Dining in Republican and Imperial Rome .........................................

Lecture 9

I

n this lecture, you will learn about ancient Roman dining habits and
how they changed over time—as did the Roman people themselves.
You will start by learning about the simple warlike Romans in the
Republican period; then, you will trace the expansion of the Roman Empire
and how food came to be a marker of social class, especially when only the
wealthiest of Romans could afford exotic luxuries. Finally, you will examine
a cookbook written specifi cally for those who wanted to fl aunt their wealth
and sophistication.

Republican Frugality
 The early Romans were an austere, self-suffi cient, and warlike
people whose food consisted primarily of staples associated with
the Mediterranean diet: wheat and barley eaten as pulmentum (that
is, the original version of polenta), cheese, olive oil, vegetables, and
a little meat. There was little social differentiation based on diet;
most people ate pretty much the same basic, simple, and locally
grown foods.

 We get a good example of what Romans in the Republican period

were like from an agricultural manual written by Marcus Porcius

Cato, otherwise known as Cato the Elder. Cato is infamous in

Roman history as the offi cial censor of the state, who—even after

two crushing victories against the Carthaginians, their dire enemy—

insisted that the Carthaginians be completely obliterated. In fact,

Carthage was destroyed in the Third Punic War by sowing salt into

the soil so that nothing would ever grow again.

 Why would a Roman statesman write a book about agriculture? It

is partly because the Romans fought seasonally, returning to their

farms for sowing and harvesting. Being a patrician, people of Cato’s

social class would often inherit large sums of money or might earn

a pension after retiring from military service. For the early Romans,