Translated from french (please notify us of errors) Roman gastronomy was not limited to the extravagant feasts described by Petronius or the imperial banquets displaying peacocks and moray eels. On modest farms, simple but flavoursome dishes were prepared. The moretum is one of the most emblematic. This typically Roman preparation must be made with the […]
Eat and observe: the art and survival of the ancient parasite
Translated from French (please notify us of errors) He was called parasitos by the Greeks, parasitus by the Romans, ate at others’ expense and boasted of it. A religious official in origin, he became the most clear-sighted comic character of antiquity: the one who understood, before anyone else, that the meal is a stage. At […]
Ten thousand snails for a purple toga
Translated from French (please notify us of errors) A hecatomb of sea snails, a transparent mucus, and a smell to drive away everyone around you. Tyrian purple was for two millennia the most coveted substance among the powerful… and the most imitated in the ancient world. Two years ago, in the bay of Kiladha, to […]
Puls, porridge of the ancients, the wealthy and the gods
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) Varro and Pliny agree: before bread, there was puls. This cereal porridge, associated with the far of the ancient Latium, went on to enjoy a double career: a gastronomic preparation in Apicius, a ritual offering at the Kalends of June. When Cicero mocks the sacred chickens hurling […]
Did the Romans eat the animals slaughtered in the arena?
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) Although we know Roman animal spectacles in great detail, one question remains strangely overlooked: what became of all that meat? Over the roughly 500 years during which animal spectacles were offered to the Roman people, hundreds of thousands of local and exotic animals were put to death. […]
Sybaris, birthplace of the culinary patent
Translated from French (please notify us of errors) In Sybaris, a Greek city of Magna Graecia destroyed in 510 BC, a law granted the cook who had invented an original dish the exclusive right to prepare it for one year. This temporary monopoly was no mere whim of the Sybarites: it was an innovation policy […]
Rome and the bees: a honeymoon
Translated from French (please notify us of errors) 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, a precious economic resource and, at times, a formidable weapon. The Romans never ran out of sweet […]
The pig, the ox and the champion – Eating to win
Translated from French (please notify us of errors) 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 health regimen. It was a performance technique, adapted to each event, supervised by trainers, discussed by physicians… […]
From wool to silk: the fabric of an Empire
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) For centuries, the question of what a Roman garment was made of hardly needed asking: it was wool, produced locally, woven at home, worn without ceremony. Only with the gradual expansion of Mediterranean trade, and then of conquests in the East, did other materials make their mark […]
Sapa, defrutum, caroenum… three names for an ancient syrup
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) Honey was expensive. Bees demanded time, care, and did not produce on demand. The vine, by contrast, was everywhere — and grapes, once pressed, yielded a must that could be cooked down until thick, dark, and sweet: a substitute for honey, less noble, but available in quantity […]