What the Romans Ate (According to Langenscheidt)

Today’s Latin review involved putting syllables together to make eight words that describe what the Romans ate. Let’s start with what I don’t eat:

1. piscis – fish

2. garum – fermented fish sauce

3. caro – meat

Now for what I DO consume:

4. vinum – wine

5. pomum – fruit

6. holus – vegetables or pot-herbs

7. panis – bread

8. frumentum – grains

The final two foods did not figure in the mosaics in Cologne and Aquileia that I visited this spring; I find this quite interesting because they were probably the most important sources of energy. The boundaries of Rome did not expand because the soldiers ate meat but because they ate gruel made from cereals. Perhaps it was too quotidian – would any of us make a mosaic of toast and jam?

As a bonus, here are two more pictures of what the Romans ate:

fungi – mushrooms

cocleae – snails