Nunc est bibendum

Two Roman stelae from Bologna, a mortar and a swineherd: was mortadella born in ancient Rome? Sources, Apicius and etymology.

Generate a Roman citizen’s name and learn how praenomen, nomen and cognomen worked, including names for women.

Five-line Greek abacus simulator: calculate with counters like the ancients, based on the work of V. Dasen and J. Gavin.

Convert any date into the Roman calendar: Kalends, Nones and Ides, years from the founding of Rome, Julian and Gregorian.

Convert your date of birth into a Roman date (Kalends, Nones, Ides) and download a greeting card in the ancient style.

Palamedes, the forgotten hero of the Trojan War, is said to have invented board games and dice for the Greek soldiers.

Come si leggono i numeri romani? Origine dei segni, varianti antiche, grandi numeri e nomi latini, con un convertitore online.

A four-level game to learn Roman numerals and Latin number words, from primary school to Latin class. No sign-up needed.

In Rome, hours changed length with the seasons: sundials, water clocks and ancient sources, with a simulator to explain the system.

Greeks and Romans scorned beer as a barbarian drink sipped through a straw. Yet it was widely drunk across the Roman provinces.

Was the apothermum a Roman milk pudding? Apicius’s recipe has neither milk nor honey. Origins, ancient sources and modern versions.

Meditrinalia, 11 October: why did the Romans drink new and old wine to stay healthy? Ritual, goddess Meditrina and modern theories.

Were children eaten in Dionysus's cult? Myths, ancient sources and modern studies dismantle a rumour from Greece and Rome.

Scorned by Latin poets as primitive food, the acorn never left Roman tables: Pliny, Galen and archaeology tell the story.

How did the Romans leaven their bread? Sourdough, ale barm and unleavened ritual loaves in Cato, Pliny and the bakeries of Pompeii.

Saffron in ancient Rome: a rare, often faked spice that scented wine and theatres alike. Its history, fraud tricks, and myths.

A reasoned inventory of the Latin names for exotic animals attested in classical authors, from the elephant to the giraffe.

Thales the philosopher allegedly cornered Miletus's olive presses to silence those who mocked his poverty. History or legend?

A preserve of quinces in honey, an apple so sweet it was called a “honey-apple”, a witty poet who confuses them on purpose: marmalade has, behind it, a history of […]

Bread, beer, tiger nuts and ritual cakes: a journey through ancient Egyptian food, from archaeology to Herodotus and Diodorus.

Vinegar and honey: the sharp-sweet mixture is enough to raise an eyebrow – it is almost a culinary oxymoron. The Greeks and Romans, however, saw no contradiction in it: they […]

How the Greeks and Romans used propolis: medical remedy and magical substance, from Aristotle and Pliny to a magic papyrus.

Tapenade may have an ancient ancestor: the Roman epityrum and Greek stemphylon, olive pastes already enjoyed in antiquity.

Lavender in antiquity: the bitter medicinal herb stoechas, from imperial antidotes to Greek and Latin etymology.

Fast food, taverns, and dives: Roman towns teemed with places to eat and drink, despite the elite's disdain.

The onion in Graeco-Roman Antiquity: a food of the masses, an object of mockery, a contested remedy and a debated aphrodisiac.

How the Greeks and Romans counted up to 9999 on their fingers: history, iconography and ancient sources on finger-reckoning.

What did the Lotus-eaters really eat in Homer's Odyssey? Not the Egyptian lotus but the wild jujube, according to ancient sources.

Odyssey quiz: Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis... Test your knowledge of Ulysses' twenty-year journey home to Ithaca.

How food in the Odyssey marks the line between men, monsters and gods, from Polyphemus to Penelope's suitors.

For a better experience, use a computer or tablet. The interactive map of museums and ancient sites is a collaborative project developed by the cultural association Nunc est bibendum and […]

From far to siligo: how naked wheat transformed bread-making, the economy and society across the Roman Empire.

Einkorn, emmer and spelt: the three "hulled" grains that fed Rome before naked wheat took over, from ritual to milling.

From the Neolithic to the Etruscans: how cereals shaped the landscapes, rituals and societies of the Italian peninsula long before Rome.

Barley, millet, rye and oats: the story of the forgotten grains of Roman food – scorned, essential, and pushed to the edges of empire.

How the Romans kept their wine from turning to vinegar: from Cato to Galen, presses, *dolia*, cooked must and salt in the service of wine.

From wild *corruda* to cultivated *asparagus*: how a humble shoot became a Roman luxury, with Pliny, Apicius and Caesar.

Le moretum dans la Rome antique: histoire de cette préparation traditionnelle de fromage et d'herbes pilées au mortier.Pestle, herbs and cheese: discover the moretum, a Roman preparation in three variants, from a poor peasant's rustic dish to a refined élite recipe.

From Greek religious official to Roman comic buffoon: the story of the parasite, antiquity's most clear-sighted character.

From Phoenician shores to Roman imperial law: the history of Tyrian purple, the most precious and most imitated pigment of the ancient world.

From archaic staple to Apicius and the altars of Carna: the full history of Roman *puls*, the porridge that never disappeared.

What happened to the animals killed in Roman arenas? Evidence that their meat was distributed, consumed, and served at the emperor's table.

In Sybaris (510 BC), a law gave cooks a one-year exclusive right over their inventions: the world's first culinary patent.

Long before it sweetened desserts, honey softened wines, enhanced meats, healed wounds and fed myths. For the Romans, bees were not merely producers of sweetness: they formed an exemplary society, […]

Pork for long bouts, wine controlled by the trainer, imposed meals and shortened nights: the diet of competitive athletes in the Greco-Roman world had nothing to do with a simple […]

Plant dyes, kermes, social codes: what colours revealed about rank and morals in ancient Rome.

From wool to silk: how Roman dress reflected trade, conquest and social hierarchy across the centuries of the Empire.

The *polis*, an ancient Greek board game played with pieces and encirclement, as reflected in the metaphors of Plato, Aristotle and Polybius.

Sapa, defrutum, caroenum: the cooked must concentrates of Roman antiquity, between cookery and preservation.

A misdivided bull, stolen fire, a jar rashly opened: at the banquet of Mekone, the fate of humanity is sealed, according to Greek mythology.

Flour, dough, mysterious groove: what went into Pompeii's bread in 79 CE? A rigorous investigation into the panis quadratus.

In Pompeii, a fresco revives the debate: ancient artolaganus or ancestor of pizza? Sources and analysis.

Black root, white flower, divine power: the search for Homer's moly, the antidote to Circe's magic, from ancient naturalists to modern pharmacology.

The mandrake in antiquity: anaesthesia, love philtres and harvesting rituals in Pliny, Theophrastus and Flavius Josephus.

In Greek and Roman antiquity, plants nourish, heal and bewitch. A look at the myths, laws of magic and rituals governing their gathering.

Olive-growing in Italy before Rome: a 2026 study shows local oil production dating back 4,000 years, long before the Greeks and Romans.

Hollow bronze objects with twelve faces, found across north-western Roman provinces — and still unexplained. A 2025 study proposes a Pythagorean-druidic ritual use.

From the Greek laganon to lasagne: the history and transformations of a word and a food from antiquity to the present day.

Greeks and Romans and the ostrich: from fantastical creature to banquet dish, via Pliny, Apicius and Heliogabalus.

Aromatic plants used in ancient cooking had been known for millennia and remain indispensable to Mediterranean cuisine today.