As we Americans prepare to sit down to Thanksgiving feasts, I thought it might be interesting to discuss Roman foods. And the first thing I'll say about them is that ancient tastes were MUCH different than those of today! 

Here is a listing of some preferred delicacies gracing the noble Roman table. Not all of them were bizarre, but I think it's safe to say that most people today might crinkle their noses at the mention of a few.

DORMICE: Yeah... as in MICE. The Romans actually farmed these little rodents, as they were considered such a delicacy. They were fattened with nuts, often served stuffed with pine-nuts, meats, or grains, then roasted. Sometimes they were dipped in honey, like a chicken nugget. According to Wikipedia, they're still considered yummy in places like Slovenia and Croatia. Thanks, but I'll stick with chicken.

FLAMINGO TONGUES: Actually, the entire bird was considered to be a fabulous course at banquets among the elite. However, the tongues of flamingos were the cats meow. They have a meaty surface that Romans simply loved. And apparently, they tasted fantastic! I'm still sticking with chicken.

GARUM: Garum was the ketchup of the Roman world. It was a fermented fish sauce, and since I happen to love fish, I thought (at first) that here was something I would give a try. However, after some research, I discovered that garum was made using fish intestines, and now I'm back to plain old chicken, again. Still, garum was popular not only in Rome, but the Greeks had already developed a form of it, and later on, the Byzantine people adored the stuff. There are many examples of amphorae (pottery vessels) that were used to store garum, and traces of the substance have even been discovered in Pompeii. 

JELLYFISH: Even though I'm sticking with chicken, many Asian societies still eat jellyfish, and so did the Romans. One popular way of serving it was to prepare it with eggs, according to Marcus Gavius Apicius, a foodie during the reign of Tiberius. Apicius left the world a good many recipes and from his writings, we are left with a great deal of information on eating habits in the Roman world.

EEL: Just like dormice, eels were often farmed and considered haute cuisine. In fact, they are still very popular in Asian cooking. However, if you were a Roman who (like me!) wouldn't stomach eating one, then it was much in vogue just to keep them as pets! In fact, Marc Antony's daughter is said to have owned a pet eel that she adorned with earrings! Julius Caesar, however, may have had a taste for eels. Two commentaries record that he purchased either two-thousand of the slimy snacks (according to Varro) or six-thousand (according to Macrobius) to feed the populace during his Triumphs. 

ICE CREAM: Yes, Romans enjoyed sweets. A sort of "iced-cream" was often served as a dessert, mixed with snow from the mountains, along with milk, cream, honey, nuts, and dates. 

If you're interested in more information on cuisine and feasting in the ancient world, several cookbooks are now available, translated from original recipes. I have one in my own cookbook collection. The Classical Cookbook by Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger is loaded with recipes and intriguing information on things the ancients ate.

Bon appetit and Happy Thanksgiving!

Below is one of many mosaics which have been discovered, featuring foods enjoyed by Romans. They were a popular theme for triclinia (dining rooms) and it's fun to look at them and see both the familiar and the bizarre!

Our own age has made getting around from place to place so easy. Hop a flight to London, take a scenic train trip through the Canadian Rockies, or road-trip it to Yellowstone over summer vacay. 

Two-thousand years ago, things were much different, without modern modes of transportation. However, because the Mediterranean basin lent itself so well to sea-travel, people could get places much more easily than some imagine. That being said, travel generally depended on social status and occupation, as well as whether one had the money to cover expenses. Granted, sea merchants probably accrued the most mileage, though often their routes were repetitive and seldom changed. Sea captains, hiring themselves out for voyages were undoubtedly the best-traveled.

Marcus Antonius' first "major" trip, according to Plutarch, was to Athens as a student. He left when he was bankrupt, and ancient sources suggest that it was Julius Caesar who helped him launch that part of his life. During his stay in Athens, he somehow met Aulus Gabinius and was given command of Gabinius's cavalry during his command as proconsul in Syria. With rebellion breaking out in Judea, much of Marcus's time was spent in those southern reaches of loosely compiled Roman Syria, chasing Hasmonean rebels and quelling skirmishes. After that, he wound up trekking to Egypt to assist Ptolemy Auletes back onto his unsteady throne. All of this was when he was in his mid-twenties... a young man, to be sure.

Compared to most in his day, he was well-traveled. 

Sometime around Julius Caesar's two incursions into Britannia, Marcus joined him in Gaul. There is no historical evidence indicating that he was with Caesar on either trip to ancient Britain. However, there is also nothing that DIS-proves whether he went. In Second in Command, Marcus joins Caesar on the second voyage to British shores. So now, here's a guy in his twenties, two-thousand years ago, who has been all the way to Athens, Greece, through the Middle East into what is now Syria and parts of Israel, then over to Egypt, THEN north of Italy through Gaul (France) on into Britannia.

And that was just the beginning. After Caesar's assassination, Marcus had plenty of business in northern Italy and southern Gaul. Then, it was back to Greece for a trans-Greco journey across the Via Egnatia (Rome's Greek super-highway) all the way to Macedonia, which was pretty much northeastern Greece. Here is where he and Octavian beat Brutus and Cassius at Philippi and from there, he took over the Eastern portion of Rome's fledgling "empire". 

Marcus Antonius was literally all OVER the Roman "east" for the next nine years, implementing client kingdoms that would continue under imperial rule. He made at least two major sea voyages across the Mediterranean to meet with Octavian and form new alliances and agreements. It was also during this nine-year stint that he journeyed as far east as modern day Kurdish Iran, to an ancient city called Phraaspa--part of the Median east. The tale of what occurs on that campaign will appear in my next and final book of the Antonius Trilogy. 

To close, I did an experiment, using ORBIS (The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World). I (loosely) went through Marcus's lifetime, jotting down the departure points and destinations of places he covered in his fifty-three some odd years. On foot, by ship, horse, or wagon, he traveled a MINIMUM distance of 22,577 kilometers (14,028 miles). 

Pretty impressive for a guy who never flew in an airplane, drove a car, or rode a train.

Brook Allen on part of the ancient Via Egnatia in Philippi, Greece. This city was founded by Phillip of Macedon, Alexander the Great's father. It lies very near the battlefield of Philippi, where the forces of Marcus Antonius and Octaviandefeated Brutus and Cassius.

                                                                                      
I’ll never forget the first time I visited Pompeii.

I entered through the Marina Gate and as I walked slowly toward the Forum, it was as though I was going back into time with each and every step. And the place still possesses its very human story through its various buildings—some of which still stand complete—and it’s wall frescoes and plaster-cast molds of victims. The site is a world treasure. Though people and animals tragically died here, it’s a veritable time-capsule of information on just how ancient Romans lived and died. And perhaps the most surprising thing that a visitor takes with them upon leaving is the thought that, “They were just like us!”

In Rome itself, apartment buildings called insulae (islands) were often up to seven or even eight stories high. Plutarch, an ancient biographer who liked to tell the stories of famous Greeks and Romans, told about Marcus Licinius Crassus, a contemporary of Julius Caesar. Crassus became rich through vast purchases of properties in Rome—specifically insulae. Since Rome had no fire brigade at the time, Crassus trained a band of his own slaves to be firemen. If there was a fire in an insula, which occurred regularly, due to people trying to cook in their apartments, Crassus would show up with his firemen. He’d offer to buy the insula for a ridiculously low price and the poor, panicked owner would either have to sell his enflamed property or watch it burn, as Crassus would only order his firemen into action if he sealed a deal!

And—hey! McDonald’s anyone? Common plebians typically ate their meals at fast food stalls (thermopolia), located on the streets and sometimes even built into insulae. Americans might think they invented fast-food, but these tiny eateries would serve up steaming veggies and meats onto husks of bread for a filling meal two-thousand years ago. It was only the upper middle classes and families of noble descent who could really afford to recline in their painted triclinia, served by slaves.

Lastly, I have to mention the Roman passion for games. Now their tastes were different than ours—bloody beast and gladiator shows were the norm. But this enormous public park easily lends to our imaginations what mighty structure once stood there. The Circus Maximus was the place to go for gladiator shows, public executions of criminals, and the favorite Roman past-time—chariot racing! The Circus Maximus is HUGE and worth a visit. Visitors can still walk where the original track was laid out and see where the spina—the “spine” of the complex—once was. By Julius Caesar’s day, this enormous arena seated over one-hundred-fifty THOUSAND people! As the Republic morphed into Empire, several Emperors renovated and improved the mighty Circus Maximus, and other hippodromes similar to it, were added in notable cities throughout the Roman Empire.

 I am of the opinion that there’s NOTHING boring about history. People who poo-poo the study of other cultures from the past simply haven’t gotten INTO the spirits of the people who lived so long ago. Tourists who visit Pompeii and experience the many similarities between ancient Roman culture and ours are right. In many regards, they were “just like us.”
 

If you read Antonius: Second in Command, you will quickly find yourself traveling through the ancient world alongside Marcus Antonius. Antony was a real traveling man. He traveled all over the Mediterranean world, which was "the western world" at the time. The Roman World had a few different names and titles to places that you and I are most familiar with. Here are a few of them--and this week, I'm including a lovely map of the Roman world, created by Cathy Helms at Avalon Graphics, LLC. This is one of two maps included in my newest book!

GAUL: Gaul was pretty much modern-day France. When Second in Command begins, Julius Caesar is attempting to conquer the Gallic people. They were known as valiant warriors and their hill-forts were huge and imposing. The Gauls invaded and sacked the city of Rome way back in 390 BC and the Romans never forgot that infraction. There was bad blood between the two peoples from then on. Caesar wrote a propaganda-fueled memoir, known as The Gallic Wars that can still be read today. Caesar describes the ancient Gauls and Britons and details the many skirmishes and incidents throughout the decade of Gaul's fall to the Romans.

BRITANNIA: Caesar made two forays over to what is now the United Kingdom. The second was more successful than the first. Until 2017, nobody knew exactly where Caesar had landed, however, recent archaeological excavations in Kent have rendered artifacts and ruins of fortifications that are very similar to those excavated in present-day France at the Alesia site, where Caesar won Gaul for Rome. British archaeologists are quite certain that the ruins and artifacts (which include Roman spear points), are from Caesar's invasion. In his writings, Caesar paints a vivid description of the ancient Britons and their methods of warfare. It is not known whether Antony was actually with him, but if Antony had arrived in Gaul shortly before Caesar left, the remote possibility is there. (And that, my friends, is why it's fun to write historical FICTION!) As a young officer needing experience and exposure, it's conceivable that Caesar may have taken him along.

SYRIA: In Marc Antony's lifetime, Syria was a brand new conquest. In Son of Rome, he receives his first command there, under Aulus Gabinius, Syria's new proconsul. Since it was such a recent addition to Rome's growing empire, it was very loosely compiled. There were areas that its conqueror, Pompeius Magnus had claimed but weren't really subjugated, as of yet. Much of that land in question was what would eventually become Judea, under the emperors. On its eastern border were the troublesome Parthians, with whom the Romans always had conflicts. To the south were the Judeans, whose people were never pleased with Roman rule, despite their kings who willingly served Rome to stay in power.

It is remarkable to me that the Roman World "worked" as well as it did. In trade, economics, growth, and communication, this was a period of world history when there was no telecommunication of any sort, no jet planes, or automobiles. And yet, part of the Roman Empire lasted well into the high Middle Ages. 

Take your time looking over the map below, and then be sure to read Second in Command and travel to many of these amazing lands where Antony went.