Twenty courses (including gold-battered peas and venison stuffed with live birds), a sea of wine, and the whole seasoned with a sauce of fermented fish guts. It is not surprising that the Romans had to go to the site from time to time during their famous feasts. But was it really so?
“In the dining room there were wide feast beds (wedges), set with their longer sides on three sides around a rectangular space (...). They were lined with mattresses and pillows, and each bed could accommodate three guests arranged in a reclining position. Either one large, low table stood in the center, or small tables were placed in front of each reveler. (...). The mugs, cups and wine glasses were on display, and the servants had to bustle to fill them "- describes a classic feast in a Roman house, Ewa Bugaj.
Many myths arose around Roman feasts
The preserved written sources, as well as wall paintings and bas-reliefs present an unusual image of feasts in the Roman Empire. On their basis, it was assumed that the inhabitants of the empire enjoyed stuffing their bellies beyond measure, drunkenness beyond the limits of decency, and general culinary debauchery. The richest, of course, were in the lead in gluttony. However, to what extent is this notion even true?
Endless feast
What could such ceremonial dinners, where the Roman party cream gathered together, look like? This is how Robert Fabbri presents them in the novel Vespesian, inspired by real events. Roman furies , the latest volume of the best-selling series about the fate of one of the most powerful rulers of the empire:
Hardly anyone liked Nero's feasts; each seemed to go on forever - and this one was no exception. It wasn't about countless dishes, always perfectly presented and solemnly flaunted by dozens of scantily - if any - clad slaves of both sexes, or asexuals.
Conversation wasn't the cause, boringly polite, sporadic and humorless; nor entertainment, which comes down to repetitive series of boats in the emperor's favorite style (...). Even the vulgarity of the feast scale - thirty three-seater sofas and as many low tables arranged in a horseshoe around the artist - would be forgivable.
The main obstacles to Fabbri's heroes enjoying the sumptuous feasts were that the emperor summoned guests too often and ... under duress (not without significance was the paralyzing fear of the new ideas of the unpredictable ruler). In fact, however, it seems that the Romans were rather eager to be invited to participate in the next festival of gluttony and debauchery (and not only the culinary one).
It was brought to the table
However, let's put aside the more and less conventional entertainment accompanying the feasts. Food was the most important element of the meetings. What did the patricians fill their bellies with during the long dinners?
The richness of the menu depended entirely on the fantasy - and the wealth of the host. During the more sumptuous feasts, the guests' plates were filled with peacock eggs, baked storks, beans coated in amber and peas "coated" with gold. Garum was an inseparable element - a spicy sauce made from fermented fish heads and guts. In his famous satire, The Feast of Trymalchion, Petronius also wrote, inter alia, about roast wild boar stuffed with… live birds! Before the astonished guests were also brought:
a hen with outstretched wings, as is the case with hens brooding their eggs. Immediately two servants joined her and, listening to noisy music, began to rummage in the straw, extracting peacock eggs from there and distributing them to the guests.
At this moment of the show, Trymalchion caught the attention and said:'Friends, I have put peacock eggs under the hen. And let me Hercules, but I'm afraid they are overdue ”(...). But when I heard an old man say:"There must be something good here," I searched the shell with my hand and found a fat flycatcher in a fucking yolk in it.
Truly debauched feasts were only for emperors.
Of course, the work of Petronius is mocking, but the author drew inspiration from real feasts. And these were no less sumptuous. As reported by Ewa Bugaj:"Emperor Elagabalus, reigning in the years 218–222 AD, supposedly organized feasts consisting of twenty dishes, each of which was of the same color - so pink, emerald, etc. feasts were given. a recipe for a previously unknown dish, he received a valuable gift from the ruler. ”
The truth in wine
Of course, this huge variety of dishes could not be complete without a suitable addition in the form of wine. Basically Roman wines were sweet and heavy , but - contrary to appearances - the revelers did not get madly drunk even before the main course, because they were never eaten unmixed (and never without good company). Ewa Bugaj describes:
During a dinner or a drinking party (commissafio), which might take place after dinner, the arbiter elegantiae, the master of ceremonies, determined the proportions by which wine was mixed with water, moreover, how many cups of this drink could be consumed, as well as the manner of drinking.
It was drunk either round the clock, starting with the guest sitting highest (a summo), or sequentially, which meant that each one filled the cup he had emptied and gave it to his neighbor with wishes, or finally the master of ceremonies chose one of those present, for whose health everyone drank so much times, how many letters there were in his three names (tria nomina).
Undoubtedly, it happened that one or that patrician greeted the next morning with a heavy hangover after such a feast, but stories about regular evening stuffing and drinking to death by rich Romans can be put among fairy tales. Such behavior was almost exclusively the domain of the Caesars.
It was the rulers who were mainly concerned by the famous advice "vomunt ut edant, edunt ut vomant!" ("Vomit to eat, eat to vomit"). During particularly abundant dinners, for a known purpose, among others, Nero (who helped himself not only by inducing vomiting with a bird's feather, but also with enemas ), Vitellius (supposedly eating everything and everywhere, stuffing himself between meals in mean desserts and shamelessly belching after each course) or Claudius. The latter even issued a special edict which made it possible to blow the winds loudly at the table - and during the Senate deliberations.
Killing love of food
Digestive troubles, however, were not the only side effect of the Roman elite's love of feasting. One of the greatest gourmets of the Empire, his love of food led to… suicide. Author of the first Roman cookbook On culinary arts, books ten , took his own life after going bankrupt because of inviting guests too often . Seneca the Younger - not without malice - reported:
Here, once he had let a hundred million sesterces into the kitchen (...), he calculated that he had ten million sesterces left. As if he had to live in the last poverty and hunger, with ten million sesterces at his disposal, he ended his life with poison.
In general, Seneca was critical of his countrymen's culinary debauchery. As he bitterly noted in his Letters, "Do not be surprised that diseases are so countless:count the cooks."
In reality, however, the situation was probably not that dramatic. Few people could afford to spend their afternoons and evenings drinking and stuffing without measure.
Dinners of moderately wealthy Romans usually lasted about an hour or two, but although they were the most important meal of the day (there was not always time for breakfasts consisting of bread, cheese, fruit and milk), the dishes served were generally very simple . Ewa Bugaj lists:"in good households they simply consisted of herbs, vegetables, fish and meat, eggs, cheese and fruit, served in reasonable proportions". Which does not change the fact that it was the inhabitants of the Empire who managed to raise cooking to the rank of art.
Inspiration:
The article was inspired by the latest novel by Robert Fabbri from the best-selling cycle devoted to Vespesian, published by the Rebis Wespezjan publishing house. Roman furies .
Bibliography:
- E. Bugaj, Ancient Romans and their feasts, "Sketches of the Humanities", AMU 2010.
- J. Carcopino, Everyday life in Rome during the heyday of the empire, PIW 1960.
- Petroniusz, Satyryki, National Institute of Ossoliński 1968.
- Seneca the Younger, Moral Letters to Lucyliusz, PWN 2010.
- L. Winniczuk, People, customs and customs of ancient Greece and Rome, PWN 2006.