🏺 Part 1: Bread, Olives, and Posca — Everyday Meals of the Common Roman
In past blogs, I’ve described the dining habits of the Roman poor and the rich, from lavish, multi-course banquets with guests lounging on silken couches to the majority and less fortunate, who were limited to eating cold meals of cheese, salted fish, and bread in apartments without kitchens or stoves, and the grab-and-go streetside “cafes” that served hot stews, porridges, breads, and pastries to a bustling society in Roman cities.
Join me now, as we dive into the rhythm of ancient Roman meals, where most citizens had little time for leisure, and their meals reflected the demands of daily labor.
Breakfast or ientaculum (sunrise to 8am, later for elites)
Poor – quick start, eaten on the go
- Day-old coarse barley or wheat bread similar to today’s rusks, (see recipe below)
- Softened by dipping in water, olive oil, or watered-down wine.
- Various types of pancakes- made with wheat flour, olive oil, honey, and curdled milk.
- Leftover dates, figs, or olives.
Lunch or Prandium (11 a.m.–1 p.m.) The Romans did not enjoy eating a large meal in the heat of the day. A lite lunch was customary.
Poor – often eaten standing -cold meal to keep up energy
- leftovers from the previous day’s “cena”
- bread with olives, olive paste, or cheese spread
- eggs, vegetables (cabbage, carrots, turnips, squash, onions)
Supper or Cena — late afternoon to evening (4–5 p.m., later for the wealthy)
The family meal at the end of the workday
- bread and cheese
- Simple stews and porridge (puls), lentils, beans, millet, barley, wheat, flavored with fish, vegetables, and spices
- Occasional meat: fish, pigeons, thrush, small rodents, rabbits
- Fruit: dried and in season figs, dates, apples, plums, pears
- Drinks: watered-down wine, Posca, a drink made from watered-down vinegar and herbs. Its acidity killed germs. Mustum freshly pressed grape juice—unfermented wine
Most meals were accompanied by Garum, a fermented fish sauce — made by layering small fish (like anchovies, sardines, or mackerel) with salt and herbs, then allowing it to ferment in the sun for weeks.
The poor used cheaper, coarser versions of garum, often called allec, a thick paste or sludge left after straining out the clear liquid (reserved for the elites) — it still had flavor but was gritty and less refined.
While most Romans ended their day with a bowl of lentils and a crust of bread, the wealthy reclined in marble triclinia surrounded by peacocks and poets. In Part 2, we’ll step into their dining rooms…”
Modern-day Recipe for Rusks — Traced to the ancient Greeks, the biscuit means twice-baked.
Tasty sourdough recipe: Paximadia, Bread Rusks | Diane Kochilas
This blog also seen on HHHistory.com – https://www.hhhistory.com/2025/11/part-1-bread-olives-and-posca-everyday.html