Eating Like a Roman: Healthy Greens, Gritty Bread and Fish Paste – The Evolution of Ancient Roman Cuisine

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A boy holding a platter of fruits with a bucket of crabs, in a kitchen with fish and squid, on the June panel from a mosaic depicting the months (3rd century)

Eating Like a Roman: Healthy Greens, Gritty Bread and Fish Paste – The Evolution of Ancient Roman Cuisine

While the reputation of ancient Roman dining features decadent drinking and feasting to a point of excess – leading to notorious purges in the vomitorium – those stories were largely anecdotal, or were given as moral messages, and warnings of wasted luxury. The reality of ancient Roman cuisine was very different – and in many ways surprising!

‘The Romans of the Decadence’ (1847) by Thomas Couture.

‘The Romans of the Decadence’ (1847) by Thomas Couture. (Public Domain)

Roman cuisine during the Kingdom (753 BCE – 509 BCE) was similar to ancient Greek fare. It was rather simple and the variety of food was limited. Romans of this period typically ate a porridge (called the puls) made of emmer, salt, olive oil and various herbs. They also ate vegetables, fruits, meat, fish and seafood and used olive oil, salt, pepper and various spices in their food.


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