The New-Old Interest in Roman Foodways

Abstract

What and how the Romans ate has long been of popular and academic interest, benefiting from a rich body of evidence from textual, iconographic, artefactual and environmental sources. Scholarly publications on Roman dietary practices have increased over the past hundred years, particularly in the last two decades. To what extent does the contemporary discourse on food influence this scholarship? This paper attempts to explain the growth in interest in this topic by examining the trends in scholarship on Roman food production and consumption over the past century.

DOI:10.2458/azu_jaei_v10i1_blake