#1stcenturyce

Food in the Roman World

The ancient Mediterranean diet revolved around four staples, which, even today, continue to dominate restaurant menus and kitchen tables: cereals, vegetables, olive oil and wine. Seafood, cheese, eggs, meat and many types of fruit were also available to those who could afford it. The Romans were also adept at processing and conserving their food using techniques from pickling to storage in honey. Flavouring food with sauces, herbs and exotic spices was another important element of Roman food preparation. Our knowledge of just what the Romans ate and how has been gathered from texts, wall-paintings and mosaics, and even the remains of the food itself from sites such as Pompeii.

Cereals

Cereals made up the bulk of most people's diet with wheat and barley being the most common and used especially to make bread and porridge. Bread was generally coarse and dark in colour, the better quality loaves being less dark and finer in texture. Innovations in grinding mills and finer sieves helped improve the fineness of flour over time but it remained much coarser than modern standards. Besides wheat and barley, oats, rye, and millets were also available.

Fish Sauce in the Ancient World

The production and trade of fish sauce in the ancient world was a significant and widespread industry, stretching from Britain to the Black Sea. Roman fish sauce, known as garum, was one of the most popular and commonly used ingredients in the Roman pantry. Some historians have even argued that fish sauce, common throughout Southeast Asia today, was introduced to the continental subregion via the Silk Road.

The origins of fish sauce

Not much is known about the earliest fish sauces in Europe. The first recorded fish sauce was produced by the ancient Greeks along the coastline of the Black Sea. The abundant fishery resources of the region may have been a significant factor in Greek colonisation of the area, even as early as the 7th century BCE. Called gàros, it was made by fermenting small fish with salt which produced an amber-coloured liquid.

The Carthaginians were also early makers and traders of fish sauce, producing it along the coast of the Lake of Tunis, in modern day Tunisia. A Punic shipwreck from 5th century BCE, found off the coast of Ibiza, may have been carrying a cargo of fish sauce stored in amphorae made in Gades (modern day Spain) and Tingi (modern-day Morocco). There are many early Graeco-Roman literary references to fish sauce, from writers such as Aristophanes, Sophocles and Aeschylus. The numerous casual mentions suggest it was a commonplace ingredient in the ancient Mediterranean.

Roman Baths

Roman Baths were designed for bathing and relaxing and were a common feature of cities throughout the Roman empire. Baths included a wide diversity of rooms with different temperatures, as well as swimming pools and places to read, relax, and socialise. Roman baths, with their large covered spaces, were important drivers in architectural innovation, notably in the use of domes.

A Mainstay of Roman Culture

Public baths were a feature of ancient Greek towns but were usually limited to a series of hip-baths. The Romans expanded the idea to incorporate a wide array of facilities and baths became common in even the smaller towns of the Roman world, where they were often located near the forum. In addition to public baths, wealthy citizens often had their own private baths constructed as a part of their villa and baths were even constructed for the legions of the Roman army when on campaign. However, it was in the large cities that these bath complexes (balnea or thermae) took on monumental proportions with vast colonnades and wide-spanning arches and domes. Baths were built using millions of fireproof terracotta bricks and the finished buildings were usually sumptuous affairs with fine mosaic floors, marble-covered walls, and decorative statues.

Generally opening around lunchtime and open until dusk, baths were accessible to all, both rich and poor. In the reign of Diocletian, for example, the entrance fee was a mere two denarii - the smallest denomination of bronze coinage. Sometimes, on occasions such as public holidays, the baths were even free to enter.

Roman Wall Painting

The interiors of Roman buildings of all description were very frequently sumptuously decorated using bold colours and designs. Wall paintings, fresco and the use of stucco to create relief effects were all commonly used by the 1st century BCE in public buildings, private homes, temples, tombs and even military structures across the Roman world. Designs could range from intricate realistic detail to highly impressionistic renderings which frequently covered all of the available wall space including the ceiling. Subjects could include portraits, scenes from mythology, architecture using trompe-l'oeil, flora, fauna and even entire gardens, landscapes and townscapes to create spectacular 360° panoramas which transported the viewer from the confines of a small room to the limitless world of the painter's imagination.

Materials & Techniques

Wall paintings were created using a painstaking build up of various layers of material. The optimum process is described by both Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder. First, a rough coat of mortar is applied to the surface, sometimes three layers thick and composed of lime and sand (or volcanic pozzolana). Next, a further three coats were added, this time using a mixture of lime and fine crushed marble to give a smoother finish and then glass, marble and cloth were used to polish the surface and prepare it for painting. Colours were added when the surface was still wet (fresco) but details might also be added to a dried surface (tempera). If the surface were wood then colours might be first dissolved in wax and added to the wall using a spatula.

The Early History of Clove, Nutmeg, & Mace

The spices clove, nutmeg, and mace originated on only a handful of tiny islands in the Indonesian archipelago but came to have a dramatic, far-reaching impact on world trade. In antiquity, they became popular in the medicines of India and China, and they were a major component of European cuisine in the medieval period. European countries fought mightily for control of the spice trade.

Natural History

The name clove refers to the dried, unopened buds of the evergreen tree, Syzygium caryophyllata in the myrtle family. Cloves were native to only five tiny, volcanic islands in the East Indian Archipelago: Ternate, Matir, Tidore, Makian, and Bacan, all belonging to the Maluku Islands or the Moluccas.

The nutmegs are the dark reddish-brown seeds within the fruits of Myristica fragrans, of the Myristicaceae family. These seeds are surrounded by a deep red, fleshy net-like membrane, or aril, which is the mace. The nutmeg tree was native to sheltered valleys on the hot, tropical Banda Islands in the Maluku region of Indonesia.

Roman Baths

Roman Baths were designed for bathing and relaxing and were a common feature of cities throughout the Roman empire. Baths included a wide diversity of rooms with different temperatures, as well as swimming pools and places to read, relax, and socialise. Roman baths, with their large covered spaces, were important drivers in architectural innovation, notably in the use of domes.

A Mainstay of Roman Culture

Public baths were a feature of ancient Greek towns but were usually limited to a series of hip-baths. The Romans expanded the idea to incorporate a wide array of facilities and baths became common in even the smaller towns of the Roman world, where they were often located near the forum. In addition to public baths, wealthy citizens often had their own private baths constructed as a part of their villa and baths were even constructed for the legions of the Roman army when on campaign. However, it was in the large cities that these bath complexes (balnea or thermae) took on monumental proportions with vast colonnades and wide-spanning arches and domes. Baths were built using millions of fireproof terracotta bricks and the finished buildings were usually sumptuous affairs with fine mosaic floors, marble-covered walls, and decorative statues.

Generally opening around lunchtime and open until dusk, baths were accessible to all, both rich and poor. In the reign of Diocletian, for example, the entrance fee was a mere two denarii - the smallest denomination of bronze coinage. Sometimes, on occasions such as public holidays, the baths were even free to enter.

Roman Glass

Roman glassware includes some of the finest pieces of art ever produced in antiquity and the very best were valued higher than wares made with precious metals. However, plain glass vessels such as cups, bowls, plates, and bottles were also used as everyday containers, in particular, for storing and serving food and drinks. Glass was also used by the Romans for its decorative qualities and could be incorporated in mosaics and decorative panels in both walls and furniture. The material was also used for windows, to create jewellery, mirrors, game pieces, magnifying glasses, sculpture and, in the form of powder, even as a medicine and toothpaste.

Materials

The use of the man-made material called glass - a mix of soda, silica, and lime - pre-dates the Romans by over 1,500 years, but even they seem not to have fully understood the complexity of the component mix and the necessity for lime to make the glass impervious to water and much more durable to the ravages of time and use. Lime can be found naturally, for example, as part of the silica component in the form of sand which contains a significant percentage of crushed sea shells. Indeed, two areas became noted for the high quality of their glass - along the Belarus River in Phoenicia and the Volturnus River in Campania - not coincidentally, areas where the sand was particularly rich in lime. However, some Roman glassmakers, perhaps without knowing exactly why, did understand that the addition of small pebbles and shells could affect the final quality of the glass produced.

Glanum

Glanum, located near St-Rémy-de-Provence in southern France, was a Greek and then Roman town which prospered due to its location on trading routes between Italy and the Rhodanus (Rhone River). The town benefitted from a large building project in the Hellenistic period and another spree during the reign of Augustus which furnished Glanum with temples, a theatre, basilica, monumental arch, and Roman baths, amongst other amenities. The town was abandoned in the 3rd century CE but today offers the modern visitor an impressive array of Greco-Roman ruins.

Historical Overview

Glanum was first settled by the Celts, specifically the Salyans (Salluvii), from the 7th to 6th century BCE. Indeed, the town's name derives from Glan, a Celtic spring deity who continued to be worshipped at the site into the Roman period. The town grew following an influx of colonists from Massalia (Marseilles) in the 2nd century BCE. Flourishing as a trade centre and noted as a place of healing, Glanum began to mint its own silver coinage (with a bull and a Glanic mother goddess design) and benefitted from a Hellenistic building programme which included a peristyle building, ornamental spring, temple, bouleuterion (public assembly theatre), and several large private villas. The town spread to cover some 20 ha in this period and was protected by a circuit wall.

The Romans took an interest in the town from the 1st century BCE following the Second Salyan War (90 BCE) when the consul Caecilius quashed what would be the last Celtic revolt in the region. The town was razed, but during the reign of Augustus, Glanum once more benefitted from a programme of rebuilding. New monumental structures included an agora, forum, theatre, a curia (council building), basilica and various other public buildings, temples, Roman baths, a triumphal arch, and mausoleum. Outside the town, two aqueducts were built to regulate Glanum's water supply. In addition to new buildings, the town was granted certain Latin privileges, made a full Roman colony in the 1st century CE, and continued to prosper as a trading stop near the Via Domitia.

Glanum's glory days came to an end when it was destroyed by the Alemanni c. 260 CE. The site was then abandoned by the local people in favour of a new location at nearby St-Rémy-de-Provence. Glanum was first excavated in the early 20th century CE and work continues today with some of the temples undergoing restoration.