Food and dining

For breakfast, ientaculum, most Romans ate bread or wheat biscuits with honey, dates or olives. They drank water or wine. The prandium (lunch) was a similar meal of bread or leftovers from the previous day's main meal. However, instead of eating at lunchtime, many Romans waited until the main meal of the day, the cena. This was in the afternoon, after the daily visit to the baths.

Types of food

Wheat was the most common food, often eaten as a kind of porridge, with sauces and vegetables. Favourite types of meat were peacock, dormouse and chicken. Sauces were very popular. The most common was called liquamen or garum and was made from fish, salt and herbs. Some people made it themselves but it was so popular that it could be bought ready-made. The food was usually served with plenty of wine. The Romans had more than 200 varieties of wine from various parts of the empire.

A dinner-party

In rich imperial households, the cena was often very lavish. In early Rome people sat on chairs at tables. Later it became fashionable to dine lying on couches. Romans did not use knives and forks. They mostly ate with their fingers or sometimes with spoons. Slaves wiped the guests’ hands between courses. The host also provided entertainment. Musicians, poets, dancers, acrobats, conjurors and jugglers performed during the feast.

The menu

The dinner came in three courses.

The starter gustatio consisted of such appetisers as salad, radishes, mushrooms, oysters and other shellfish, sardines and eggs. This course was followed by a drink of mulsum (wine sweetened with honey).

The main-course fercula contained as many as seven dishes including fish, meat and poultry. These were served with vegetables and sauces.

The dessert was called the secundae mensae (second tables). This was because instead of clearing the tables after the main meal, the slaves removed the table completely and replaced it with another one, on which fruit, nuts and honey cakes were served.