Roman Food & Drink

Question 1

Describe the Roman diet

Answer 1

Depended entirely on location & economic status, but the diet of most was frugal

Question 2

What was the favoured food of the Romans?

Answer 2

Puls: A sort of porridge made of husked wheat. Loved enough that it earned them a nickname - “pultiphagonides” (eaters of puls)

Question 3

What are the 4 types of Roman bread?

Answer 3

Furnaceus - An oven-baked bread found in shops
Artopticus - A homemade bread
Clibanicus - A bread baked in a portable oven called a “clibanus”
Focacius - A flat bread cooked under ash

Question 4

What were some common shapes of bread?

Answer 4

The long shape - Baguette
Panis quadratus - “The bread of the common people”: quad generally indicates square, but this bread is circular, likely referring to how it was cut (8 sections)
Martial - Bread in the shape of genitals

Question 5

What indicated the popularity of bread in the Roman diet?

Answer 5

A tomb decorated to look like a bread factory & that there was 35 bread-factories found in Pompeii (recall that Pompeii isn’t that big)

Question 6

What kinds of meat was eaten?

Answer 6

Location dependent - inner cities would eat less fish or lake fish, those who could afford meat ate pork, rabbit, or lamb & bovine meat was for ritual only

Question 7

Was sauce was loved by the Romans?

Answer 7

An incredibly salty fish sauce called Garum - it was added to almost every dish

Question 8

What kind of meat was cultivated within the house?

Answer 8

The meat from dormice. Grown in ~1ft tall vases with levels & breathing holes

Question 9

How do we know what kinds of fruits & veggies were eaten?

Answer 9

Iconographic sources & carbonized examples from Pompeii

Question 10

What drinks were consumed?

Answer 10

Mostly wine, still watered down, spiced, & heated. Posca was a common drink of poorer classes, made by watering down acetum, ( a low-quality wine similar to vinegar)

Question 11

What were the 3 daily meals?

Answer 11

Lentaculum, Prandium, & Cena

Question 12

Describe lentaculum & what was typically eaten

Answer 12

Breakfast, a light meal consisting of bread, onions, veggies, & cheese

Question 13

Describe prandium & what was typically eaten

Answer 13

A lunch of veggies, fish, & eggs

Question 14

Describe cena & what was typically eaten

Answer 14

The main meal, eaten around sunset, the traditional meal was puls, 3 courses: Gustatio (eggs, raw veg), Main course (Cooked veg & meat), & Mensae Secundae (dessert & fruit)

Question 15

Describe the Roman banquet

Answer 15

Done only by the wealthy, very long events (some lasted days), had exotic foods & fine pottery, Spectacles (actors, singers, musicians, etc), ideal guest number was 3-4, reclined on couches while eating

Question 16

Who could attend the Roman banquets?

Answer 16

Only adult men. In the imperial age women could join, but had to eat sitting on chairs

Question 17

How where late guests treated?

Answer 17

They had to eat sitting, were on the fringed/ignored, & called umbrae (shadows)

Question 18

What are the main differences between the Greek Symposion & the Roman Banquet?

Answer 18

Women were allowed into the Roman banquet, there was an ideal number of guests (a low number), the Roman banquet ran for a very long time, and MOST IMPORTANTLY: there was NO SOCIAL MEANING of the Roman banquet, unlike the heavy importance of the Greek Symposion