The Romans ate three meals during a typical day. The first meal (breakfast) was called the "ientaculum." It was usually eaten around sunrise and consisted of bread and maybe some fruit. The next meal (lunch) was called the "prandium". The prandium was a very small meal eaten around 11 AM.
"The Romans believed it was healthier to eat only one meal a day," food historian Caroline Yeldham told BBC News Magazine in 2012. "They were obsessed with digestion and eating more than one meal was considered a form of gluttony.
Traditionally, a breakfast called ientaculum 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.
The Romans primarily ate cereals and legumes, usually with sides of vegetables, cheese, or meat and covered with sauces made out of fermented fish, vinegar, honey, and various herbs and spices. While they had some refrigeration, much of their diet depended on which foods were locally and seasonally available.
In the morning between eight and nine, the Romans ate breakfast so écantaculum, in the middle of the day between eleven and noon they ate the prandium (second breakfast, dinner) and finally the most important meal was dinner, between the third and the fourth hour.
The Romans ate three meals during a typical day. The first meal (breakfast) was called the "ientaculum." It was usually eaten around sunrise and consisted of bread and maybe some fruit. The next meal (lunch) was called the "prandium". The prandium was a very small meal eaten around 11 AM.
There are similarities, but some key Italian ingredients and dishes were not found in ancient Roman cuisine—no pasta (introduced later) and no foods from the Americas, including tomatoes!
For Breakfast
The typical Roman breakfast consists of an Italian croissant (cornetto) and a small cappuccino! Cornetti are served simple or are often made with Nutella or marmalade inside. There's nothing like a sweet treat and a bit of caffeine to start the day!
The Roman diet. The Mediterranean diet is recognised today as one of the healthiest in the world. Much of the Roman diet, at least the privileged Roman diet, would be familiar to a modern Italian. They ate meat, fish, vegetables, eggs, cheese, grains (also as bread) and legumes.
WHAT ROMANS ATE AND HOW MUCH THEY ATE OF IT 1051 they required on average – that is, men, women and children combined – about 2,500 to 2,900 calories per day. Up to 3,700 were probably required when performing heavy physical activities on a daily basis.
Morbid obesity, considered a modern “epidemic”, also occurred naturally in ancient Rome. Galen, a Roman physician of Greek origin from the 2nd century CE, undertook the treatment of obesity.
Romans believed that wine was a daily necessity, so they made it available to slaves, peasants, woman and aristocrats alike. As Pliny, the Elder famously said, "There's truth in wine." At the high point in the empire's history of wine, experts estimate that a bottle of was being consumed each day for every citizen.
It was in the 17th Century that the working lunch started, where men with aspirations would network. The middle and lower classes eating patterns were also defined by their working hours. By the late 18th Century most people were eating three meals a day in towns and cities, says Day.
The horizontal position was believed to aid digestion – and it was the utmost expression of an elite standing. “The Romans actually ate lying on their bellies so the body weight was evenly spread out and helped them relax.
Caesar likely enjoyed dishes like roasted boar, venison, or bird. These are accompanied by various vegetable dishes, often including lentils, beans, or cabbage. Cabbage and onions were a dish that upper class Romans might have enjoyed! The final course, or “mensae secundae,” is a dessert course.
In contrast to the fine banquets, poor people ate the cheapest foods, so they had for breakfast grain made into twice-baked bread and porridge, and for lunch a vegetable and meat stew. The vegetables available included millet, onions, turnips, and olives with bread and oil on the side.
Lack of Refrigeration Meant Summer Meat Would Have Spoiled
Moreover, water was short, the summer was long....'" Davies explains that in the heat of the summer and without salt to preserve the meat, soldiers were reluctant to eat it for fear of getting sick from spoiled meat.
Roman gladiators ate a mostly vegetarian diet and drank ashes after training as a tonic. These are the findings of anthropological investigations carried out on bones of warriors found during excavations in the ancient city of Ephesos.
Pizza has a long history. Flatbreads with toppings were consumed by the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. (The latter ate a version with herbs and oil, similar to today's focaccia.)
The ancient Romans' diet was mainly based on cereals, vegetables, legumes and cheese, while meat and fish were mainly consumed by rich people. Ancient Romans used to use a lot of spices, so their cuisine was very similar to the current Middle-Eastern and North African one.
Spectators at Rome's ancient gladiator arena, the Colosseum, may have enjoyed snacks of olives, fruit and nuts, archaeologists have found. Food fragments of figs, grapes, cherries, blackberries, walnuts and more have been unearthed at the site.
The most common foods were bread, beans, lentils, and a little meat. Rich Romans enjoyed large dinner parties with many elaborate courses and a good deal of wine. Roman delicacies included snails, oysters, and stuffed dormice.
In ancient Rome, eggs were usually served as appetizers. The best way to taste this dish is with honeyed wine (mulsum) and other ancient Roman starters, as a salad with garum and vinegar (oxygarum), cheese dressed with reduced must, and a few olives.
The first evidences about ice cream date back to the Roman age, in Italy. It is believed already around 200 B.C. Quinto Fabio Massimo Valente imported the custom of accompanying sweet drinks or fruit with snow, to quench their thirst on the hottest days, from Egypt.
Little Known Sweetener of the Ancient Romans. Granulated sugar was unknown to the Romans, and honey was relatively expensive, so when they wanted to sweeten something, people generally turned to grape juice.