The cuisine of ancient Rome changed significantly over the duration of the civilization's existence. Dietary habits were affected by the political changes from kingdom to republic to empire, and Roman trading with foreigners along with the empire's enormous expansion exposed Romans to many new foods, provincial culinary habits and cooking methods.

In the beginning, dietary differences between Roman social classes were not great, but disparities developed with the empire's growth.

Archaeology Most organic foods decay under ordinary conditions, but ashes and animal bones offer some archaeological details about the ancient Roman diet. Phytoliths have been found at a cemetery in Tarragona, Spain. Imported figs were among the charred foods preserved when Boudica and her army burned down a Roman shop in Colchester. Chickpeas and bowls of fruit are known from Herculaneum, preserved since Vesuvius destroyed the town in 79 AD. Remains of small fish bones, sea urchin spines and mineralized plants have survived in the city's sewers; the plants archaeologists have identified include dill, coriander, flax, lentil, cabbage, opium poppy and various other nuts, fruits and legumes, as well as a diverse variety of fish and shellfish. At Pompeii, grapes, cheese, bread and pastry were burned and buried in peristyle courtyard gardens as offerings to household Lares.

Meals

Traditionally, a breakfast called ientaculumArtman, John:"Ancient Rome- Independent Learning Unit", page 26, Good Apple, 1991. was served at dawn. At mid-day to early afternoon, Romans ate cena, the main meal of the day, and at nightfall a light supper called vesperna.Artman, John::"Ancient Rome- Independent Learning Unit", page 26, Good Apple,1991. With the increased importation of foreign foods, the cena grew larger in size and included a wider range of foods. Thus, it gradually shifted to the evening, while the vesperna was abandoned completely over the course of the years. The mid-day meal prandium became a light meal to hold one over until cena. Among the lower classes of the Roman society, these changes were less pronounced as the traditional routines corresponded closely to the daily rhythms of manual labour.

However, among the upper classes, who normally did not engage in manual labour, it became customary to schedule all business obligations in the morning. After the prandium, the last responsibilities would be discharged, and a visit would be made to the baths. Around 2 p.m.,Guy, John:"Roman Life", page 8, Ticktock Publishing LTD,1998. the cena would begin. This meal could last until late in the night, especially if guests were invited, and would often be followed by comissatio, a round of alcoholic beverages (usually wine).

In the period of the kings and the early Republic, but also in later periods (for the working classes), the cena essentially consisted of a kind of porridge, the puls. The simplest kind would be made from emmer, water, salt and fat. A more sophisticated variation was made with olive oil, and consumed with an accompaniment of assorted vegetables when available. The wealthy commonly ate their puls with eggs, cheese, and honey and it was also occasionally served with meat or fish.

Over the course of the Republican period, the cena developed into two courses: the main course and a dessert with fruit and seafood (e.g. molluscs, shrimp). By the end of the Republic, it was usual for the meal to be served in three parts: an appetiser (gustatio), main course (primae mensae), and dessert (secundae mensae).

The Roman legions' staple ration of food was wheat. In the 4th century, most legionaries ate as well as anyone in Rome. They were supplied with rations of bread and vegetables along with meats such as beef, mutton, or pork. Rations also depended on where the legions were stationed or were campaigning. Mutton was popular in Northern Gaul and Britannia, but pork was the main meat ration of the legions.

Foods and ingredients

The Roman colonies provided many foods to Rome; the city received ham from Belgium, oysters from Brittany, garum from Mauretania, wild game from Tunisia, silphium (laser) from Cyrenaica, flowers from Egypt, lettuce from Cappadocia, and fish from Pontus.Patrick Faas, Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome, University of Chicago Press (2005), p. 27.

The ancient Roman diet included many items that are staples of modern Italian cooking. Pliny the Elder discussed more than 30 varieties of olive, 40 kinds of pear, figs (native and imported from Africa and the eastern provinces), and a wide variety of vegetables.Phyllis Pray Bober, Art, Culture, and Cuisine: Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy, University of Chicago Press (2001), pp. 187–188. Some of these vegetables are no longer present in the modern world, while others have undergone significant changes. Carrots of different colours were consumed, but not in orange.Phyllis Pray Bober, Art, Culture, and Cuisine: Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy, University of Chicago Press (2001), p. 188. Many kinds of vegetables were cultivated and consumed.Patrick Faas, Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome, University of Chicago Press (2005), p. 209. These included celery, garlic, some flower bulbs, cabbage and other brassicas (such as kale and broccoli), lettuce, endive, onion, leek, asparagus, radishes, turnips, parsnips, carrots, beets, green peas, chard, field greens, cardoons, olives, and cucumber. Some vegetables were illustrated in reliefs.Patrick Faas, Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome, University of Chicago Press (2005), pp. 209, 210–239, 362–371

However, some foods considered characteristic of modern Italian cuisine were not used.Phyllis Pray Bober, Art, Culture, and Cuisine: Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy, University of Chicago Press (2001), p. 187. In particular, spinach and eggplant (aubergine) were introduced later from the Arab world, and tomatoes, potatoes, capsicum peppers, maize (the modern source of polenta) and beans of the Phaseolus genus Phaseolus vulgaris (green - French and runner, lima, kidney)Phaseolus vulgaris only appeared in Europe following the discovery of the New World and the Columbian Exchange. The Romans knew of rice, but it was very rarely available to them. There were also few citrus fruits - lemons were known in Italy from the second century AD, but were not widely cultivated.

Breads and grains

From 123 BC, a ration of unmilled wheat (as much as 33 kg), known as the frumentatio, was distributed to as many as 200,000 people every month by the Roman state. There was originally a charge for this but from 58 BC this charge was abolished by the plebeian tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher. Individuals had to be citizens and domiciled in Rome to receive the frumentatio.

Originally flat, round loaves made of emmer (a species of wheat) with a bit of salt were eaten; among the upper classes, eggs, cheese, and honey, along with milk and fruit were also consumed. In the Imperial period, around 1 AD, bread made of wheat was introduced; with time, more and more wheaten foods began to replace emmer loaves. There were many kinds of bread of differing quality. Typically white bread was baked for the elite, with darker bread baked for the middle class, and the darkest bread for the poor peasants. The bread was sometimes dipped in wine and eaten with olives, cheese, and grapes. At the time of the destruction of Pompeii in AD 79, there were at least 33 bakeries in that city. Roman chefs made sweet buns flavored with blackcurrants and cheese cakes made with flour, honey, eggs, ricotta-like cheese and poppy seed. Sweet wine cakes were made with honey, reduced red wine and cinnamon. Fruit tarts were popular with the upper class, but the lower classes couldn't afford to personally make them or purchase them from markets and vendors.

Juscellum was a broth with grated bread, eggs, sage and saffron, described in Apicius, a Roman recipe book of the late 4th or early 5th century.

Meat Butcher's meat was an uncommon luxury. The most popular meat was pork, especially sausages. Beef was uncommon in ancient Rome, being more common in ancient Greece—it is not mentioned by Juvenal or Horace. Seafood, game, and poultry, including ducks and geese, were more common. For instance, on his triumph, Caesar gave a public feast to 260,000 humiliores (poorer people) which featured all three of these foods, but no butcher's meat.Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, A History of Food, John Wiley & Sons (2009), p. 93. John E. Stambaugh writes that meat "was scarce except at sacrifices and the dinner parties of the rich".John E. Stambaugh, The Ancient Roman City, JHU Press (1988), p. 148. Cows were prized for their milk; bulls as plough and draft animals. Meat of working animals was tough and unappetizing. Veal was eaten occasionally. Apicius gives only four recipes for beef but the same recipes call for lamb or pork as options. There is only one recipe for beef stew and another for veal scallopini.Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa, A Taste of Rome, 1992, pp. 91–92,

Dormice were eaten and considered a delicacy.John E. Stambaugh, The Ancient Roman City, JHU Press (1988), p. 148; George A. Feldhamer, Mammalogy: Adaptation, Diversity, Ecology, JHU Press (2007), p. 359. It was a status symbol among wealthy Romans, and some even had dormice weighed in front of dinner guests.Maurice Burton & Robert Burton, International Wildlife Encyclopedia (2002), p. 701. A sumptuary law enacted under Marcus Aemilius Scaurus forbade the eating of dormice, but failed to stop the practice.Patrick Faas, Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome, University of Chicago Press (2005), p. 289-90.

Fish and seafood Fish was more common than meat. Aquaculture was sophisticated, with large-scale industries devoted to oyster farming. The Romans also engaged in snail farming and oak grub farming. Some fish were greatly esteemed and fetched high prices, such as mullet raised in the fishery at Cosa, and "elaborate means were invented to assure its freshness".

Fruit

Fruit was eaten fresh when in season, and dried or preserved over winter. Popular fruits included apples, pears, figs, grapes, quinces, citron, strawberries, blackberries, elderberries, currants, damson plums, dates, melons, rose hips and pomegranates. Less common fruits were the more exotic azeroles and medlars. Cherries and apricots, both introduced in the 1st century BC, were popular. Peaches were introduced in the 1st century AD from Persia. Oranges and lemons were known but used more for medicinal purposes than in cookery. Although known to the ancient Romans, lemons were not cultivated in Italy until the Principate.Wilhelmina F. Jashernski, Frederick G. Meyer, & Massumino Ricciardi, Plants: Evidence from Wall Paintings, Mosaics, Sculpture, Plant Remains, Graffiti, Inscriptions, and Ancient Authors, in The Natural History of Pompeii (Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski & Frederick G. Meyer, eds), Cambridge University Press, (2002), p. 102. At least 35 cultivars of pear were grown in Rome, along with three types of apples. Cato described pear culture methods similar to modern techniques.J.F. Hancock & G.A. Lobos, Pears, in The Future of Drylands: International Scientific Conference on Desertification and Drylands Research, Tunis, Tunisia (2006), Springer (2008), p. 304. There are recipes for pear and peach creams and milk puddings flavored with honey, pepper and a little garum.

Columella offers advice on the preservation of figs by crushing them into a paste with anise, fennel seed, cumin and toasted sesame to be wrapped in fig leaves.

Vegetables