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Ancient Romans Ate Meals Most Americans Would
Recognize
By Joel N. Shurkin, Inside Science | February 6th 2015 08:46 AM
Let's pretend it is 56 B.C. and you
have been fortunate enough to be
invited to a party at the home of
Lucius Piso Caesoninus, Julius
Caesar's father-in-law and a
former consul of Rome.
What's for dinner?
You need to prepare for pig.
Archaeologists studying the eating
habits of ancient Etruscans and Romans have found that pork was the staple of Italian
cuisine before and during the Roman Empire. Both the poor and the rich ate pig as the
meat of choice, although the rich, like Piso, got better cuts, ate meat more often, and
likely received larger quantities.
They had pork chops, a form of bacon, and even served sausages; in other words, a
meal not unlike what you'd find in Rome today -- or in South Philadelphia.
Researchers discussed this ancient Mediterranean diet at a meeting of the
Archaeological Institute of America in New Orleans.
1 Dinner parties were the way the Roman aristocracy showed off their wealth and
prestige, according to Michael MacKinnon, professor of archaeology at the University
of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
“Status in the upper class was declared with the presentation of the meal, the use of
rare spices, and fine dinnerware,” he explained.
"The wealthier you are the more you want to invest in display and advertising to your
guests. Flash was perhaps more important than substance," said MacKinnon. "Whole
animals showed great wealth."
1 “Besides the meat, there would be vegetables that looked a little different from what
we eat,” said Angela Trentacoste of the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.
“Except for grain, which was imported in huge quantities from places throughout the
empire, like North Africa, everything was locally grown.”
2 MacKinnon and Trentacoste are zooarchaeologists, scientists who study the remains
of animals found in archaeological sites. They rummage through ancient garbage
dumps or middens, and occasionally even ancient latrines looking for the bones of
animals and fish people ate.
“People would sometimes dump garbage in latrines instead of walking to the
neighborhood dump,” MacKinnon said.
2 From this, zooarchaeologists can deduce a great deal from bones about what life and
diets were like in ancient Italy. Looking at the bones in an ancient dump, they can tell
how the food supply worked.
Zooarchaeologists also have literary evidence of what was eaten from writers, often
denoted in satirical plays where extravagant indulgences were mocked.
Trentacoste specializes in the Etruscan civilization that preceded Rome in Italy. Much
of her digging was in the tombs of rich Etruscans who often were buried with food
and utensils. On some sites, she found 20,000 animal bones amid the rubbish.
“As the dominance of Rome grew so did the city, and what was a largely rural
Etruscan society became a more urban Roman one,” she said.
That changed the food supply. Most food, like today, came from farms outside the
2 city.”
“But, the city dwellers still raised pigs. They take up little room, can be easily bred
and transported,” Trentacoste said, “and are easy to raise.”
“They also had chickens roaming that looked much like the chickens of today,”
MacKinnon said, “and they were close to the same size.”
Though cattle tended to take up too much room, rich Romans had beef occasionally,
and sometimes goat.
3 The lower classes ate to stay alive.
Some historians believe the lower class was mostly vegetarian but, according to
MacKinnon and Trentacoste, that is not true. The lower class generally ate the same
things the upper class did, but not the same cuts and probably not in the same
quantities.
Lower class Romans did not have fancy flatware. Instead, they used simple or
makeshift utensils.
Because only the upper class had kitchens at home, other Romans bought food from
street vendors, something like the lunch wagons of today. “Mostly,” MacKinnon said,
“they would put the food in large pots and make stews or a porridge. They might also
boil the meat.”
Only the wealthy were able to broil or barbecue.
3 Despite legend, most Romans or Etruscans did not eat exotic animals regularly.
However, some upper class dinners might include songbirds swallowed whole. One
midden in Rome even contained the bones of a slaughtered camel. Songbirds are still
eaten in some parts of Italy.
“One legend may be true,” MacKinnon stated: “Vomitoriums. With so much food at
Piso’s table, many would want to indulge. To make room, they would excuse
themselves from the table and purge.”