What Romans ate

Many movies from the life of Ancient Romans are about super-powerful and super-rich. They are often feasting and I did not think twice what they were eating. But recently, I have read an account of the experience one American had from eating the food cooked in accordance with ancient recipes. He was attending the “feast” prepared by a group of amateurs specialized in a reenactment of such event in Ancient Rome.

Unfortunately, I lost the link and could not find it anymore, but I remember the disgust he described while eating the fried goldfinch. One dipped it into garum (a fish sauce I will describe later), took it whole into the mouth, chew, and spat out the beak.  He was also offered a dormouse, but could not force himself to bite into it. However, the dormouse was considered a delicacy only wealthy could afford. 

Apparently, from meats, Ancient Romans ate pork and all kinds of birds and fish, but almost no beef. They used bulls for transportation and cows for milk. 

Garum was used liberally. Made of small fishes and fish guts, it is very similar to several Asian fish sauces. Diluted with water it was distributed to Roman legions. Pliny remarked in his Natural History that it could be diluted to the color of honey wine and drunk.

Romans did not know potatoes, tomatoes, corn, or sugar—all brought two thousand years later from the New World. 

They did not have pasta or the Italian wines familiar to us. The wine they drank was white, very sweet, with honey, and a lot of alcohol. Well, they diluted it with water to more palatable taste—still very bad to the modern palate according to those who tasted it.

Bread was popular, but hard to bite in. It was made of emmer (a cereal grain related to wheat) with a bit of salt. It was often dipped in wine and eaten with olives, cheese, and grapes. 

The upper classes also ate eggs, cheese, and honey, along with milk and fruit. The latter was mostly apples, pears, and figs. They didn’t have peaches and cherries. Oranges and lemons were used as medications. 

After reading about Roman cuisine, I decided I did not want to participate in any of the Roman feasts anymore.

And another interesting fact. The word “salary” derives from the Latin word salarium (“pay”), because Roman soldiers were often paid with salarius (“salt”).