public. It was recommended that the Romans did not eat too heavily because it was seen as unhealthy. Lunch, called prandium, began during the middle of the day and lasted until the hotness of the day went away (kind of like modern-day siestas in Spain and Greece). The prandium directly means bathhouse where Romans would go and eat food like bread, cold meat, or fish. In these bathhouses they also performed athletics because it made people hungry so they would eat more, but also to keep their weight down. Dinner, called cena, began upon return from the bathhouse at four or five o' clock in the afternoon. They ate this early so the sun would not go away because they relied on lamps with olive oil; the oil was expensive. It one was not invited to dinner then he or she could go to a bathhouse. Home cooking was difficult to attain because of the lack of running water and stoves. (5)
To my surprise, the Romans were actually pretty civilized in terms of table manners and etiquette. They adopted these manners and etiquette from the Greeks and Etruscans, the former of which even spoke during dinner. During dinner men wore the toga cenatoris, which was thin, white, un-dyed wool. The tunica was a simpler, rectangular shirt, oftentimes with sleeves, and was worn by everyday people. The tunica was worn at the market, or to the bathhouse for a snack, but was never worn at the triclinium (couch for eating in the Roman garden). Hosts and guests alike washed their hands and sometimes even washed and massaged their feet. At the actual triclinium seating was arranged to promote sociability. For instance, a magistrate never sat next to another magistrate, and and young person never sat next to another young person. An example of a seating arrangement is illustrated below. (6)
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| Roman seating plan from Around the Roman Table by Patrick Faas. |
The courses were three part: the starters, the main course, and dessert. Starters consisted of a promulsis and gustatio, and began with the aperitif to help the digestion of food. It also consisted of wine that was poured in a traditional drinking bowl and passed from guest to guest, similar to what occurred in the Greek symposium. During the promulsis one can be served oysters, octopus, cauliflower, marinated vegetables, onion, garlic, snails, sea urchins, wild mushrooms, or salsamentum, (ham, bacon, salted fish). Another important food that was always present was olives, usually in a paste called epithyrum. The starters usually began with eggs and ended with fruit. The main course was the mensa prima which meant "head of dinner". It was always better than the starters. One popular dish was the minutal, small cut veggies baked with a little meat or fishballs and pieces of ham. Dessert (mensa secunda) began after the guests had finished wiping their mouths and hands with bread. In some cases the dessert was sacrificed when the children would burn some of it. Dessert could be on of three things. Fruit: apples, pears, strawberries, peaches, dates, figs, apricots, grapes, cherries, pomegranates, plums, and/or raspberries. Nuts: walnuts, hazelnuts, beechnuts, almonds, sweet chestnuts, pistachios, and pine kernels. Cakes: "marzipan, sesame-seed or poppy-seed buns with honey, and filo pastry with crushed nuts." (7)
What I enjoyed from Faas' work was his inclusion of several Roman menus. Below I have provided two menus, one from Pliny the Younger (Pliny the Elder's nephew) and the other from Stella.
1) Pliny the Younger:
-Gustatio: salad, 3 snails, 2 hard-boiled eggs
-Caput cenae: Puls, baked courgettes with sauce, wild flower-bulbs in vinegar
-Mensa secunda: Mulsum ice, fresh fruit
2) Stella:
-Gustatio: lettuce, 'aphrodisiac herb', marshmallow, garden herbs, leek with peppermint, anchovies with rue and boiled egg; sow's udder (mammary gland of cows or sheep) with garum.
-Caput cenae: garden beans and sprouts; chicken; or ham
-Mensa secunda: ripe fruit (8)
Faas briefly discusses wreaths, how they used plants to make them and each plant used was dedicated to a particular god. He also discusses perfumes and how they were used to keep heads cool and to keep good health. The most popular scent was that of roses, but Romans also enjoyed the scent of quince blossom, oregano, and thyme. (9) (I will not be discussing wreaths and perfumes any further because I have gone in depth about them in previous blogs).
Now I get into the actual cook and kitchen portion of the Roman world. The cook was called the coquus or cocus and in Rome it was usually a slave, but in the provinces and other parts of the "known world" it was a woman's job. The householder used his own home garden for his resources in terms of cooking. He also had to sacrifice animals (cut, roast, and serve). The wealthier citizens owned several cooks, Since they tended to be slaves they were sold in the market as bakers, grinders, or chefs. The two most essential aspects of Roman cooking was water and fire. Water was originally rainwater, collected from the impluvium, but then water came from the aqueducts that were set up. One could also collect water from public fountains. The fire was started by the housewife and was associated with the goddess Vesta. (10)
The actual kitchens varied in size depending on the size of the house; the bigger the house, the bigger the kitchen. The kitchen had a solid, built-in stove known as a focus that was made of clay or cement. Another type of stove was the camminus, which included a chimney about it. The oven was called the furnus and is illustrated below. In a typical Roman kitchen one would also find hooks on the wall for hanging cooking utensils and pots and pans. Among the most common pots and pans used were the pultarius (stewing pot), the caccabus (pot for simmering), the padella (shallow pan), the patina (circuclar or oval dish), and the angulis (square pan). The first four are shown in the second image below. (11)
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| From Around the Roman Table by Patrick Faas. |
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| From Around the Roman Table by Patrick Faas. |
In terms of food, Faas explains that the Romans categorized their food in four different flavors. The first was sour and it consisted primarily of citrus and vinegar. Citrus was used for mouthwash and to strengthen vinegar. The actual leaves were used more than the juice itself in Roman cooking. Vinegar was used to cure drunkenness gargled it to cure sunstroke, or to wash eyes. (12)
The second flavor was salty and it was primarily used to preserve foods which then made Romans love salty foods. Actual salty foods consisted of brine (salting cheese, olives, and ham); seawater; garum (fish sauce that was highly salted, and made from fermented fish); allec (similar to Italian anchovy paste); or salsamentum (salsa). (13)
The third flavor was sweet. The most popular source for this flavor was honey (mel) that came from flowers. Each farm had beehives and some even specialized in honey production. Syrup from must was also popular. Fruit (poma) was finely grounded into a paste; the most popular being dates and plums, and then figs and raisins. Sugar was introduced to the Empire from Arabia, but was usually used for medicinal purposes. (14)
The fourth and final flavor was bitter which can be provided through the use of certain spices, seeds, and dry herbs. Herbs were also used in Roman cuisine and included rue, cumin, mint, basil, thyme, dill, mustard, and poppy to name a few. Spices included cinnamon, ginger, clove, pepper, and cardamon. Other popular ingredients in Roman cuisine were olive oil, perfume, and cheese. (15)
Patrick Faas' work captured my attention because it served as a stepping stone to Roman cuisine. This is also why it differed from previous sources I have looked at because the others looked at the Roman garden specifically; this book takes us into the kitchen. The only issue I had with Faas' work was that it did not have many illustrations; I am a visual learner and I thought it would have been helpful. In the future I am aiming on looking at specific dishes and see how/watch specific plants the Romans used in those dishes. I would also like to try and cook a Roman dish and blog about it!
1. Patrick Faas, Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003), 17-19.
2. Ibid., 19-20.
3. Ibid., 21-24.
4. Ibid., 26-29.
5. Ibid., 38-41.
6. Ibid., 49-59.
7. Ibid., 78-81.
8. Ibid., 83-87.
9. Ibid., 89.
10. Ibid., 125-128.
11. Ibid., 132-134.
12. Ibid., 139-140.
13. Ibid., 141-146.
14. Ibid., 146-150.
15. Ibid., 150-166.
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