Translated from french with Deepl (please notify us of errors) Giraffe necks, elephant trunks, flamingo tongues… Tales of the culinary extravagances of the Romans have long fed the collective imagination. Pure invention? While the consumption of the first two ingredients finds no support in ancient sources, that of flamingo tongues, on the other hand, is […]
Lentils in the New Year, luck all year round!
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) Lentils have been cultivated since the dawn of agriculture in Mesopotamia, around 10,000 years ago. Thanks to their high nutritional value, particularly their rich protein content, these leguminous seeds formed a staple food for many ancient societies: Egyptians, Jews, Greeks and Romans. The biblical episode of Esau […]
Roman doctors and cooks in the service of health
Translated from french with Deepl (please notify us of errors) French historian Dimitri Tilloi d’Ambrosi is a specialist in Roman food. In his latest book, which has just been published, he looks at the intimate links between cuisine and health in ancient Rome. He answers our questions. Nunc est bibendum: Isn’t it anachronistic to talk […]
The fork, an utensil with teeth for success
Translated from French (please notify us of errors) Two, then three, and finally four: unlike humans, the fork does not lose its teeth with time. Contrary to popular belief, this utensil — now indispensable on our tables — is not a medieval or Renaissance invention. Its existence is attested in the Roman Empire, between the […]
In search of the lost torch
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) It’s an object almost as mysterious as the famous Roman dodecahedron[1]… A handle about a cubit long, with five or seven claws at the top, arranged in a star shape around a ring. Many museums have examples on display, including the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Genève […]
Roman finger game, from fun to fate
Translated from french with Deepl (please notify us of errors) We have our ‘Rock Paper Scissors’, the Romans had their digitis micare[1], literally ‘waving your fingers around’. The principle is very simple: two people face each other, fist clenched. At the same time, they extend a certain number of fingers while shouting out a number […]
Grapes on his heels
Translated from french (please notify us of errors) Ancient job advert: “prestigious city in the Peloponnese seeks young unmarried men to organise, over four years, a festival in the course of which they will be required to hunt down one of their own, girded with woollen fillets – all under the name of ‘grape runners’.” […]
An uninviting but much-loved ruta
Translated from french with Deepl (please notify us of errors) Beware if you rub yourself against it: it can cause severe skin burns. The rue we’re talking about here is a plant with an ambivalent reputation, but one that was nevertheless much appreciated by the ancient peoples: ruta graveolens. With its finely-cut, green leaves, sometimes […]
Too much water in wine is cheating
Translated from French (please notify us of errors) Mixing your wine with water was the civilised thing to do. But when the innkeeper did it for you, it was often a swindle. Angry graffiti, mocking epigrams and a confession from beyond the grave: an investigation into a two-thousand-year-old fraud. In the Greco-Roman world, wine is […]
‘At the cauldrons’, customers aren’t jugs
Translated from french with Deepl (please notify us of errors) From the top of these four jugs, almost 2,000 years look down on us. The fresco was discovered in a street in Herculaneum in 1961, at eye level, i.e. 1.70 metres above the ground. It is almost certainly a shop sign[1], a rare find since […]