Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
______________________________________ The Romans also employed techniques that were equivalent to today’s factory farming methods. Slaves would constantly feed milk to snails, nuts to dormice and bread to pigeons. Animals’ legs would be broken and birds’ wings clipped to restrict their mobility, thus increasing their body weight in the shortest possible time. _________________________________________ The Romans loved to put spicy sauces on their foods. One of the reasons for this was that the Romans absorbed a great deal of lead from their metal pipes, cooking pots and drinking cups. This created an unpleasant metallic taste in the mouth and the spicy sauces helped to overcome the problem. Some of the ingredients in these sauces such as pepper, ginger, cumin and cinnamon had to come from outside the empire and were therefore extremely expensive. ________________________________________ In the late stages of the Roman Empire, the rich became obsessed with food. Dinner parties where friends could eat and gossip together were very popular. Sometimes they lasted from three in the afternoon until late at night. People would bring their own slaves with them to the dinner party. It was their job to cut up their owner’s food and to clean up after them if they were sick. One Roman writer claimed that half-way through the meal people would put a feather down their throats to make themselves sick so they had room for more food. _________________________________________ The Romans preferred fish to meat. To ensure a constant supply, villas would have ponds where fish were bred and kept alive until ready for eating. Mullet, sole, turbot and sturgeon were all popular. Fish would be served with a sweet and sour sauce. As well as spices the sauces would include fruit such as plums and apricots. ________________________________________ Wheat was the main food for most Romans. It was often boiled into a form of porridge. Other foods such as vegetables, herbs, olives, fish or meat would be added to give it more flavour. Wheat was also used to make bread, biscuits and pancakes. The Romans also liked bread flavoured with cheese, aniseed or honey. _________________________________________ Some Romans were vegetarians. It was argued that eating meat was bad for you. For example, some believed that eating pork caused leprosy. Others believed in reincarnation and were afraid they might eat the soul of a relative. A further group claimed that eating meat was immoral. Sextius, a Roman Philosopher, argued that as there was enough food available, people should not kill animals. _________________________________________ Whereas the diet of most citizens was fairly monotonous, the rich could afford to eat foods imported from all over the empire. Having expensive banquets was a way of letting people know how wealthy you were. Julius Caesar became worried that this showing off might cause the poor to rebel, and in 46BC he passed a law limiting how much people could spend on meals. This law proved unenforceable and was generally ignored. Wealthy Romans would eat three meals a day. Breakfast would be bread dipped in wine or goat’s milk, lunch a small meal of eggs or cold meat. The main meal would take place in the evening and would last for several hours.