Translated from french (please notify us of errors) In Greece today, Lagana (Λαγάνα) is a light, crispy bread, generously topped with sesame seeds, prepared specially for Clean Monday (Καθαρά Δευτέρα), which marks the beginning of the Orthodox Lenten fast. It is certainly a descendant of the laganon (λάγανον) of the ancient Greeks. Having become laganum […]
Ostrich on the menu
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) For the Greeks, and later the Romans, ostriches belonged to the world of fantastical creatures inhabiting mysterious Africa, alongside crocodiles, camels and elephants. Herodotus, in the 5th century BCE, is the first to mention the bird in a list of Libyan creatures. He calls it the «bird […]
In Apicius’ garden: aromatic plants
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) The vast majority of aromatic plants used in ancient cooking had already been known for millennia and remain indispensable to Mediterranean cuisine today. With a few exceptions, of course! The Romans used many herbs and spices to flavour their dishes. Many of these plants are familiar to […]
AI reconstructs the rules of a forgotten Roman game
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) A piece of engraved limestone, found in the Netherlands at the turn of the 20th century, has kept its secret until today. The object, from the Roman site of Coriovallum (present-day Heerlen), bore a geometric pattern that did not match any known game. By combining the analysis […]
Abracadabra! Or how to cure a fever in Rome
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) In the 3rd century AD, had you been suffering from a fever in Rome, a physician might have prescribed a surprising treatment: wearing around your neck an amulet inscribed with the word ABRACADABRA, repeated eleven times with one letter removed at each line until only a solitary […]
Drink and love today… for tomorrow is uncertain
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) Two drinking cups found in a tomb at the Penna necropolis, in Falerii Veteres, bear a message of disarming simplicity. The inscription, over 2,300 years old, is written neither in Latin nor in Etruscan, but in another ancient language, far less well known: Faliscan. The Faliscan people […]
Kykeon, or homeric coke
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) This is certainly the most mysterious of ancient beverages. Its very name sows confusion: kykeon (κυκεών)[1] , derived from a verb meaning “to stir so as to mix, to muddle”. The kykeon is therefore a blend, a mixture. To discover its composition, we can go back to […]
The social ascent of Eros the cocus
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) It is the cocina that conceals the cocus. In other words, it is the “kitchen” that conceals the “cook”. Historians and commentators of ancient Rome have shown great interest in the preparation of dishes, but far less in those who prepared them. “Those”, because they were probably […]
Alphabetical guide to foods that did not exist in the Roman world
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) Today, the tomato, aubergine and pepper are inseparable from Mediterranean cuisine, but all these products were unknown in the Roman world two thousand years ago… You will therefore find none of them in Roman dishes! These absences are explained by the isolation of continents until the Age […]
The satyrs’ secret garden
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) For the peoples of Antiquity, plants had multiple virtues: gustatory, but also medicinal, religious, magical and… aphrodisiac. In this last domain, three of them deserve the Pantheon. Savory Savory (Satureja) first, a Mediterranean plant, close to thyme, used since time immemorial as a condiment. In the Greek […]