The average ancient Roman ate on the run and didn't wine and dine in decadence and formality like the elite in Rome, says a British archaeologist.
Dr Penelope Allison of the
University of Leicester presents her findings in a new book detailing the excavation of an entire neighbourhood block in Pompeii.
Pompeii is a city frozen in time after the eruption of volcano Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Historians often extend findings from Pompeii to other parts of Italy, particularly Rome, given the city's proximity to the Roman Empire's centre.
"In many parts of the western world today, a popular belief exists that family members should sit down and dine together and, if they don't, this may represent a breakdown of the family structure, but that idea did not originate in ancient Rome," says Allison.
Her claims are based both on what she did not find during the excavation, and what she did.
Allison noticed an unusual lack of tableware and formal dining or kitchen areas within the Pompeii homes. Instead she found isolated plates here and there, such as in sleeping quarters.
"Similar to how children today bring a plate of food to their rooms before watching TV or playing on the computer, my guess is that Roman youths would tote food to certain areas where they possibly engaged in other activities," she says, adding that kids might also have dined with slaves in nanny or caretaker roles.
What she did find in the homes were multiple mini barbecue-type fire boxes, suggesting that "BBQ or fondue-style dining" often took place.
Allison's book is titled
The Insula of the Menander at Pompeii Volume III and is published by Oxford University Press.
"Meticulously researched"
Professor Stephen Dyson, of the
University of Buffalo in the US, is one of the world's leading authorities on ancient Rome and formerly served as the president of the
Archaeological Institute of America.
Dyson says the new book "was meticulously researched" and that his own work in Pompeii and Rome supports Allison's conclusions.
"We've also found numerous fast food restaurants in Pompeii and other parts of ancient Rome," he says.
Dyson likened these places to a cross between "Burger King and a British pub or a Spanish tapas bar."
Open to the street, each had a large counter with a receptacle in the middle from which food or drink would have been served.
"Most Romans lived in apartments or rather confined spaces, and there is not much evidence for stoves and other cooking equipment in them," he says.
Dyson thinks "fast food" restaurants became popular because they were plentiful, the same way many modern city-dwellers often eat out due to the panoply of affordable choices.
Additionally, many of Rome's and Pompeii's residents, who worked as artisans, shopkeepers, weavers and such, made enough money to support these places.
Grabbing food to go, either in a house or on the street, also seems to match the energy and flexibility of the Italian mindset.
"Italy's vibrant street and bar scenes today, along with the often multipurpose design of homes with bedsteads stacked in a corner, or kitchenettes in surprising places, reflect the wonderful, slightly chaotic, aspects of early Roman life," he says.
One of the most obvious and frequently consulted sources have been the writing and jottings of one gentleman gourmet known as Apicius (although there is argument as to whom one refers because it seems that there existed three persons that go (went) by that name. What is not in discussion, however, is that one of the basics of Roman cuisine was a condiment that is known (but hardly eaten today) by the name of garum. In an age when it is almost impossible to eat without the help of some condiment or other — be it ketchup, mustard or chimichurri — it cannot surprise us that the Romans, while unable to count with the profusion of sauces — which are our inheritance — counted with one all encompassing sample that, as has been asserted by more than one historian, was an absolute passion and without which it was practically impossible to conceive a meal.
