and the proximity of rocky coasts. Paintings on ancient vases
depict boats with lanterns hanging from prow and stern, sug-
gesting that fi shing was conducted by night.
Various straits and narrows in the seas around the Greek
world were known as rich sites for fi shing. Th e straits of Mes-
sina, the Hellespont, and the Bosporus all saw populations of
fi sh pass by, closely packed, during their annual migrations.
Certain bays and inlets along the convoluted eastern coast-
line of Greece were rich in populations of eels, another prized
delicacy.
Most of the vegetables in the ancient Greek diet, such as
onions, leeks, garlic, and turnips, were the produce of gar-
dens or small farms, but wild greens and herbs were prized as
seasoning. Fennel, particularly, grows wild all around the Ae-
gean Sea, and it was valued for its seeds and its stalks. Other
herbs that were probably gathered wild were basil (whose
name comes from the Greek word basileus, meaning king)
and the pungent, sulfurous asafetida, a plant originally from
Iran but common throughout the ancient world and fre-
quently used in cooking. Honey and some fruits, such as fi gs,
could be gathered in the wild, but both of these sources of
sweetening were domesticated by the historical period, aft er
the seventh century.
ROME
BY MICHAEL J. O’NEAL
Th e civilization of the ancient Romans developed later than
most ancient civilizations. Th e fi rst inhabitants of the area
around Rome arrived in about 1400 b.c.e. Th en, by about 625
b.c.e., numerous settlers had arrived and drained the marshes
around what would become the city of Rome, along the banks
of the Tiber River. Th e Etruscans and Greeks settled portions
of the Italian peninsula, but the political entity known as the
Roman Republic did not emerge until about 500 b.c.e. Th e
Roman Empire refers to Rome and its many colonies begin-
ning in 27 b.c.e.
Because Rome was a late arrival, its people were never
hunters and gatherers as most ancient peoples had been dur-
ing some period of their early history. Rome was a civiliza-
tion in the fullest sense of the word, so Romans quickly came
to sustain themselves through manufacture, agriculture,
and especially trade and military conquest. Th e entity now
called “Rome” was never a Paleolithic, hunter-gatherer, tribal
society. Th is is not to say that some people in rural regions
did not live by hunting and gathering or, more likely, supple-
ment their living by these activities. Rome encompassed a
wide region, so people under its control in North Africa, in
the Middle East, in Europe, and around the Mediterranean
Sea undoubtedly hunted, fi shed, and gathered nuts, berries,
fruits, tubers, leafy vegetables, and other products of nature.
But no respectable Roman citizen living in one of the empire’s
cities would have survived in this way. Rather, Romans lived
in large part by imported luxury foods and massive supplies
of imported grain.
Fishing in ancient Rome was either a sport or a commer-
cial activity. Roman men, particularly those from the affl uent
classes, oft en traveled to the countryside, where they hunted
and fi shed for sport. Fly-fi shing was an especially valued form
of recreation. Th e bulk of fi shing, though, was commercial in
nature. Th e Italian peninsula thrusts deeply into the Mediter-
ranean Sea and is surrounded by water on three sides, so it
comes as no surprise that fi shermen plied its waters, as had
the ancient Greeks before them.
Much of the evidence for ancient Roman fi shing prac-
tices comes from references in literature and from surviv-
ing artwork. Th ese demonstrate that Rome and its colonies
around the sea maintained a thriving fi shing industry, both
from boats and from the shore. Th ey caught fi sh primarily
with nets, though sometimes they used traps. Some of these
nets were relatively small and could be managed by just two
men. Others were quite large and required a crew of men to
handle. Some nets required draw ropes to close the nets; oth-
ers required the fi shermen simply to gather the edges of the
nets and pull. Th e technology of nets was advanced, and Ro-
man writers refer to a wide range of net types, each suitable
for fi shing under diff erent conditions—in shallow water or
deep water, for example. Unfortunately, these nets were made
from organic materials, such as fl ax, so none have survived
the ravages of time.
Catches were sold in marketplaces in Roman cities. In
comparison with modern life, transportation was relatively
slow, and the Romans did not have the advantage of refrigera-
tion, so the fi sh that arrived at markets was sometimes “fi shy,”
suggesting that it was getting old and on the verge of spoiling.
For this reason fi sh by itself was not always a major portion of
the Roman diet, though wealthy people were able to get fresh
fi sh specially delivered to their doors. Fish was consumed pri-
marily in the form of a processed sauce called garum. Th e
empire maintained numerous fi sh-processing plants along
the coast for producing this sauce, and people who lived in
these coastal regions oft en made their living by supplying the
plants.
Hunting, like fi shing, was primarily done for sport, again
by affl uent men who journeyed to the countryside to hunt
game animals, usually with the aid of dogs. Hunting was also
memorialized in the Roman pantheon of gods and goddesses,
most prominently by Diana, who evolved from the Greek
goddess Artemis. Diana, the virgin goddess of the hunt, is
usually depicted with a bow and arrow and accompanied by a
hunting dog and a stag.
Hunting as a sport was so popular that it actually be-
came a spectator sport called the venatio. In ancient Rome
this term had diff erent meanings, depending on the context
in which it was used. Sometimes it referred to big-game hunt-
ing in places like Africa. Sometimes it referred to spectator
hunting that took place in Roman arenas. And because such
“ beast hunts” were oft en conducted in connection with gladi-
atorial contests, venatio became a general term for these spec-
tator sports taken together.580 hunting, fishing, and gathering: Rome