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Fantasy Romance

Roman Empire

Research: Food in Ancient Rome

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I have mentioned before that the backdrop for my fantasy story is grounded more in ancient Rome that more traditional medieval Europe.

RomanFoodTable
Bread. Wine. Fruit. Not much has changed in 3,000 years.

One of the areas I spent some time researching was food. As it happens, the scale of food production would not achieve the same levels in ancient Rome in Europe again until the 18th century. So they were quite advanced on this. Here are a few other things I learned.

Meals

Most people, even slaves, ate three meals a day at similar times to modern breakfast, lunch and dinner. While originally lunch was their largest meal of the day, it would eventually move to supper.

Cooking

Cooking was considered an art, and particularly fine cooking was associated with tasty and unique sauces. It was not uncommon to find wine, oils, vinegar, herbs, spices, and meat or fish juices mixed together to create these sauces. Much of this is known because books were dedicated to these recipes.

Available Foods

  • Cereals – wheat, barley, oats, rye, and millet.
  • Fruits – Apples, figs, grapes, pears, plums, dates, cherries and peaches. The Romans knew how to dry these to preserve their shelf life.
  • Vegetables – Legumes, lentils and peas, were the most common, all of which provided an excellent source of protein and was frequently mixed into bread. Other vegetables included asparagus, mushroom, turnips, onions, cucumbers, artichokes, and lettuce.
  • Olives and Olive Oil – These were so important in ancient Rome that they had their own classification.
  • Meat – This was expensive in ancient Rome and was commonly prepared in small cuts or as sausages. Almost any sort of bird imaginable from quails and pheasants to ostriches and peacocks were served. Most meat we are familiar with today was also on the Roman aristocrat’s table, including pork, veal, mutton, goat, boar and deer.
  • Seafood – Fish was certainly a part of their diet, but supply was irregular. Preservation techniques kept it a useful addition of protein to the Roman diet, and fish and shellfish were even farmed on artificial ponds. Fish sauce (garum) was an extremely popular method of flavoring.
  • Spices – (literally means valuable exotic commodity) were a huge part of good cooking. No fewer than 142 different spices have been identified to date in ancient sources. Some were grown nearby, others imported. This was a huge and sprawling empire, and they were trading with India and Asia.
  • Wine – Wine was served with most meals, frequently watered and flavored with honey. Beer was not served in Rome, and was only found in the northern part of the Roman Empire.

Food Conservation

They were adept at food conservation, and mastered numerous techniques.

  • Fruit and Vegetables were picked in brine or vinegar or stored in honey, wine, or grape juice. Fruits were also dried.
  • Meat was salted, dried, smoked, cured, pickled and preserved in honey

This made sure they could feed their large population and allowed more specialization

Feeding the Poor

Maintaining a regular food supply was very important. There was actually a part of the Roman bureaucracy dedicated to overseeing the regular supply of foodstuffs. In addition, the Romans established a monthly quota of grain at a fixed reasonable price for citizens. Olive oil, pork and wine were also allocated to poorer citizens.

I was surprised doing the research how much closer the ancient Roman diet was to our modern diet than medieval Europe. Now, about clan water…

5 Things About Slavery in the Roman Empire

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The Roman Empire had a dirty little secret, though not so secret at the time. The over five-hundred years of peace and prosperity that people enjoyed was founded on the backs of slaves.

 Slavery was so widespread, that it’s estimated 35%-40% of Italy’s population by the end of the first century were slaves. Yeah, two out of every five people were slaves.

salve

Throughout the entire empire, 10–15% of the total population of 50–60 million inhabitants were enslaved.  Of these, an estimated 49% of all slaves were owned by less than 1.5% of the Empire’s population.

Yet, the Empire couldn’t be made to function without slavery (not that they ever tried), and in the later years of imperial Rome, serfdom even among free Romans was already taking root.

Five Things About Slavery in the Roman Empire

 

Spoils of War

Many of Rome’s slaves came from war, with hundreds to tens of thousands being captured and enslaved i. During a war with Gaul, Julius Caesar sold the entire population of a region (over fifty-three thousand people) on the spot to slave traders.

Occupations

Unlike the images that most of us have of what a slave is, only about half of Roman slaves were unskilled laborers working in the fields. As a matter of fact, many Roman slaves, especially those of Greek origin, were highly educated. Many physicians and accountants of the time were slaves, and there were many government positions also held by slaves.

Less surprising, most of the sex workers in the empire were also slaves. As slaves were considered non-persons, there were no protections even for children.

doctor
Because a slave is totally someone I want treating me.

 

Living Conditions

As with all things, living conditions varied greatly. Those who served in wealthy and influential homes often lived better than poor citizens. Those who served out in the country on imperial estates fared far better than those forced into the mines.

Slaves were property and had no rights. Unlike Roman citizens, they could be subjected to corporal punishment, sexual exploitation (prostitutes were often slaves), torture, and summary execution. Over time, slaves gained increased legal protection, including the right to file complaints against their masters.

Runaways

As slavery in the Roman Empire was not based on race, if a slave could slip away from their master, they could be very difficult to find again. As such, there were professional slave-catchers that were hired to hunt down runaway slaves. Some slaves were branded across the forehead to mark them, while others were forced to wear metal collars.

swiss
Not very Italy or Rome-like, but the Nazis might not have been the first group people were escaping to Switzerland to avoid.

Insurrection

When such a large portion of your population in enslaved, there’s always the danger of insurrection, especially when many of these slaves are captured soldiers. We know about several slave insurrections, and yes, Spartacus was a real man. Who really led a slave revolt. And really lost.

So, while I may base my world very loosely on Rome, this is one thing that won’t be brought into the same kingdom as the Knights of Valor. However, those bastions of justice who love to uphold the law may come across slavery in other places. It will be interesting to see how they react to it.

 

How about you? Know any other dirty little secrets about Rome or other empires that would be interesting to research?

Why Did One of the Greatest Armies Wear Skirts?

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The Romans were one of the greatest military forces in human history. Their armies conquered much of their known world, yet, as my daughter pointed out to me as I was researching them, they wear skirts.

Well, not exactly skirts. *smiles* I would never call them a skirt in the same way I’d never call a kilt a skirt. I am far too afraid of the very large and well-armed men wearing them.

romans-60601_640
You can see where my daughter is coming from on the skirt.

Not the most accurate image, I know, but I take what Pixabay has.

The point is, most of us are familiar with what Roman armor looked like. If not, check out some historically accurate re-enactment sites or even military toy collector sites.

We notice the metal chest piece, helmet, and even shin-guards. So, why no metal cuisses (thigh armor)? Why the “skirt”.

As with most things in Rome, there were some very good reasons for it.

Why Roman Soldiers Wore “Skirts”

  • Marching – They were easy to march in. They were light-weight and didn’t impede a soldier’s legs. This was a far-flung empire, and they needed to move troops around quickly and efficiently.

 

  • Reasonable Protection for the Price – The “skirts” are actually cingulum. They are made of strips of leather, often set with metal discs. They provide mobile, flexible armor that offered reasonable protection and wasn’t terribly expensive to produce. The Romans had a large army. Some estimate over 20,000 infantrymen at the height of the empire. Equipping them with the best money could buy wasn’t always an option, but the Romans still wanted to win wars.

 

  • Didn’t Overheat – The more armor you put on a soldier, the more you had to contend with them over-heating.

 

  • Pants Were for Barbarians – Romans wore togas and tunics. Barbarians wore pants. Given our modern stance, it may seem strange, but there was no real point to pants in the warmer Mediterean climate. Pants were also more difficult and more expensive to make, so why bother adopting the “inferior” wear of a “barbaric” culture?

 

I found this interesting, and I may or may not adopt some of this to the Tamryn army. Tunics and trousers are the more popular form of dress in the world, with surcoats for the wealthy.  Wizards tend to wear robes.

And the Knights of Valor? They’re still in shining armor.

 

 

 

 

More than Medieval Europe and Vikings

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There is more to history than Medieval Europe and Vikings.

Bizarre, I know, but true.

I study history to get ideas for how to create a world that has at least a streak of realism. I mean, there will be dragons, but there’s still a civilization that supports them.

knight
Yes, there will still be knights.

While lots of stories use a bland version of Medieval Europe as their basis, my studies have taken me elsewhere. Sure, I am influenced by Regency and Victorian England. I read historical romance. This is almost a given.

While English history has influenced me, one of my favorite areas of study to create civilizations is ancient Rome.  And no, I’m not talking about the Rome Hollywood feeds us. I’ve decided almost nothing that we see on a screen, small or large, is real. It’s better to accept that. Really.

Here are three interesting things about Rome:

 

They Were Wealthy Enough to Avoid Expensive Sporting Events

Gladiators really existed. Sure, Hollywood told you that, but they didn’t really fight to the death. These were highly skilled combatants who were valued for their ability to entertain, and paid very well to do it. Much like our modern day sports stars. There were the occasional fights to the death, but these were usually prisoners sentenced to die.

Colosseum

What Hollywood didn’t tell you was that Romans really, really liked chariot races. Kinda like the ancient version of NASCAR. The Colosseum that hosted gladiators could hold 50,000 people. Yeah, 50,000. The Circus Maximus where the chariot races were held? That contained space for 250,000. One of the greatest chariot racers in all of Rome was Gaius Appuleius Diocles, and he amassed a fortune worth $15 billion.

 

Massive, Long-Lived Empire

Rome was a true empire. It spanned from Spain and Portugal, across northern Africa, and up to modern day Scotland. It also included parts of Germany, southern Europe, over to the boarders of Iran and Iraq. There is some evidence it expanded farther, and included the parts of the Arabian peninsula and delved further into Asia.

A large, expansive empire that managed to last almost a thousand years. The Republic lasted just over 500 years when the Senate granted Octavian the title Augustus. This began the Imperial age, which depending on who you ask, lasted approximately another 500 years.

 

Technological Marvels

Rome was a massive empire that reached technological pinnacles we can’t yet replicate. There are concrete dams in Spain still standing two-thousand years after they were built. They can’t get the concrete on the freeway I drive to work on to last more than twenty-years.

The vast distances required a way to communicate to keep the empire together. The Romans became famous for their roads. Wherever Rome went, the road system followed. These roads were paved, lightly arched so water drained off of them, and were flanked by footpaths, horse trails, and drainage ditches. The roads were built along accurately surveyed courses, and some were cut through hills, or constructed over rivers and ravines on bridgework. Sections over marshy ground would be supported on rafted or piled foundations.

As you can tell, they didn’t mess around.

romanroad
Not messing around is why some Roman roads are still is use some 2,000 years later.

The Romans took their roads seriously. Very seriously. They were very well built, and many were still used as main thoroughfares until they were paved over for modern cars. These roads had to be spectacular. It’s how the Romans transported troops. Supplies. And supported a state-funded courier system, allowing messages to make it across great distances.

 

As history so often does, it reminds us that people have been smart for a really long time. And it reminds us again that the feudal system is not all of European history.

 

How about you? Ever discover some interesting bit of history that changed your perception of the past? Or perhaps showed you how “creative” Hollywood can be with history? Maybe something interesting that you think I especially cool?