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Harcura,   Cornelia  Gaskins 
Roman  cooks. 


>G 

01 
137 

914 

5.1 

iOBARTS 


ROMAN    COOKS 


CORNELIA  GASKINS   HARCUM 

Instructor  in  Greek,  Wellesley  College 


^Dissertation 


SUBMITTED   TO  (THE  BOARD   OF   UNIVERSITY  STUDIES  OP  THE  JOHNS  HOPKINS   UNIVERSITY 

IN  CONFORMITY  WITH  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOB  THE  DEGREE  OF 

DOCTOR  OP  PHILOSOPHY 


1913 


BALTIMORE 

J.    H.    FURST   COMPANY 

1914 


ROMAN    COOKS 


BY 


COKNELIA  GASKINS  HAKCUM 

Instructor  in  Greek,  Wellesley  College 


SUBMITTED   TO  THE  BOARD   OF   UNIVERSITY  STUDIES  OF  THE  JOHNS  HOPKINS    UKIVERSITY 

IN  CONFORMITY  WITH  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOE  THE  DB6EEE  OF 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

1913 


BALTIMORE 

J.   H.    FURST    COMPANY 

1914 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS      -  5 

CHAPTER         I.— The  Latin  Word  for  Cook  7 

CHAPTER       II. — A  Brief  Sketch  of  the  Development  of 

Cooking  as  an  Art  Among  the  Romans,  9 

CHAPTER      III. — Cooks  in  Plautus,  Greek  or  Roman  ?     -  15 

CHAPTER      IV.— The  Nationality  of  Cooks     -                  -  21 

CHAPTER        V. — Names  of  Cooks                                      -  25 

CHAPTER      VI. — Characteristics  of  Cooks       -                  -  39 

CHAPTER    VII.— The  Cost  of  Cooks      -                           -  51 

CHAPTER  VIII.— The  <  Macellum '                                     -  58 

CHAPTER      IX. — The  Social  Position  of  Cooks  and  the 

Esteem  in  Which  They  Were  Held     -  62 

CHAPTER        X. — Chief  Cook  and  His  Assistants    -         -  69 

CHAPTER      XI.— <  Collegia '                                               -  78 

BIBLIOGRAPHY     -                                                              -  83 

VITA  --- 85 


INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS 

This  study  of  Roman  cooks  may  be  considered  a  companion 
piece  to  Edwin  Moore  Rankings  dissertation  which  was  pub- 
lished in  Chicago,  1907,  on  The  Role  of  the  Mdyeipoi  in  the 
Life  of  the  Ancient  Greeks.  I  have  consulted  his  work  par- 
ticularly on  all  questions  concerning  the  cook  in  Greece,  and 
wish  to  express  acknowledgment  for  the  information  thus 
gained. 

While  the  Roman  cook  occupies  a  far  less  prominent  place 
in  literature  than  does  the  Greek,  he  doubtless  was  quite  as 
important  a  factor,  at  least  in  later  Roman  times,  in  the  daily 
life  of  the  people.  The  very  fact  of  the  scarcity  of  material 
and  consequent  lack  of  information  in  regard  to  him,  may  be 
given  as  the  raison  d'etre  of  the  following  study. 

Aside  from  Plautus  and  Petronius,  Latin  authors  mention 
cooks  only  in  scattered  passages.  While  the  baker  has  received 
rather  much  attention  from  modern  writers,  the  cook  has  been 
comparatively  neglected.  The  most  comprehensive  study  of 
the  subject  is  to  be  found  in  the  article  by  E.  Pottier,  in  Darem- 
berg  et  Saglio,  Dictionnaire  des  Antiquites  grecques  et  ro- 
maines,  under  '  coquus/  and  this  on  the  Roman  side  covers  only 
a  page.  Other  works  which  devote  a  small  space  to  the  cook 
are  Blumner's  Technologie  und  Terminologie  der  Gewerbe  und 
Kiinste  bei  Griechen  und  Romern,  Leipzig  und  Berlin,  1912, 
pp.  91-92,  and  his  Romische  Privat-AHertiimer,  in  Miiller'g 
Handbuch,  iv,  2,  n,  192,  594;  Marquardt,  Das  Privatleben  der 
Romer,  Leipzig,  1886,  i,  146;  and  De  Ruggiero's  Dizionario 
Epigrafico  di  Antichita  Romane,  under  (  cocus.'  These  works, 
however,  have  little  to  say  on  the  subject,  and  other  books  on 
Roman  private  life  dismiss  the  cook  with  a  line,  a  paragraph, 
or  at  most  a  page. 

The  following  study  is  an  attempt  to  bring  together  as  far 

5 


' 
6  Roman  Cooks 

as  possible  all  literary  and  epigraphical  evidence  on  the  humble 
profession  of  the  cook,  and  from  this  evidence  to  draw  some 
conclusions  which  will  bring  us  in  closer  touch  with  the  daily 
private  life  of  the  old  Komans. 


Roman  Cooks 

CHAPTEE  I 
THE  LATIN  WOED  FOE  COOK 


The  usual  word  for  cook  in  Latin  is  '  coquus,'  or  '  cocus/  for 
both  of  these  spellings  are  constantly  found.  Priscian,  how- 
ever (Keil,  Grammatici  Latini,  11,  36,  14),  says,  that  *  apud 
antiques  f  requentissime  loco  l  cu  '  syllaba  '  quu  '  ponebatur 
.  .  .  ut  '  coquus  '  .  .  .  pro  (  cocus.7  In  inscriptions  '  cocus  7  is 
the  common  form,  but  in  literature,  to  quote  the  Thesaurus  Lin- 
guae Latinae  under  '  coquus/  -'  utraque  forma  prorsus  promiscue 
habetur.'  '  Coquos  '  is  also  a  form  of  the  nominative  singular  in 
some  manuscripts  of  Plautus.  Donatus  on  Terence,  Adelphoe, 
423,  says,  i  apud  veteres  coquus  non  per  '  c  '  litteram  sed  per  '  q  ? 
scribebatur/  and  in  Plautus,  Aulularia,  346,  the  nominative 
plural  is  (  quoqui.'  The  pun  of  Cicero,  quoted  by  Quintilian, 
Institutiones  Oratoriae,  vi,  3,  47,  seems  to  point  to  a  later  use 
of  a  nominative  singular  'quoquus,'  but  this  play  on  words  in 
the  remark  addressed  to  the  son  of  a  cook,  "  Ego  quoque  tibi 
favebo,"  probably  depends  on  the  similar  pronunciation  of  c 
and  qu.  Most  of  the  manuscripts  of  Plautus,  Menaechmi,  141, 
give  a  nominative  singular  '  quocus.'  For  other  forms  of  the 
word  in  Plautus  see  Lodge's  Lexicon  Plautinum,  under  i  coquos.' 
In  (7.  L  L.  xi,  3078,  we  find  a  nominative  plural  '  ququei/  and 
in  C.  I.  L.  xiv,  2875,  '  eoques.'  C.  I.  L.  iv,  Supplement,  6853, 
reads  '  coco  venit.'  '  Cocula  '  is  the  diminutive  for  cook,  Varro 
apud  Nonium,  531,  532.  By  metonymy  the  adjective  'coquinus' 
may  also  be  used  for  cook,  Hieronymus,  Regula,  8 ;  Pachomii, 
80.  For  spelling  of  the  word  for  cook  consult  also  Georges, 
Lexikon  der  lateinischen  Wortformen,  under  '  coquos.' 

The  verb  '  coquere '  is  derived,  like  Greek  Trecro-o),  from  the 
root  <  peq^J  to  cook.  For  this  derivation  see  Lindsay,  The  Latin 
Language,  291;  Stolz  and  Schmalz,  Lateinische  Grammatik, 


8  Roman  Cooks 

Miiller's  Handbuch,  n,  107,  108  and  115;  Vanicek,  Grieck- 
isch-Lateinisches  Etymologisches  Wb'rterbucJi,  p.  455;  Chir- 
tius,  Griechische  Etymologic,  p.  459;  and  Thesaurus  Linguae 
Latinae,  under  '  coquus.'  In  the  article  on  '  coquus  '  in  Darem- 
berg  and  Saglio,  Dictionnaire  des  Antiquites  grecques  et  ro- 
maines,  Pettier  gives  a  derivation  from  the  Greek  verb  #v/<:aa>, 
but  for  this  he  seems  to  stand  alone. 

In  addition  to  the  usual  word  for  cook,  several  others  also 
are  found.  Earer  than  '  coquus  '  is  i  coctor,'  Petronius,  Satirae, 
95.  It  is  used  in  C.  I.  L.  iv,  suppl.,  6823,  and  C.  I.  L.  iv, 
1658.  From  the  Greeks  the  Eomans  took  the  name  of  the  pro- 
fessional cook  '  magirus.'  In  Latin  this  is  used  chiefly  in  the 
word  (  archimagirus.'  This  term  was  applied  to  the  chief  cook 
of  a  wealthy  or  imperial  household,  who  had  under  his  direct 
command  many  other  special  cooks  of  a  greater  or  less  degree  of 
importance.  We  find  him  in  inscriptions  and  in  literature :  (7. 
L  L.  vi,  8751;  C.  I.  L.  vi,  7458;  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8750;  Juvenal, 
9,  109;  and  Sidonius  Apollinaris,  ir,  9,  6.  The  same  person 
seems  to  have  been  called  '  praepositus  cocorum/  (7.  L  L.  vi, 
8752.  Perhaps  the  '  supra  cocos '  in  C.  I.  L.  vr,  9261,  also  held 
the  same  position.  In  the  Tes&amentum  Porcelli,  the  ill-fated 
pig  speaks  of  '  Magirus,  cocus.'  The  word  is  also  post-classical, 
and  occurs  in  Lampridius,  Heliogabalus,  10,  5,  Scriptores 
Historiae  Augustae,  p.  210.  The  word  '  magiriscia '  is  applied 
to  tiny  figures  of  cooks  on  a  celebrated  piece  of  work  by  the 
engraver  Pytheas,  Pliny,  N.  H.  xxxm,  157.  In  Scribonius 
Largus,  230,  i  Culinarii  ?  seems  to  be  used  for  the  cook's  subor- 
dinates. It  is  found  also  in  C.I.  L.  iv,  373,  and  C.  I.  L.  xn, 
4470  (?). 


Roman  Cooks 


CHAPTER  II 

A  BKIEF  SKETCH  OF  THE  DEVELOPMENT 
OF  COOKING  AS  AN  AKT 


It  may  be  interesting  before  considering  cooks  in  particular, 
to  look  briefly  at  the  gradual  growth  in  importance  of  the  art 
of  cooking  among  the  Romans.  In  the  city  of  Rome,  and  in 
Italy,  in  the  good  old  days  of  the  very  early  Republic,  the 
utmost  simplicity  prevailed  in  the  preparation  of  food.  The 
cooking  was  done  by  the  slaves,  or  the  women  of  the  family,  in 
the  i  atrium/  where  all  the  simple  life  of  the  family  was  lived. 
The  large  '  focus  '  placed  there  served  both  as  an  altar,  and  for 
the  cooking  of  food,  Servius  on  The  Aeneid,  i,  726.  The  stock 
dish  of  the  Romans  at  this  time  was  a  kind  of  porridge  called 
*  puls/  which  certainly  did  not  require  any  great  skill  in  the  art 
of  cooking  for  its  preparation,  cf.  Varro,  De  Lingua  Latina, 
v,  105.  Athenaeus,  vi,  274  f.  contrasts  this  early  simplicity 
of  the  Romans  with  their  later  extravagance,  and  says  that  in 
former  times  the  inhabitants  of  Italy  were  so  easily  contented 
as  he  learned  from  Posidonius,  that  even  those  who  were  in  very- 
easy  circumstances  accustomed  their  sons  to  drink  as  much 
water  as  possible,  and  to  eat  whatever  happened  to  be  at  hand. 
And  very  often,  he  continues,  the  father  and  mother  asked  their 
son  whether  he  wished  pears  or  walnuts  for  his  supper,  and 
when  he  had  eaten  some  of  these  things  he  went  content  to  bed, 
but  now,  says  Athenaeus,  as  Theopompus  tells  us  in  the  first 
book  of  his  <I>A,t7r7rt/ca,  there  is  no  one  who  is  even  moderately 
well  off  who  does  not  provide  a  sumptuous  table,  and  who  has 
not  cooks,  and  a  great  many  more  attendants,  and  who  does 
not  spend  more  on  his  daily  living  than  men  were  formerly 
wont  to  spend  on  their  festivals  and  sacrifices. 

The  early  simplicity  of  the  Romans  naturally  prevailed 
much  longer  in  the  country  districts  than  in  the  city  of  Rome. 


10  Roman  Cooks 

There  by  the  time  of  Plautus  considerable  progress  seems  to 
have  been  made,  for  in  Casino,,  764 ;  Mostellaria,  1 ;  Persae, 
631 ;  and  Truculentus,  615,  a  i  culina  '  is  mentioned,  thus  show- 
ing that  a  special  room  for  the  preparation  of  meals  had  been 
added  to  the  house  by  this  time.  In  the  following  century 
Varro,  Nonius,  page  78,  recommends  placing  the  kitchen  in 
the  posterior  part  of  the  house.1  While  the  plain  everyday 
cooking  of  the  family  was  still  attended  to  doubtless  by  the 
'  matronse  ?  or  slaves,  they  were  not  sufficiently  skilled  in  the  art 
to  prepare  meals  for  special  occasions,  and  therefore  a  profes- 
sional cook  was  hired  from  the  forum  for  banquets,  dinner 
parties,  birthday  entertainments,  and  wedding  feasts.  Up  to 
this  time,  however,  there  was  probably  no  slave  even  in  the 
households  of  the  wealthy,  whose  only  duty  it  was  to  cook. 
That  the  slave  who  cooked  had  many  other  duties  to  perform 
also,  is  shown  by  a  passage  from  Plautus,  Mercaior,  413  ff., 
in  which  Demipho  says  that  the  kind  of  maid  they  need  is 
a  lusty  one  who  can  grind,  spin,  be  cudgeled,  and  cook 
the  dinner  for  the  family:  in  a  word,  a  general  maid-of- 
all-work.  In  the  Menaechmi  of  Plautus,  Cylindrus,  the  cook, 
is  the  private  slave  of  the  courtesan  Erotium,  but  this  is  the 
only  instance  of  a  private  slave  as  a  professional  cook  in  Plau- 
tus, and  even  he  may  have  had  other  duties  to  attend  to. 
We  know  at  least  that  he  did  the  marketing  from  Menaechmi, 
273.  Indeed,  we  have  a  direct  statement  from  Pliny,  N.  H. 
18,  108,  that  the  ancient  Romans  did  not  have  cooks  as  slaves, 
but  hired  them  from  the  market-place. 

After  the  war  with  Antiochus,  when  the  army  returned  from 
the  East,  Oriental  luxury  invaded  Rome,  bringing  with  it 
among  other  things  dainty  dishes  and  cooks  from  Asia  Minor. 

1  For  '  culina '  see  Bliimner,  Romische  Privat-Altertiimer,  pp.  46  and  47, 
in  Miiller's  Handbuch  der  Klassischen  Altertumswissenschaft,  iv,  2,  n; 
Becker's  Gallus,  n,  231;  Daremberg  and  Saglio,  Dictionnaire  des  Antiqui- 
tes  grecques  et  romaines,  II,  1580,  in  the  article  by  Pettier  under  '  culina '; 
and  Pauly-Wissowa,  Real-Encyclopadie  der  Classischen  Altertumswissen- 
schaft,  iv,  1742.  Cf.  also  Cicero,  Ad  Familiares,  xv,  18;  Horace,  Satires, 
1,  5,  73;  n,  5,  80,  and  Lucilius  apud  Nonium,  p.  217,  20. 


Roman  Cooks  11 

Then,  as  Livy,  xxxix,  6,  puts  it,  'turn  coquus  vilissimum  anti- 
quis  mancipium,  et  aestimatione,  et  usu  in  pretio  esse,  et  quod 
ministerium  fuerat,  ars  haberi  coepta.'  Then  scientific  cooking 
began  to  prevail.  Mommsen  in  his  History  of  Rome,  m,  122, 
says:  Hitherto  without  exception  the  Romans  had  partaken  of 
hot  dishes  only  once  a  day,  now  hot  dishes  were  frequently 
produced  at  the  second  meal,  the  i  prandium/  and  for  the  princi- 
pal meal  the  two  courses  formerly  in  use  were  no  longer  suffi- 
cient. ~No  doubt,  shortly  after  the  war  with  Antiochus  there 
was  a  special  slave  who  was  cook  in  .every  well-to-do  family, 
but  culinary  arrangements  were  much  simpler  than  in  later 
times.  The  luxury  of  the  table  cannot  have  been  very  great, 
for  Pliny,  N.  H.,  xviii,  107,  says,  '  Pistores  Romae  non  fuere 
ad  Persicum  usque  bellum  annis  ab  urbe  condita  super  DLXXX. 
Ipsi  panem  faciebant  Quirites,  mulierumque  id  opus  erat  sicut 
etiam  nunc  in  plurimis  gentium/  and  in  161  B.  C.  the  fattening 
of  hens  aroused  great  indignation  and  was  forbidden  by  the 
'  Lex  Fannia,'  Pliny,  N.  H.  x,  139. 

From  this  time  on  luxury  and  high  living  continually 
increased  at  Rome.  Gluttony  became  the  style;  emetics  were 
taken  to  increase  the  enjoyment  of  the  palate,  the  cook  became 
a  more  and  more  important  factor  in  society,  and  large  sums 
were  paid  for  skilled  members  of  his  calling.  Even  in  the 
country  the  early  simplicity  of  former  times  finally  gave  way. 
In  late  Republican  and  early  Imperial  days  there  may  have 
been  some  who  would  have  enjoyed  a  dinner  like  that  at  which 
Cicero  entertained  Caesar,  Ad  Atticum,  xm,  52,  of  which  the 
entertainer  implies  that  the  conversation  was  quite  as  enjoyable 
a  feature  as  the  cooking.  Yet  large  sums  were  now  spent  for 
elaborate  dinners.  Plutarch,  LucuLlus,  XLI,  tells  us  that  this 
epicure  entertained  Pompey  and  Cicero  in  one  of  his  ban- 
quet rooms,  the  Apollo,  at  a  cost  of  fifty  thousand  drachmas. 
In  his  Antony,  xxvm,  Plutarch  also  tells  another  story  relative 
to  the  luxurious  folly  of  the  triumvir.  Antony,  says  Plutarch, 
went  to  Alexandria  with  Cleopatra  and  there  they  had  a  kind 
of  company  of  inimitable  gourmands,  and  daily  feasted  one 


12  Roman  Cooks 

another.  Now  Philotas  of  Amphissa,  he  continues,  used  to 
say  that  he  became  acquainted  with  one  of  the  cooks,  and  was 
persuaded  by  him  to  view  the  costliness  of  the  preparation  for 
the  table.  He  was  introduced  into  the  kitchen,  where  he  saw 
everything  in  abundance,  and  eight  wild  boars  were  roasting 
whole,  which  made  him  wonder  at  the  number  of  guests. 
Hereupon  the  cook  laughed,  and  said  that  the  party  at  supper 
was  only  twelve,  but  that  it  was  necessary  that  everything 
should  be  served  in  perfection  which  a  moment  of  time  might 
spoil.  "  And,"  said  he,  "  maybe  Antony  will  sup  just  now, 
maybe  not  for  an  hour ;.  hence  it  is  that  not  one  but  many  sup- 
pers must  be  in  readiness." 

As  an  example  of  extreme  extravagance  Seneca  in  his  Dia- 
logues, xn,  x,  8  and  9,  gives  the  story  of  the  gourmand  Apicius, 
who  spent  one  hundred  million  '  sesterii '  on  his  appetite.  Then 
when  he  balanced  his  accounts,  and  discovered  that  he  had  only 
ten  million  '  sestertii '  left,  despairing  of  being  able  to  satisfy 
the  cravings  of  hunger  and  thirst  with  so  paltry  a  sum,  he  took 
as  a  last  draught  a  dose  of  poison.  Martial,  m,  22,  tells  the 
same  story. 

This  author  also  informs  us  that  not  only  were  the  Romans 
lavish  in  their  expenditure  for  food,  and  careful  about  its 
preparation,  but  some  of  them  were  even  fastidious  about  the 
personal  appearance  of  their  cooks.  Martial  addresses  x,  63, 
to  a  beautiful  youth,  Theopompus.  '  Who/  says  he,  '  was  so 
hard-hearted,  Theopompus,  as  to  make  you  a  cook,  to  defile  such 
a  face  as  yours  with  the  smut  of  the  kitchen,  to  pollute  such 
locks  with  greasy  soot  ?  If  this  is  the  destiny  of  such  brilliant 
beauty,  let  Jove  make  a  cook  of  Ganymede.'  Again  the  same 
author  tells  us,  xn,  64,  that  Cinna  appointed  as  cook  one  of  his 
rosy  attendants,  who  surpassed  all  the  rest  in  beauty  of  features 
and  hair. 

The  rich  of  the  Empire  truly  lived  to  eat,  and  interesting 
stories  could  be  told  of  the  luxurious  propensities  of  Nero, 
Caligula,  and  Heliogabalus.  The  latter,  according  to  Lampri- 
dius,  Heliogdbalus,  20,  was  content  only  with  such  dainties  as 


Roman  Cooks  13 

the  heels  of  camels,  combs  of  live  cocks,  tongues  of  peacocks 
and  nightingales,  and  other  similar  articles  of  food.  This  same 
emperor  '  aliquando  autem  tribus  milibus  sestertium  cenavit 
omnibus  supputatis  quse  impendit,'  Lampridius,  Heliogabalus, 
24.  To  cater  to  such  connoisseurs  in  the  art  of  eating  a  very 
expert  cook  was  necessarily  required,  and  Martial,  xiv,  220, 
tells  us  that  in  his  day, 

Non  satis  est  ars  sola  coco  ;  servire  palatum 
:  cocus  domini  debet  habere  gulam. 


Another  part  of  the  cooks'  art  consisted  in  disguising  arti- 
cles of  food  so  as  to  make  them  appear  entirely  different  from 
what  they  really  were.  Compare  Martial,  xi,  31,  where  deli- 
cacies of  various  kinds  are  said  to  have  been  prepared  from 
common  gourds.  The  stories  which  have  been  told  are  sufficient 
to  show  how  great  the  number  of  cooks  must  have  been  to  pro- 
vide for  the  elaborate  entertainments  of  the  Empire,  and  that 
a  division  of  their  work  was  absolutely  necessary.  This  divi- 
sion was  actually  made,  for  in  the  house  of  the  emperor  and 
the  establishments  of  the  wealthy,  we  find  an  '  archimagirus," 
whose  business  it  was  to  superintend  the  host  of  subordinates 
who  made  ready  the  meals  for  their  lords.  Of  this  superin- 
tendent and  his  assistants  we  shall  have  more  to  say  later  on. 

The  Romans  as  well  as  the  Greeks  had  cook-books.  Only  one 
of  these  has  come  down  to  us  entire.  This  bears  the  title  Apici 
Caeli  de  re  coquinaria,  libri  X.  A  famous  gastronome  who 
lived  in  the  time  of  Tiberius  bears  the  name  of  Apicius,  and 
because  of  his  unusual  extravagance  and  gluttony  the  name 
seems  to  have  become  a  synonym  for  foolish  expenditure  and 
abnormal  high  living.  So  famous  was  this  character  as  a  gour- 
mand that  Athemeus,  vn,  294,  f.,  tells  us  that  Apion  wrote  a 
book  on  his  luxurious  living.  Countless  anecdotes  were  current 
about  him,  and  many  of  his  recipes  were  so  famous  that  they 
bear  his  name.  See  Athenseus,  i,  7,  a.  The  cook-book  which 
we  possess  is  not,  however,  the  work  of  this  gastronome,  for 
his  name  was  M.  Gavius  Apicius  and  not  Cselius.  Moreover, 


• 
14  Roman  Cooks 

some  of  the  recipes  which  it  contains  are  a  proof  of  a  later 
date;  for  example,  205  is  named  for  the  Emperor  Commodus. 
It  is  then  probably  a  late  work  of  about  the  third  century, 
which  was  compiled  from  numerous  Greek  manuals  on  the 
subject  of  cooking.  It  is  probable  that  it  is  not  the  work  of  an 
Apicius  at  all,  but  that  a  certain  Cselius  collected  a  number  of 
recipes  for  cooking  under  the  name  of  Apicius,  and  that  the 
original  title  of  the  work  was  Caeli  Apicius  de  re  coquinaria, 
after  the  model  of  Cicero's  Cato  de  senectute.  This  is  the  view 
taken  by  Schanz  in  his  Romische  Litteratur-Geschichte,  in 
Miiller's  Handbuch  der  Jclassischen  AUertumswissenschaft, 
vm,  ii,  2,  p.  506.  The  work  is  in  ten  books,  each  with  a  Greek 
name,  and  contains  recipes  for  preparing  and  dressing  all  kinds 
of  flesh,  fish,  and  fowls,  for  compounding  sauces,  baking  cakes, 
preserving  sweetmeats,  and  flavoring  wines.  It  is  full  of 
Greek  terms,  a  proof,  if  one  were  needed,  that  the  art  of  cook- 
ing had  attained  the  highest  development  in  Greece. 


Roman  Cooks  15 

CHAPTER  III 
COOKS  IN  PLAUTUS.    GREEK  OR  ROMAN? 


In  our  study  of  Roman  cooks  the  first  source  to  which  we 
turn  is  naturally  Plautus,  for  he  gives  more  examples  of  fol- 
lowers of  this  vocation  than  any  other  author.     When  we  con- 
sider cooks  in  Plautus,  however,  we  are  at  once  puzzled  by  the 
following  problem:  to  what  extent  is  that  author  describing 
actual  members  of  the  culinary  profession  in  Rome,  and  how 
far  does  he  portray  the  calling  as  found  in  Greek  Comedy  ? 
It  may  be  impossible  to  unravel  the  puzzle  fully,  for  Plautus, 
as  we  know,  is  in  many  respects  a  hopeless  tangle  of  Roman 
and  Greek  elements.    The  scene  of  his  plays  is  always  laid  in  a 
Greek  town,  and  yet  he  frequently  refers  to  definite  places  in 
the  city  of  Rome,  such  as  the  '  Macellum,'  the  i  Forum '  with 
its  money  changers,   and  well  known  Roman  temples.     His 
characters  have  Greek  names,  but  often  Roman  characteristics. 
While  laws  and  the  names  of  officials  are  usually  Roman,  and 
the  gods  have  their  Roman  names,  money  and  utensils  seem  to 
be  Greek.     Even  the  lowest  slaves  are  quite  familiar  with  the 
old  stories  of  Greek  mythology.     Customs  referred  to  are  often 
Roman,  and  Roman  festivals  are  frequently  mentioned.     So 
the  mixture  runs.    Yet,  as  may  be  seen  at  once,  while  there  is 
so  much  that  is  Greek  in  Plautus,  he  is  nowhere  a  slavish  imi- 
tator   of  his    originals,    and   as    Friedrich    Leo,    Plautinische 
Forschungen,    85,    says,    'Aber    Handlung    und    Charakter, 
Costum    und    Scenerie   des    Griechen,    die    er    beibehielt    mit 
souveraner  Freiheit  zu  behandeln  hatte  er  von  Naevius  gelernt.' 
It  is  then  very  difficult  to  separate  the  Roman  and  the  Greek 
features  in  the  comedies  of  Plautus,  and  to  say  just  how  far 
his  characters  are  directly  taken  from,  or  exact  imitations  of 
those  found  in  his  Greek  originals,  and  how  much  they  are 


16  Roman  Cooks 

modified  by  actual  conditions  existing  in  the  city  of  Rome. 
It  is,  however,  important  for  us  to  consider  this  question  in 
our  study  of  cooks,  in  order  to  decide  to  what  extent  we  may 
draw  on  Plautus,  who  gives  us  more  examples  of  cooks  than 
any  other  author,  for  the  characteristics  of  purely  Roman  mem- 
bers of  that  profession. 

We  may  at  least  be  sure  that  there  were  cooks  in  Italy,  and 
in  Rome,  as  early  as  the  days  of  Plautus.  For  this  assumption 
we  find  evidence  both  in  inscriptions  and  in  literature.  C.  I.  L. 
xi,  3078  states  that  a  gift  was  given  to  Jupiter,  Juno,  and 
Minerva  by  a  collegium  of  Faliscan  cooks  who  were  in  Sar- 
dinia. It  reads: 

lovei,  lunonei,  Minervai,  Falesce  quei  in  Sardinia  sunt, 
donum  dederunt;  magistreis  L.  Latrius  K.  F.  C.  Salv[e]na 
Voltai  F.  coiraveront. 

Conlegium  quod  est  aeiptum  aetatei  age(n)d[ai], 
Opiparum  a[d]  veitam  quolundam  festosque  dies, 
Quei  soveis  a[rg]utieis  opidque  Volgani 
Condecorant  sai[pi]sume  comvivia  loidosque 
Ququei  hue  dederu[nt]   [i]nperatoribus  summeis, 
Utei  sesed  lubent[es]   [be]ne  iovent  optantis. 

This  inscription  may  be  dated  with  certainty  as  far  back 
as  the  time  of  Plautus.  Falerii  was  destroyed  by  the  Romans 
in  the  year  241  B.  C.  At  this  time  the  Faliscans  were  driven 
out  of  their  city  and  compelled  to  settle  elsewhere.  As  this 
was  just  about  the  time  of  the  occupation  of  Sardinia  by  the 
Romans,  a  colony  of  Faliscans  may  have  been  placed  on  that 
island,  hence  the  inscription  which  cannot  be  earlier  than  241 
B.  C.  If  we  examine  the  language  of  the  inscription,  we  find 
there  abundant  evidence  of  an  early  date.  Gemination  of 
consonants  began  about  189  B.  C.  That  this  document  stands 
at  the  transition  period  between  the  single  and  the  double  con- 
sonant is  shown  by  the  fact  that  there  is  a  double  consonant 
in  l  summeis '  but  not  in  '  aciptum.'  Other  spelling  would 
seem  to  point  to  even  an  earlier  date,  for  example,  '  loidosque  ' 


Roman  Cooks  17 

and  '  coiraveront ' ;  for  '  oi '  became  i  oe  '  and  finally  l  u  '  about 
the  middle  of  the  second  century,  B.  C.  Another  evidence  of 
early  date  is  the  old  ablative  in  '  d  '  in  i  opidque.7  Lindsay  in 
his  Latin  Inscriptions,  p.  50,  says,  that  in  the  poetry  of  Livius 
Andronicus  and  Naevius  there  are  traces  of  this  older  form  of 
the  ablative.  There  is  probably  no  trace  of  it  in  Plautus,  cer- 
tainly none  in  his  dialogue  verses.  In  the  '  Senatus  Consultant 
de  Bacchanalibus '  of  186  B.  C.,  cf.  C.  I.  L.  i,  581,  Diehl, 
Altlaieinsche  Inschriften,  188,  it  is  invariably  written,  a 
practice  quite  in  keeping  with  the  archaic  orthography  of  a 
state  decree.  On  the  earlier  and  less  formal  edict  of  Aemilius 
Paulus,  189  B.  C.,  it  is  not  found,  cf.  C.  I.  L.  11,  5041. 

According,  then,  both  to  the  probable  origin  of  this  inscrip- 
tion, and  the  internal  evidence  found  in  its  language,  the  con- 
clusion may  be  drawn  that  it  is  at  least  a  contemporaneous  docu- 
ment with  the  works  of  Plautus,  and  a  proof  that  cooks  were 
of  considerable  importance  in  other  parts  of  Italy  besides 
Rome,  and  hence  also  in  that  city  by  his  time. 

Literature  also  furnishes  evidence  of  cooks  in  Rome  as 
early  as  the  time  of  Plautus.  Livy,  xxxix,  6,  says,  as  we  have 
seen,  that  foreign  luxury  was  brought  to  Rome  by  the  Asiatic 
army  after  the  war  with  Antiochus,  and,  '  Turn  coquus  vilis- 
simum  antiquis  mancipium,  et  aestimatione,  et  usu  in  pretio 
esse,  et  quod  minister ium  fuerat,  ars  haberi  coepta.'  The 
words  '  Turn  coquus  vilissimum  antiquis  mancipium  7  show  that 
there  were  cooks  in  Rome  before  this  time,  191  B.  C.,  even  if 
their  vocation  was  not  counted  among  the  arts.  They  were 
probably  the  ordinary  slaves  of  the  household,  for  Pliny,  N.  H. 
xvm,  108,  says  in  speaking  of  the  early  Romans,  i  Nee  cocos 
vero  habebant  in  servitiis  eosque  ex  macello  conducebant.'  He 
is  referring  here  not  to  cooks  as  unimportant  members  of  the 
household  of  slaves,  but  to  professional  cooks  who  took  their 
stand  in  the  market,  as  we  shall  see  the  cooks  in  Plautus  did, 
and  were  hired  for  special  occasions,  although  there  must  have 
been  slaves  belonging  to  each  family  who  prepared  the  ordinary 
meals.  These  two  passages,  then,  would  lead  us  to  suppose 

2 


' 
18  Roman  Cooks 

that,  at  Kome  in  early  times,  the  regular  daily  cooking  was 
done  by  some  common  slave  belonging  to  the  household;  but 
that,  just  as  in  Greece  up  to  Alexandrian  times,  the  ordinary 
house  slaves  were  not  able  to  meet  the  requirements  for  the 
preparation  of  feasts  and  great  dinners,  so  in  Rome  for  special 
occasions  an  expert  cook  was  hired  from  the  '  Forum.'  This 
is  exactly  the  condition  of  affairs  found  in  Plautus.  In  the 
Mercator,  390  ff.,  we  see  that  cooking  as  well  as  various  other 
duties  was  performed  by  ordinary  slaves  of  the  household. 
Demipho  asks  Charinus  if  he  has  not  brought  a  slave  from 
Rhodes  to  wait  upon  his  mother.  Charinus  replies  that  he  has, 
but  Demipho  objects  that  her  person  is  too  delicate,  and  says 
that  a  maid  is  of  no  use  to  them  who  cannot  weave,  grind,  cut 
wood,  spin,  sweep  the  house,  take  a  whipping,  and  cook  the  daily 
meals  for  the  family.  On  the  contrary,  the  cook  for  a  special 
occasion:  wedding  feast,  dinner  party,  or  birthday  entertain- 
ment was  hired  from  the  i  Forum '  as  Aulularia,  280 ;  Merca- 
tor, 697;  and  Pseudolus,  798  ff.,  show.  The  only  exception  to 
this  general  rule  is  in  the  Menaechmi,  where,  as  already  stated, 
the  courtesan  Erotium  is  sufficiently  wealthy  to  have  a  special 
cook  as  one  of  her  slaves. 

Even  if  we  were  to  admit  that  there  were  no  professional 
cooks  at  Rome  before  the  time  of  Plautus,  we  must  remem- 
ber that  the  period  of  that  author's  greatest  productivity  lay 
between  204  and  184  B.  C.,  and  that  the  latter  part  of  this 
period  coincides  with  the  time  when  Livy  tells  us  that  cookery 
became  an  art,  and  the  cook  became  a  person  of  importance. 
For  this  reason,  then,  if  Plautus  is  not  describing  conditions 
existing  in  Rome  before  his  own  day  when  he  says  that  cooks 
for  special  occasions  were  hired  from  the  market  place,  he  is 
at  least  giving  a  custom  which  was  just  then  being  introduced 
into  Rome  from  Greece,  with  which  his  audience  was  thor- 
oughly familiar. 

One  reason  for  believing  that  Plautus  is  describing  Roman 
rather  than  Greek  cooks  is  that  in  Greek  Comedy  the  profes- 
sional cook  is  never  represented  as  a  slave,  except  in  a  play  of 


Roman  Cooks  19 

Posidippus,  cf.  Athenaeus,  xiv,  658  f.  Rankin  in  his  disserta- 
tion on  The  Role  of  the  Mdyeipoi,  in  the  Life  of  the  Ancient 
Greeks,  p.  20,  thinks  that  even  this  cook  was  not  a  slave  but  an 
apprentice  or  understudy  to  a  higher  ndryeipos.  Athenaeus 
continues  in  the  passage  just  cited  that  the  introduction  of 
slaves  as  cooks  took  place  first  among  the  Macedonians,  but 
Plautus's  cooks,  if  purely  Greek,  would  most  probably  be 
taken  from  Greek  Comedy,  and  there  they  are  not  portrayed 
in  a  slavish  condition.  In  Plautus,  on  the  contrary,  cooks 
seem  always  to  be  slaves.  As  has  been  said,  Cylindrus,  the 
cook  in  the  Menaechmi,  is  the  private  slave  of  the  courtesan 
Erotium.  Aulularia,  309,  shows  that  the  two  cooka  in  that 
play  are  slaves,  for  they  speak  of  purchasing  their  freedom. 
The  treatment  of  cooks  in  Plautus  would  also  indicate  that 
they  were  slaves.  In  the  Aulularia,  345  ff.,  one  of  the  cooks 
says,  '  If  any  thing  be  missing  they  will  say  the  cooks  have 
stolen  it,  seize  them,  flog  them,  and  thrust  them  into  the  dun- 
geon.' Again,  Aulularia,  409,  Congrio,  the  cook,  says,  i  They 
have  pounded  me  so,  poor  wretch,  and  my  pupils,  too,  that  I 
am  sore  all  over,  so  lustily  has  that  old  fellow  belabored  me  by 
way  of  exercise.'  Cylindrus,  Menaechmi,  275,  fearing  punish- 
ment because  he  is  late,  says,  '  Yae  tergo  meo.'  In  Greek 
Comedy,  on  the  other  hand,  cooks  usually  received  treatment 
worthy  of  free  men,  and  even  a  certain  amount  of  respect, 
cf.  Rankin  in  the  dissertation  referred  to  above,  in  the  chap- 
ter on  the  Social  Status  of  the  Mdyeipoi,  p.  11  if. 

The  fact  that  the  cooks  in  the  comedies  of  Plautus  have  in 
general  the  same  personal  characteristics  as  those  in  Greek 
Comedy  may  seem  to  indicate  that  his  cooks  were  taken  directly 
from  the  Greek.  The  long  scene  beginning  Pseudolus,  790,  in 
which  the  cook  boasts  of  his  accomplishments,  is  really  typi- 
cally Greek.  Ballio,  upon  his  return  from  the  '  Forum  Coqui- 
num,'  says,  ;  Were  I  on  my  oath  I  could  not  find  a  greater 
rascal  than  this  cook  whom  I  bring,  a  prating,  boastful,  silly, 
worthless  fellow.'  Later  the  chef  lives  up  to  his  bragging 
reputation,  and  says,  843  ff.,  that  Jupiter  sups  daily  on  the 


20  Roman  Cooks 

odors  from  his  saucepans,  and  that  when  he  does  not  cook,  the 
king  of  gods  goes  hungry  to  bed.  In  this  play,  too,  850  if., 
we  are  reminded  of  the  thievish  propensities  of  cooks.  Other 
examples  of  the  characteristics  of  cooks  will  be  given  in  a  later 
chapter,  but  these  are  sufficient  to  show  that  in  the  main  they 
agree  with  those  of  members  of  the  same  calling  in  Greece. 
This,  however,  may  prove  nothing  more  than  that  cooks  the 
world  over,  and  for  all  time,  have  the  same  besetting  sins,  for 
if  we  compare  Roman  cooks  with  those  of  our  own  time,  we 
shall  find  a  startling  similarity  in  their  thievish  and  other 
propensities. 

To  sum  up  what  has  been  said  in  this  chapter: — We  have 
both  inscriptional  and  literary  evidence  for  cooks  in  Rome  as 
early  as  the  time  of  Plautus;  we  know  that  he  was  writing  at 
the  very  time  when  luxury  and  professional  cooks  were  brought 
in  from  the  East;,  the  cooks  in  Plautus  are  slaves  and  not  free 
as  they  were  in  Greek  Comedy  from  which  his  cooks,  if  Greek, 
would  most  probably  be  taken.  The  fact  that  the  characteris- 
tics of  Greek  and  Roman  cooks  are  the  same  proves  nothing. 
Hence  we  may  conclude  that  Plautus,  while  undoubtedly  de- 
pending to  some  extent  on  his  Greek  originals,  is  nevertheless 
largely  describing  culinary  artists  as  he  actually  saw  them  in 
the  city  of  Rome. 


Roman  Cooks  21 

CHAPTER  IV 
THE  NATIONALITY  OF  COOKS 

The  Roman  cook  was  a  slave  from  the  time  of  Plautus,  and 
even  earlier,  until  the  '  chef '  became  of  sufficient  importance  at 
Rome  to  gain  his  freedom,  either  as  a  gift  for  some  especially 
happy  work  of  genius,  or  to  purchase  it  by  savings  from  the 
enormous  sums  which  were  paid  him  in  later  days.  M.  Bang, 
in  Die  HerJcunft  der  Romischen  Sklaven,  published  in  the 
Romis.che  Mittheilungen,  1910,  p.  247,  says  that  the  slave  land 
(  par  excellence  '  for  all  times  was  Syria.  The  ancients  thought 
that  the  Syrians  were  born  and  predestined  to  slavery.  Cicero, 
de  Provinciis  Consularibus,  5,  10,  says,  i  lam  vero  publicanos 

miseros tradidit  in  servitutem  ludaeis  et  Syris, 

nationibus  natis  servituti.7  With  this  compare  also  Livy,  xxxv, 

49,  8,  and  xxxvi,  17,  5,  '  Syri  et  Asiatici  Graeci 

vilissima  genera  hominum  et  servituti  nata ' ;  and  also  Plautus, 
Trinummus,  542,  '  Syrorum,  genus  quod  patientissumumst 
hominum.'  With  the  Syrians  and  the  Jews  the  Greeks  of  Asia 
Minor  shared  this  doubtful  fame  as  nations  born  to  slavery. 
The  exportation  of  slaves  flourished  especially  in  Phrygia, 
Bithynia,  Cappadocia  and  Cilicia. 

The  passage  in  Plautus,  M  creator,  413-416,  suggests  that 
even  at  that  early  date  Syrian  slaves  were  regarded  as  espe- 
cially fitted  for  performing  the  menial  tasks  of  the  household, 

ego  emero  matri  tuae 

Ancillam  viraginem  aliquam  non  malam,  forma  mala, 
lit  matrem  addecet  familias,  aut  Syram  aut  Aegyptiam; 
Ea  molet,  coquet,  conficiet  pensum,  pinsetur  flagro. 

As  slaves  were  often  given  the  name  of  the  country  from  which 
they  came,  the  baker  C.  I.  L.  vi,  6338, 


' 
22  Roman  Cooks 

'  Prima  Sura 
Alexandri  L.  Pist.' 

was  no  doubt  a  Syrian.  Athenaeus,  m,  112,  tells  us  that  the 
most  celebrated  bakers  were  from  Lydia,  Phoenicia,  and  Cap- 
padocia.  Croesus,  according  to  Herodotus,  i,  51,  honored  the 
woman  who  made  his  bread  with  a  statue  of  gold.  Scribonius 
Largus,  in,  mentions  Syrian  cooks.  Perhaps,  however,  the 
strongest  evidence  we  have  that  cooks  came  from  Asia  is  to  be 
found  in  the  oft-quoted  passage  from  Livy,  xxxix,  6,  that  after 
the  war  with  Antiochus,  eastern  luxury  was  brought  into 
Rome.  Then  'epulae  quoque  ipsae  et  cura  et  sumptu  maiore 
apparari  coeptae.'  Doubtless  the  cooks  who  prepared  these 
'  epulae  '  were  those  brought  with  the  army  from  Asia,  who 
had  been  trained  to  concoct  dainty  dishes  in  their  own  country, 
and  who  later  instructed  the  ordinary  Roman  cook  in  the  trade 
which  was  soon  to  become  an  art.  Pliny,  N.  H.  x,  140,  says 
that  '  Dedere  et  Parthi  cocis  suos  mores.7 

The  belief  that  many  cooks  came  from  Asia  and  Asia  Minor 
is  strengthened  by  their  names,  which  in  several  cases  point  to 
the  East.  Adrastus,  the  name  of  a  cook  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9263,  is 
clearly  an  Asia  Minor  name,  as  will  be  shown  in  a  later  chap- 
ter on  names.  Eros,  the  name  of  a  cook  C.  I.  L.  vi,  6246,  and 
also  vi,  8753,  and  the  cognomen  of  the  cooks  C.  I.  L.  vi, 
33838,  and  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9270,  although  a  common  name  of 
slaves  and  freedmen,  seems,  according  to  M.  Bang's  list  in  the 
article  quoted  above,  to  suggest  Cappadocia.  Compare  C.  I.  L. 
vi,  6510,  11188,  and  xi,  864.  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8752  gives  a  cook's 
name,  '  M.  Aurelius  Bit.'  Mommsen  makes  the  full  cogno- 
men Bithus.  Maffei  suggests  Bithynicus.  According  to  Pape, 
Worterbuch  der  griechischen  Eigennamen,  one  Bithus  was  the 
son  of  Zeus,  from  whom  the  Bithynians  are  said  to  have  been 
named,  another  the  son  of  Mars,  from  whom  Bithynia  took  its 
name.  Either  cognomen,  '  Bithus  '  or  '  Bithynicus,'  points  to 
Bithynia  in  Asia  Minor,  which  supplied  many  slaves.  C.  I.  L. 
vi,  9266,  '  Arax.  cocus,'  suggests  the  'A/oa£?79,  a  river  in 
Armenia.  C.  I.  L.  x,  5211  reads,  (  L.  Clodius  Antioc.  Tuscus.' 


Roman  CooJcs  23 

The  cognomen  '  Antioc.'  may  indicate  Syria  as  the  native  land 
either  of  this  cook  or  of  his  ancestors,  for  Antiochus  was  the 
name  of  several  kings  of  Syria  from  the  family  of  the 
Seleucidae.  In  C.  I.  L.  xir,  4468  we  have  a  cook,  'M.  Egnatius 
Lugius.'  Pape  says  that  the  Avyioi  were  a  people  in  Mysia. 
More  will  be  said  about  these  names  in  a  later  chapter,  but  this 
is  sufficient  to  show  that  the  names  of  several  cooks  seem  to 
point  to  Asia  Minor.  That  the  Greeks  also  used  Asiatics  for 
cooks,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  many  dishes  mentioned  in 
Athenaeus  come  from  Lydia. 

The  most  famous  cooks  were,  however,  from  Sicily,  as  pas- 
sages from  Greek  Comedy  and  Athenaeus  testify.  For  these 
cf.  Rankin,  The  Eole  of  the  Mdyeipoi,  in  the  Life  of  the 
Ancient  Greeks,  p.  40.  The  Sicilian  Labdacus  was  represented, 
Meineke,  Fragmenta  Comicorum  Graecorum  iv,  459,  and 
Kock,  Fragmenta  Comicorum  Atticorum  in,  296,  as  the 
teacher  of  other  famous  ^d^eipoi,.  Plato,  Gorgias,  518  b,  refers 
to  a  treatise  on  Sicilian  cookery  by  Mithaecus,  and  Athenaeus, 
m,  101  and  102,  mentions  a  work  of  Archestratus  of  Gela. 
^LxeXi/crj  -rpdire^a  was  a  proverbial  phrase  for  a  table  furnished 
profusely  and  luxuriously.  For  this  expression,  cf.  Otto, 
Sprichworter  der  Ronier,  under  '  Siculus.'  That  the  Romans 
also  especially  esteemed  Sicilian  cooks  is  shown  by  their  use  of 
a  similar  phrase,  '  Siculae  dapes/  to  designate  peculiarly 
appetizing  dishes.  Compare  Horace,  Carmina,  m,  1,  18, 
'  ^N"on  Siculae  dapes  dulcem  elaborabunt  saporem ' ;  Macrobius, 
Saturn,  vn,  5,  24,  t  Modum  vero  servat  qui  sui  potens  est  et  in 
mensa  Sicula  vel  Asiana  ' ;  Cicero,  Tusculan  Disputations,  v, 
35 ;  Plautus,  Rudens,  53. 

Infit  lenoni  suadere  ut  secum  simul 
Eat  in  Sicilian! :  ibi  esse  homines  voluptarios. 
Dicit,  potesse  ibi  eum  fieri  divitem. 

The  luxurious  life  at  the  court  of  the  tyrants  of  Syracuse  wag 
probably  not  without  influence  on  the  origin  of  the  proverb. 


24  Roman  Cooks 

One  cook  from  Syracuse  so  disguised  a  herring  that  Domitian 
thought  it  was  a  lamprey. 

Many  Roman  cooks  were  Greek  slaves,  as  their  names  bear 
witness,  but  it  is  often  impossible  to  find  out  from  what  part 
of  Greece  they  or  their  ancestors  came. 

That  some  were  of  the  same  nationality  as  the  servants  in 
our  own  sunny  Southland  is  the  evidence  of  Martial,  vi,  39, 
6 :  '  Hie  qui  retorto  crine  Maurus  incedit,  subolem  f  atetur 
esse  se  coci  Santrae.7  Another  African  cook  is  the  '  Cattosus 
bene  Christianus,'  an  anomaly  among  cooks  because  of  his 
honesty,  who  lived  in  Hippo  and  of  whom  Augustinus  tells  in 
De  Civitate  Dei,  xxn,  8.  His  strange  story  runs  as  follows: 
There  was  a  certain  old  man  of  Hippo,  Florentius,  who  was 
religious  but  poor.  He  lost  his  coat,  and  had  not  the  money 
with  which  to  buy  another,  so  he  prayed  in  a  loud  voice  to  the 
twenty  martyrs.  A  little  later,  while  walking  silently  by  the 
shore,  he  found  a  huge  fish  panting  on  the  sand.  He  picked  it 
up  and  sold  it  to  a  cook,  Cattosus,  who  was  a  Christian,  then 
went  off  to  buy  the  wool  from  which  his  wife  might  make  a 
coat  for  him.  But  the  cook,  in  the  meantime  cutting  the  fish, 
found  in  it  a  gold  ring,  and  moved  by  compassion  and  terrified 
by  his  religious  fear,  he  gave  it  to  Florentius,  saying,  <  Behold 
how  the  twenty  martyrs  have  clothed  you.' 

It  is  possible  that  the  Romans  may  have  derived  some  of 
their  table  customs  and  probably  their  cooks  also  from  the 
Etruscans.  Posidonius  in  his  history,  book  11,  is  quoted  by 
Athenaeus,  iv,  153,  d,  as  saying  that  among  the  Etruscans 
luxurious  tables  were  spread  twice  a  day,  that  they  had  couches 
embroidered  with  flowers,  and  silver  drinking  cups  of  every 
sort.  The  cognomen  of  the  cook  C.  I.  L.  x,  5211,  i  L.  Clodius 
Antioc.  Tuscus/  may  imply  that  he  was  of  Etruscan  origin, 
although  the  double  cognomen  here  complicates  the  question 
and  makes  us  uncertain  whether  to  look  to  Syria  or  to  Etruria 
for  this  cook's  ancestors.  The  cognomen  Tuscus  is  often  found 
in  inscriptions  of  Etruria,  C.  I.  L.  xi,  1810,  and  others. 


Eoman  Cooks  25 

CHAPTER  V 
NAMES  OP  COOKS 

ALPHABETICAL  LIST 

Acas(tus),  C.  I.  L.  vi,  7602. 

Adrastus,  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9263. 

Aelius  Ep(a)phroditus,  C.  7.  L.  vi,  9262. 

Titus  Aelius  Primitivus,  C.  I.  L.  vi,  7458. 

Titus  Aelius  Primitivus,  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8750. 

Alexand(e)r  (  ?),  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9264. 

Anthrax,  Plautus,  Aulularia,  287. 

Apoli(naris),  C.  7.  L.  xiv,  2875. 

Apollonius,  (7.  I.  L.  vi,  9265. 

Aprilis,  (7.  I.  L.  iv,  6823. 

Arax(us)  (  ?),  (7.  I.  L.  vi,  9266. 

Lucius  Arruntius  Hilario,  (7.  7.  L.  xi,  3850. 

Aurelius  Zoticus,  Dio  Cassius,  LXXIX,  16,  3. 

Marcus  Aurelius  Bit(hus),  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8752. 

Caecilius  Felix,  C.  I.  L.,  vi,  7433. 

Cario,  Plautus,  Miles  Gloriosus,  1397,  1427. 

Quintus  Catius  Herma,  C.  I.  L.  xir,  4470. 

Cattosus,  Augustinus,  De  Civitate  Dei,  xxn^  8. 

Citrio,  Plautus,  Casina,  744. 

Lucius  Clodius  Antioc.  Tuscus,  C.  I.  L.  x,  5211. 

Congrio,  Plautus,  Aululwria,  285. 

Cylindrus,  Plautus,  Menaechmi,  294. 

Daedalus,  Petronius,  Cena  Trimalchionis,  70. 

Dama,  Porphyrion  on  Horace,  Satires,  i,  1,  101. 

Artemo  Dindius,  C.  I.  L.  xiv,  2875. 

Dromo,  Plautus,  Aulularia,  398. 

M.  Egnatius  Lugius,  C.  I.  L.  xii,  4468. 

Eros,  (7.  7.  L.  vi,  6246. 


' 
26  Roman  Cooks 

Eros  Cornufi(cianus),  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8753. 

Faustus  Eros,  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9261. 

Firmus,  (7.  7.  L.  vi,  5197. 

Marcus  Fuficius  Eros,  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9270. 

Gaius  Genicilius  Domesticus,  (7.  I.  L.  vi,  9271. 

Hephaestio,  Apuleius,  Metamorphoses,  ix,  2. 

Herma,  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9267. 

Hilarus  Barbianus,  (7.  L  L.  vi,  6247. 

Gains  lulius  Eros,  (7.  I.  L.  vi,  33838. 

L.  Latrius,  (7.  L  L.  xi,  3078. 

Machaerio,  Plautus,  Aulularia,,  398. 

Marcius  Faustus,  (7.  I.  L.  ix,  3938. 

Menogenes,  Pliny,  N.  H.  vir,  54. 

Mistjllos,  Martial,  i,  50,  1  (fictitious). 

Philargurus,  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9268. 

(Ph)ileros,  (7.  7.  L.  vi,  6248. 

Photio  Sestianus  (  ?),  (7.  7.  L.  vi,  8754. 

L.  Plotius  ( ?),  Orelli,  7227.     Compare  C.  I.  L.  iv,  373. 

Protus,  (7.  7.  L.  xiv,  2875. 

Eodo,  C.  I.  L.  xiv,  2875. 

C.  Salv[e]na,  C.  I.  L.  xi,  3078. 

Santra,  Martial,  vi,  39,  7. 

Seleucus  Germanicus,  (7.  7.  L.  vi,  33767. 

Sosias,  Ausonius,  iv,  6,  1. 

Suellius  (?),  Orelli,  7227. 

Symph(orus),  (7.  7.  L.  vi,  8751. 

Taratalla,  Martial,  i,  50,  2  (fictitious). 

Tasus(?),  (7.  7.  L.  vi,  5197. 

Theopompus,  Martial,  x,  66. 

Tyrannus,  (7.  7.  L.  vi,  9269. 

Marcus  Valerius  Optatus,  (7.  7.  L.  v,  2544. 

Zena,  (7.  7.  L.  vi,  6249. 

Zethus,  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8755. 

To  this  list  may  be  added  the  names  of  some  cooks  of  Roman 
times  found  in  Greek  inscriptions,  papyri,  and  literature: 


Roman  Cooks  27 

'Aya6W,  J.  G.  vu,  1562. 

,     Dittenberger  und  Purgold,  Die  Inschriften  von 
Olympia,  64. 

,  Oxyrhynchus  Pap.,  i,  No.  118. 
Becr/Sem?,  Aegyptische  Urkunden  aus  den  Koenig.  Mus.  zu 
Berlin,  Griech.  Urkund.,  1,  No.  6. 
Papiri  Greci  Egizii,  11. 

"       Fiorentini,  166. 
,    I.  (7.  xii,  8,  595. 

,    Oxyrhynchus  Pap.,  i,  No.  118. 
'E7ra<£(/oo£eiT09),    Dittenberger  und  Purgold,  Dte  Inschriften 
von  Olympia,  No.  74. 

tW,  Plutarch,  Moralia,  Trepl  Trai&wv  aywyfjs,  11,  B. 

Aegyptische   Urkunden  aus  den  Koenig.  Mus.   zu 
Berlin,  Griech.  Urkund.  3,  No.  932. 

,  Griech.  Pap.  im  Museum  des  Oberhessischen  Ges- 
chichtswreins  zu  Giessen,  Band  i,  Heft.  3,  No.  101. 

,  7.  (7.  xiv,  617. 

,  Aegyptische  Urkunden  aus  den  Koenig.  Mus.  zu  Ber- 
lin, Griech.  Urkund.  i,  No.  151. 
,  Amherst  Pap.  u,  No.  127. 
,    I.  G.  xu,  5,  No.  54. 

',  Greek  Papyri  in  the  British  Museum,  in,  p.  236, 
No.  1254. 

'Po'S(W),     I.  G^.  xu,  5,  646. 
[S]  wT/oo^o?,  Dittenberger  und  Purgold,  i^te  Inschriften  von 

Olympia,  No.  87. 
Seventy-nine  in  all. 


NAMES  IN  LITERATURE 

The  majority  of  the  names  of  cooks  found  in  Latin  literature 
are  used  for  comic  effect,  or  as  indicative  of  their  occupation. 
In  this  class,  as  might  be  expected,  may  be  placed  the  names 
of  nearly  all  the  cooks  in  Plautus. 

In  the  Aulularia  the  cooks  are  Congrio  and  Anthrax.     Con- 


28  Roman  Cooks 

grio  is  derived  from  '  conger/  sea  eel,  and  may  possibly  have 
been  given  to  the  cook  as  a  testimony  of  the  slippery,  thievish 
propensities  belonging  to  the  followers  of  his  profession,  or 
else  because  it  was  the  name  of  an  article  of  food.  Somewhat 
similar  names  are  found  in  Greek  Comedy.  BotStW  is  the 
name  of  a  cook  in  Sosipater.  Kock,  in,  p.  314;  and  Moo-^tW 
of  another,  Athenaeus,  xii,  542  f.  The  latter  is  also  the 
name  of  a  parasite,  Alexis,  Kock,  n,  p.  383.  Fick-Beehtel, 
Griechische  Personennamen,  pp.  314  ff.,  has  a  section  devoted 
to  c  Tiernamen  als  Menschennamen.' 

Anthrax,  the  name  of  another  cook  in  the  same  comedy, 
means  coal,  and  this  suggests  at  once  the  calling  to  which  he 
belongs,  since  it  is  with  the  element  of  fire  that  cooks  are  most 
engaged.  The  association  of  cooks  with  Vulcan  is  not  at  all 
unusual.  He  is  mentioned  in  the  inscription  of  Faliscan  cooks, 
C.  I.  L.  xi,  3078.  In  the  Indicium  Cod  et  Pistoris,  Poetae 
Latini  Minores,  Baehrens,  iv,  379,  Vulcan  is  the  judge.  In 
the  Menaechmi,  329  f .,  the  cook  says, 

Ire  hercle  meliust  te  interim  atque  accumbere, 
Dum  ego  haec  adpono  ad  Volcani  violentiam. 

In  the  Aulularia,  359  ff.  the  following  words  are  addressed  to 
the  cook: 

Quid?     Impurate,   quamquam   Volcano   studes, 
Cenaene  causa  aut  tuae  mercedis  gratia 
Nos  nostras  aedis  postulas  comburere? 

For  'AvOpd/ciov  as  the  name  of  a  female  slave,  compare  Fick- 
Bechtel,  op.  cit.,  pp.  330  f.  The  name  Anthrax  is  not  found 
elsewhere  in  literature.  It  occurs,  however  (7.  /.  L.  vi,  6405, 
<  Anthrax  Sosian(us)  hie/  and  C.  I.  L.  x,  3282,  thus  showing 
that  it  is  not  purely  fictitious. 

In  the  Aulularia,  398  f.,  we  get  also  two  names  belonging 
probably  to  a  cook's  attendants  or  apprentices.  Anthrax  is 
giving  his  orders.  He  says: 


Roman  Cooks  29 

Dromo,  desquama  piscis;  tu  Machaerio, 
Congrum,  murenam  ex  dorsua  quantum  potest. 

Dromo,  Greek  Apo/jioov  =  a  runner,  is  a  rather  common  name 
in  Greek  Comedy,  cf.  Athenaeus,  xiv,  644,  e;  ix,  377,  d;  vi, 
240,  d;  ix,  409,  e.  It  is  the  name  of  a  cook  in  Dionysius, 
quoted  by  Athenaeus,  ix,  381,  d.  Among  the  Komans  it  is  a 
slave's  name,  and  a  cognomen  of  freedmen.  It  occurs  as  the 
latter  C.  I.  L.  v,  994,  and  elsewhere.  It  is  the  name  of  a  slave 
in  Plautus,  Asdnaria,  441 ;  and  also  in  Terence,  Andria,  860 ; 
Adelphoe,  376;  and  Heauton  Timorumenos,  249.  This  name 
and  that  of  the  cook  in  the  Miles  Gloriosus  are  the  only  ones 
connected  with  the  culinary  profession  in  Plautus  which  are 
not  used  for  comic  eifect  and  to  suggest  the  owner's  occupation. 
Machaerio,  Aulularia,  398,  suggests  an  implement  which  was 
much  used  hy  cooks.  Compare  the  conversation  between  Eu- 
clio  and  the  cook,  Aulularia,  416  ff. 

Euc.     Quia  ad  trisviros  iam  ego  deferam  nomen  tuom. 

Cong.     Quam  ob  rem  ? 
Euc.     Quia  cultrum  habes.     Cong.     Cocum  decet. 

In  the  Truculentus,  615,  Cuamus  says, 

Si  tu  legioni  bellator  clues,  at  ego  in  culina  clueo. 

And  in  627  he  says  again  to  the  soldier  Stratophanes, 

Captiost:  istam  machaeram  longiorem  habes  quam  haec  est. 

In  the  Miles,  1397,  the  following  command  is  addressed  to  the 
cook,  Cario :  '  culter  probe.'  In  Petronius,  Cena  Trimalcliionis, 
49,  the  cook  seizes  his  knife  and  slashes  the  hog.  Apuleius, 
Metamorphoses,  vm,  31,  the  cook  begins  sharpening  his 
knives  to  slay  an  ass.  In  (7.  I.  L.  ix,  767,  b,  '  Machaera ' 
is  a  cognomen.  In  the  Testamentum  Porcelli,  i  Magirus  co- 
cus'  said,  '  Transi  puer  after  mihi  de  cocina  cultrum  ut  hunc 
porcellum  faciam  cruentum.'  Ma^atpiW  is  the  name  of  a 


30  Roman  Cooks 

physician  in  Galen,  of  the  man  who  killed  Epaminondas,  Pans. 
VHI,  11,  5.  Karl  Schmidt  in  an  article  on  Griechische  Per- 
sonennamen  lei  Plautus,  Hermes,  37,  196,  says,  '  Der  Trager 
des  Namens  ist  nach  dem  Messer  benannt  das  er  zu  handhaben 
versteht,  wie  F/HTro?  nach  dem  Fischernetze.' 

In  the  Casina  the  name  of  the  culinary  artist  is  Citrio,  which 
is  probably  derived  from  Xv'rpa,  meaning  an  earthen  pot  or 
kettle  for  boiling.  Similar  names  in  Greek  Comedy  are  Jlara- 
vtov,  the  name  of  a  cook,  Athenaeus,  iv,  169,  e;  and  Aayvvtwv 
from  Xa'ywo?,  the  name  of  a  parasite,  Athenaeus,  xm,  584,  f. 

In  the  Men&echmi,  too,  the  cook,  Cylindrus,  probably  gets 
his  name  from  the  utensil  which  he  frequently  uses  in  making 
pastry,  namely  the  rolling  pin.  Schmidt,  however,  in  the 
article  previously  mentioned  (Hermes  37,  p.  365).  says,  '  Der 
Name  bezeichnet  das  Aussehen  des  Mannes.' 

Cario,  Greek  Ka/nW,  Miles,  1397,  is  found  in  Greek  Com- 
edy, and  is  a  common  name  for  slaves.  Compare  Aristophanes, 
Plutus,  1100  ff.  It  is  the  name  of  a  cook  in  Euphorion,  quoted 
by  Athenaeus,  ix,  377,  d.  In  Latin  it  is  also  found  as  the 
name  of  a  slave  in  Petronius,  Satirae,  71,  5.  It  occurs  as  a 
i  cognomen  '  in  C.  I.  L.  v,  5817,  and  n,  819.  It  is  derived 
from  Ka'p,  and  is  a  formation  in  i<ov,  see  Fick-Bechtel,  op.  cit.f 
p.  342,  hence  means  a  little  Carian  or  is  contemptuous.  For 
meaning  compare  also  the  following  lines,  Kock,  m,  481  : 


AuSol  Trovrjpol,  Sevrepoi  £' 

rpiroi  8e  irdvTcov  Ka/oe?  efa)XeicrTaTot. 


Besides  the  names  of  cooks  in  Plautus,  several  of  the  others 
found  in  literature  seem  to  be  used  for  comic  effect,  or  as  in- 
dicative of  the  calling.  In  Petronius,  Cena  Trimalchionis, 
70,  Trimalchio  fittingly  named  his  cook  Daedalus,  for  accord- 
ing to  his  master's  story  he  could  make  a  fish  from  the  paunch 
of  a  pig,  a  wood  pigeon  from  fat  bacon,  a  turtle  dove  from  a 
ham,  and  a  fowl  from  the  knuckle  bone.  Daedalus  is  always 
the  name  of  an  artist  of  some  kind,  and  here  it  is  a  kitchen 
expert.  In  Pausanias,  ix,  3,  2,  Daedalus  the  father  of  Icarus 


Roman  Cooks  31 

is  mentioned  from  whom  a  line  of  artists  in  Athens  and  Crete 
bore  the  name.  Cf.  Homer,  II. ,  xvm,  592 ;  Herodotus,  vn, 
170;  Xenophon,  Memorabilia,  iv,  2,  33.  In  later  times  it  is 
the  name  of  a  Bithynian  artist,  and  of  others  also.  Indeed, 
the  name  seems  to  have  passed  almost  into  a  proverb  for  one 
who  was  skilled.  Hence  Trimalchio  called  his  cook  Daedalus. 
A  Greek  udyeipos  bears  this  name  in  Athenaeus,  vn,  293,  a. 
See  also  Philostephanus,  Kock,  m,  393.  Schmidt,  op.  cit., 
p.  185,  says,  '  Bedeutet  es  so  viel  wie  Tausendkiinstler.' 

In  Apuleius,  Metamorphoses,  9,  2,  Hephaestio  reminds  us 
once  more  of  the  frequent  association  of  cooks  with  the  god 
of  fire.  For  this  compare  the  passages  referred  to  under  An- 
thrax, and  also  Scaenicae  Romanorum  Poesis  Fragmenta, 
Naevius,  Fragmenta  Incerta,  xiv: 

Cocus  edit  Neptunum,  Cererem, 

Et  Venerem  expertam,  Volcanom,  Liberumque  obsorbuit 
Pariter. 

In  Martial,  i,  50,  we  get  two  fanciful  names  for  cooks,  Mistyl- 
los  and  Taratalla.  These  come  from  a  meaningless  pun  on 
Homer,  II.  i,  465.  Compare  also  II.  n,  428,  and  Od.  m,  462. 

Another  cook's  name  recorded  in  literature  is  Dama,  Por- 
phyrion  on  Horace's  Satires,  i,  1.  101.  It  is  a  slave's  name 
also  in  Persius,  v,  76 ;  and  Horace,  Satires,  i,  6,  38 ;  n,  5, 
18  and  101 ;  and  n,  7,  54.  A  certain  Dama  is  the  son  of  a 
baker,  Martial,  vi,  39,  11  and  the  name  is  also  found  in 
Martial,  xir,  17,  10.  Another  Dama  is  a  '  conviva  '  at  the  Cena 
TrimalcJiionis,  Petronius,  41.  As  the  context  in  which  it  is 
found  shows,  the  name  is  usually  a  slave-name. 

Menogenes,  Pliny,  N.  H.  vn,  54,  and  Valerius  Maximus,  ix, 
14,  2,  is  the  cook  of  Pompeius  Strabo.  Among  the  Romans 
this  too  is  a  name  of  slaves  and  a  cognomen  of  f reedmen.  Com- 
pare C.  I.  L.  m,  391;  C.  I.  L.  xiv,  3959;  Epliem.  Epigr.  v, 
p.  55,  139.  In  Martial,  xir,  82,  Menogenes  is  the  name  of 
s  famous  parasite,  and  in  Yal.  Max.  9,  145,  is  referred  to  as 
the  name  of  an  actor. 


I 

32  Roman  Cooks 

The  names  of  cooks  in  literature  are,  as  we  may  judge  from 
these  examples,  in  the  main  fanciful.  They  are  used  for 
comic  effect,  and  often  suggest  the  occupation  of  the  owner. 
They  are  often  taken  from  slaves'  names  in  Greek  Comedy, 
and  are  in  several  cases  the  same  as  those  of  cooks  found  there. 
We  can  draw  few  if  any  conclusions  from  them,  because  of 
their  fanciful  nature.  On  the  contrary,  when  we  consider 
names  on  stone  we  are  sure  that  we  are  dealing  with  actual  fact. 
These  old  Roman  cooks  whom  the  Latin  authors  usually  con- 
sidered of  too  little  importance  to  give  passing  mention  have 
left  in  the  inscriptions  a  truthful  record  both  of  their  own 

names,  and  also  of  certain  members  of  their  families. 

i 

NAMES  IN  INSCRIPTIONS 

Let  us  consider  first  those  names  on  stone  which  are  indica- 
tive of  nationality.  It  was,  as  we  know,  a  common  custom  for 
a  slave  to  hear  the  name  of  the  country  from  which  he  came. 
While  we  have  no  cook's  name  which  tells  us  directly  the  land 
of  his  origin,  there  are  several  that  indicate  nationality  in  as 
much  as  they  are  frequently  found  in  certain  localities.  For 
example,  Adrastus,  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9263,  is  undoubtedly  an  Asia 
Minor  name.  American  Journal  of  Archaeology,  xvi,  1912, 
p.  29,  Greek  Inscriptions  from  Sardes  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Buckler 
and  Prof.  D.  M.  Robinson.  To  quote  from  this  article: 
Adrastus  is  especially  common  in  Phrygia  and  is  known  in 
Lydia.  On  coins  of  Phrygia  and  Lydia  we  find  Adrasteia 
nursing  the  infant  Zeus.  Cf.  Head,  Historia  Nummorum, 
pp.  660-667.  Strabo,  588  mentions  a  place,  Adrasteia  in 
Mysia,  which  was  named  from  King  Adrastus.  Herodotus, 
i,  35,  tells  the  story  of  a  Phrygian  nobleman  Adrastus  who  came 
to  Croesus  and  was  purified  by  him.  Pausanias,  vir,  6,  6,  9, 
mentions  a  Lydian  Adrastus.  An  Adrastus  is  found  also  on 
Carian  coins.  Among  the  Romans  Adrastus  was  a  name  of 
slaves  and  a  cognomen  of  fre^dmen  from  the  beginning  of  Im- 
perial times.  In  (7.  7.  L.  vi,  6337,  we  find  a  baker  with  this 


Roman  Cooks  33 

name.  Compare  C.  I.  L.  x,  2342.  Freedmen  are  found  C.  I.  L. 
vi,  33608,  1585,  b,  9263;  ix,  5673;  x,  741;  v,  978,  2629, 
3023;  vi,  21617;  xiv,  1623;  xn,  871;  m,  7985;  and  others. 

Arax(us)  the  name  of  the  cook  in  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9266,  suggests 
the  Araxes  river  in  Armenia,  which  flows  into  the  Caspian  Sea 
and  is  mentioned  in  Strabo,  i,  61 ;  Seneca,  Medea,  376 ;  Pro- 
pertius,  m,  12,  8,  and  iv,  3,  35.  There  was  a  king  of  Armenia 
by  this  name  from  whom  the  river  may  have  taken  its  title, 
Plutarch,  Fluv.  23.  The  Thesaurus  Linguae  Latinae  prefers, 
however,  to  consider  the  name  Araxus  from  Greek  "A  pal; 09.  As 
it  is  a  question  of  restoration,  it  is  impossible  to  say  which  was 
the  actual  name. 

C.  I.  L.  vi,  8752,  reads  '  Marcus  Aurelius  Bit.7  There  are 
two  suggestions  for  this  cognomen.  Maffei  says  Bithynicus, 
which  would  point  to  Asia  Minor,  especially  Bithynia,  as  the 
land  of  this  cook's  origin,  for  we  know  that  the  cognomen  fre- 
quently indicated  nationality.  Bithynicus  is  found  as  a  cog- 
nomen both  in  literature  and  inscriptions.  Compare  Cicero, 
Brutus,  240,  4,  '  Pompeius  A.  F.  qui  Bithynicus  est ' ;  Paulus 
ex  Festo,  De  Ponor,  354,  '  Pompeius  Bithynicus  ' ;  also  C.  L  L. 
vi,  33087,  7749,  9624;  ix,  1414,  and  others.  Mommsen,  how- 
ever, thinks  that  the  cognomen  should  be  '  Bithus/  a  Thracian 
name  often  found  in  inscriptions.  In  these  the  word  '  Bithus  ' 
is  often  followed  by  '  Thrax  >  or  <  Trax/  C.  I.  L.  vi,  2601,  3195, 
34619.  Even  l  Bithus/  although  it  is  a  Thracian  name,  may 
point  to  Bithynia  as  the  land  from  which  Marcus  Aurelius 
came,  for  Pape,  Wdrterbuch  der  gr.  Eigennamen  under  <  Bi- 
thus/ says  that  there  was  a  son  of  Zeus  by  this  name,  from 
whom  the  Bithynians  were  said  to  have  derived  their  title. 
Hence  this  cognomen  also  seems  to  point  to  Asia  Minor. 

The  next  name  which  may  suggest  nationality  is  '  Lucius 
Clodius  Antioc.  Tuscus/  C.  I.  L.  x,  5211.  The  cognomen 
'Antiochus '  was  probably  originally  this  cook's  slave-name, 
and  this  would  indicate  Syria  either  as  his  land  or  that  of  his 
ancestors.  For  '  Antiochus  ?  was  the  name  of  several  kings  of 
Syria  from  the  family  of  the  Seleucidae.  See  De  Yit's  Totius 


34  Roman  Cooks 

Latinitatis  Onomasticon,  under  the  word  i  Antiochus,'  for  their 
family  tree.  Other  kings  from  Commagene,  a  northern  pro- 
vince of  Syria,  also  bear  this  name.  Antiochia,  a  city  of  Syria 
near  the  0 rentes  river,  was  no  doubt  named  for  one  of  these 
kings.  See  Pape,  op.  cit.,  for  many  famous  Syrians  who 
were  called  '  Antiochus.'  Among  the  Romans  the  name  occurs 
rather  frequently  as  a  name  of  slaves  and  a  cognomen  of  freed- 
men,  cf.  the  Thesaurus  Linguae  Latinae  under  the  word  for 
examples. 

The  name  '  M.  Egnatius  Lugius,'  C.  I.  L.  xn,  4468,  may  also 
point  to  Asia  Minor,  for  Pape  says  that  the  Avyioi,  were  a  peo- 
ple of  Mysia,  D.  Oass.  67,  5.  Mommsen>  however,  suggests 
another  cognomen,  and  would  emend  the  inscription  [M.']l. 
Ugius  .(i.  e.  Hygius)  ?. 

'  Seleucus  Germanicus/  if  this  is  really  the  cook's  name  in 
C.  I.  L.  vi,  33767,  calls  to  mind  once  more  the  famous  Syrian 
family  of  the  Seleucidae. 

(  Oario,'  the  name  of  the  cook  in  Plautus,  Miles  Gloriosus, 
1397,  is  the  Greek  Kapfov,  derived  from  Kdp  with  the  diminu- 
tive ending  «w,  hence  may  suggest  that  this  cook  was  a  Carian. 
This  is,  however,  doubtful,  as  Cario  in  this  case  is  probably  a 
slave-name  which  is  taken  from  comedy. 

Aurelius  Zoticus,  who  had  such  influence  in  the  days  of 
Heliogabalus,  was  a  cook,  and  as  Dio  Cassius,  LXXIX,  16,  3,  tells 
us,  the  son  of  a  Smyrnean  fidyeipos. 

From  this  consideration  of  names  we  may  draw  the  conclu- 
sion that  many  cooks  or  their  ancestors  came  from  Asia  Minor 
or  the  East. 

Let  us  next  consider  the  names  of  cooks  which  contain  tha 
"'  nomina '  of  Roman  '  gentes.'  When  a  slave  was  freed  by  his 
master's  good  will,  or  when  he  purchased  his  freedom,  he  took 
as  his  '  nomen  '  the  '  nomen  '  of  his  master ;  sometimes  he  took 
also  the  '  praenomen.'  For  his  third  name  or  '  cognomen '  he 
kept  his  own  slave-name.  As  in  late  Republican  and  in  Impe- 
rial times  cooks  were  doubtless  in  the  possession  of  many  fami- 
lies, and  as  they  were  often  freed  for  their  excellent  services 


Roman  Cooks  35 

or  bought  their  independence,  we  find  in  the  names  of  these 
freedmen  those  of  the  Roman  ( gentes.' 

The  '  gens  Aelia  '  is  represented  by  two  cooks,  who  probably 
belonged  to  the  household  of  Hadrian,  t  Aelius  Ephproditus/ 
C.  I.  L.  vi,  9262 ;  and  '  T.  Aelius  Primitivus,'  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8750 
and  7458.  This  family  then,  which  counts  in  Roman  history  a 
great  number  of  illustrious  representatives,  and  from  which  the 
Antonines  sprang,  holds  among  its  humbler  claimants  our  two 
cooks  mentioned  above. 

The  '  gens  Aurelia,'  of  plebeian  origin,  which  was  consecrated 
from  all  antiquity  to  the  service  of  the  gods,  particularly  to  the 
cult  of  the  sun,  from  which  Marcus  Aurelius  sprang,  is  repre- 
sented by  an  imperial  cook,  i  Marcus  Aurelius  Bit(hus)/ 
C.  I.  L.  vi,  8752,  who  was  doubtless  very  proud  of  his  name. 

The  i  gens  Arruntia '  of  Etruscan  origin  is  represented  by 
'  Lucius  Arruntius  Hilario/  C.  I.  L.  xi,  3850. 

From  the  '  gens  Caecilia  '  we  have  '  Caecilius  Eelix,'  C.  I.  L. 
vi,  7433.  This  family  was  of  plebeian  origin,  but  after  the' 
third  century  B.  C.  it  always  occupied  a  brilliant  place  in  the 
Republic,  and  its  members  forged  a  mythological  origin.  They 
pretended  to  be  descended  from  Caeculus,  the  legendary  founder 
of  Praeneste,  who  was  called  the  son  of  Vulcan.  Another  tra- 
dition gave  them  as  an  ancestor  i  Caecus/  one  of  the  companions 
of  Aeneas. 

From  the  '  gens  Catia '  comes  '  Quintus  Catius  Hernia/ 
C.  I.  L.  xn,  4470.  This  family  is  known  both  from  Latin 
writers  and  inscriptions.  In  the  latter  it  occurs  frequently  in 
Cisalpine  Gaul  and  Narbonensis.  The  inscription  just  cited 
is  from  Narbo.  See  W.  Schulze,  Zur  GescJiiclite  lateinischer 
Eigennamen,  p.  76;  Pauly-Wissowa,  Eeal-Encyclopddie  der 
dassisclien  Aliertumswissenscliafi,  in,  1792. 

The  '  gens  Clodia,'  from  which  comes  '  Lucius  Clodius  Antioc. 
Tuscus,'  C.  I.  L.  x,  5211,  was  originally  of  the  country  of  the 
Sabines.  It  contained  a  number  of  illustrious  representatives 
who  posed  as  champions  of  the  patricians.  The  decemvir  Appius 
Claudius  comes  from  this  family,  as  did  also  the  emperors 


' 
36  Roman  CooJcs 

Tiberius  and  Claudius.  It  counted  little  for  men  of  war,  but 
rendered  immense  services  to  science  and  literature.  Cf.  De 
Vit,  Onomasticon. 

The  '  Dindia/  which  is  a  very  ancient  '  gens/  is  represented 
by  '  Artemo  Dindius/  C.  I.  L.  xiv,  2875. 

From  the  i  gens  Egnatia '  comes  '  M.  Egnatius  Lugius/ 
C.  I.  iL.  xii,  4468.  This  was  originally  from  Samnium.  It 
was  established  at  Kome  and  admitted  to  the  senate. 

Of  the  '  gens  Fuficia  ?  is  '  Marcus  Fuficius  Eros/  C.  I.  L.  vi, 
9270.  This  s,eems  to  have  been  derived  from  the  i  gens  Fufia ' 
by  adding  a  syllable.  The  '  Fufia '  was  a  very  old  plebeian 

*  gens  '  of  Campanian  origin. 

The  '  gens  Genicilia '  has  '  Gaius  Genicilius  Domesticus/ 
C.  I.  L.  vi,  9271.  This  family  is  probably  known  only  from 
inscriptions.  See  Fabretti,  p.  625,  n.  211. 

<  Gaius  lulius  Eros/  C.  I.  L.  vi,  33838  belongs  to  what  was 
regarded  as  the  most  illustrious  of  the  patrician  families.  The 
members  gave  themselves  divine  origin,  and  claimed  to  be 
descended  from  Ascanius,  the  son  of  Venus  and  Anchiaes. 

The  '  gens  Latria '  is  represented  by  '  Lucius  Latrius/ 
C.  I.  L.  xi,  3078.  This  family  seems  to  be  known  from  inscrip- 
tions only. 

From  the  patrician  (  gens  Marcia  '  comes  '  Marcius  Faustus/ 
(7.  I.  L.  ix,,  3938.  The  members  of  this  family  boasted  counting 
among  their  ancestors  the  kings  Numa  Pompilius  and  Ancus 
Marcius. 

According  to  Orelli,  7227,  from  the  '  gens  Plotia'  we  have 
'  Lucius  Plotius.'  From  the  time  of  C.  Plotius  who  obtained 
the  consulship  in  358  B.  C.  the  Plotii  occupied  high  offices  in 
the  Republic.  Lucius  is  one  of  their  regular  '  praenomina.7 

1  Marcus  Valerius  Optatus/  C.  I.  L.  v,  2544,  belongs  to  the 

*  gens  Valeria.'     This  was  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  most 
illustrious  families.     From  245  B.  C.  to  the  end  of  the  Imperial 
period  it  occupied  a  prominent  place  in  Roman  history.     Sev- 
eral emperors  were  descended  from  it. 

In  addition  to  the  above  Roman  '  gentes  ?  which  we  may  be 
sure  possessed  cooks,  because  their  names  are  found  as  the  '  nom- 


Roman  Cooks  37 

ina '  of  cooks,  several  other  families  are  given  in  the  '  cogno- 
mina '  of  men  of  the  same  calling.  When  a  slave  passed  from  one 
master  to  another  by  sale  or  inheritance,  or  a  '  libertns '  from 
one  patron  to  another,  he  received  a  i  cognomen '  which  was 
formed  of  the  name  of  his  previous  master  or  patron  com- 
pounded with  t  anus  '  to  show  whence  he  came.  This  is  almost 
the  only  class  of  i  cognomina '  of  whose  origin  we  can  be  cer- 
tain, says  Emil  Hiibner  in  his  article  on  Romische  Epigraphik, 
Miiller's  Handbuch,  Vol.  i,  p.  515.  Several  families  are  repre- 
sented thus  in  the  names  of  our  cooks.  The  i  gens  Cornuficia ' 
has  '  Eros  Cornufi(cianus),'  C.  7.  L.  vi,  8753 ;  the  '  gens  Sestia, 
Photio  Sestianus/  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8754 ;  and  the  '  gens  Barbia, 
Hilarus  Barbianus,'  C.  I.  L.  vi,  6247. 

The  study  of  the  '  gentes  '  which  our  cooks  represent  and  by 
whose  members  they  were  freed  may  be  useless.  It  will  be  noted, 
however,  that  the  families  represented  above  are  usually  the 
more  prominent  of  the  Roman  '  gentes.7  While  members  of  the 
more  obscure  families  of  course  had  cooks,  it  seems  probable 
that  they  were  generally  slaves,  and  that  freedmen  as  cooks 
usually  occur  in  the  more  distinguished  or  imperial  families, 
although  they,  too,  had  both  slaves  and  '  liberti.'  It  is  probable 
that  prominent  families  had  more  skilled  cooks,  men  who  for 
this  reason  were  better  able  to  purchase  or  win  their  freedom. 


ADDITIONAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON 

Cooks'  names  with  few  exceptions  are  originally  Greek 
names.  Of  course,  when  the  cook  was  a  '  libertus,'  his  (  nomen  ' 
and  '  praenomen  '  are  Roman,  but  his  '  cognomen/  which  shows 
his  original  name,  was  nearly  always  Greek.  Latin  '  cogno- 
mina '  are  '  Domesticus,  Faustus,  Felix,  Optatus,  Primitivus/ 
and  '  Tuscus.'  All  the  rest  are  Greek.  In  cases  where  the 
cook  was  a  slave,  hence  had  only  one  name,  '  Firmus '  and 
f  Santra  ? '  are  the  only  Latin  ones.  The  '  cognomina  '  of  cooks 
as  we  find  them  in  inscriptions  may  be  classed  under  thr.ee  or 
four  heads : 


38  Roman  Cooks 

1.  Those  which  may  indicate  nationality — Antiochus,  Bi- 
thus,  Lugius,  Tuseus; 

2.  Those  which  show  whence  the   cook  was   procured — 
Barbianus,  Cornufic(ianus),  Sestianus; 

3.  Those  which  seem  to  refer  to  the  cooks'  occupation  or 
character — Domesticus,  Faustus,  Felix,   Optatus,   and  Primi- 
tivus; 

4.  Other  cognomina,  Eros,  Epaphroditus. 

In  (7.  /.  L.  vi,  33838,  we  find  a  cook  Gaius  lulius  Eros,  a 
'  libertus '  of  Polybius.  Gaius  lulius  Polybius  is  a  common 
name  at  Pompeii.  It  occurs  in  (7.  I.  L.  iv,  108,  133,  146,  523, 
909,  316,  94,  99,  113,  121,  132,  134,  147,  271,  429,  699,  875, 
886,  973,  1050,  1226,  258,  1060. 

It  is  possible  that  this  cook  was  freed  in  Pompeii  by  his 
master,  and,  after  gaining  his  freedom  traveled  to  Rome,  took 
up  his  abode  there  and  died  there. 


Roman  Cooks  39 

CHAPTER  VI 
THE  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  COOKS 


As  a  rule  cooks  in  ancient  Rome  appear  to  have  the  same 
general  characteristics  as  their  more  or  less  direct  prototypes  in 
Greek  Comedy.  This  is  what  we  should  naturally  expect  in 
Plautus,  for  while  there  were  no  doubt  professional  cooks  in 
Rome  in  his  day,  and  while  he  to  a  certain  extent  described  the 
members  of  this  calling  as  he  saw  them  in  his  own  city,  it  is  no 
less  certainly  true,  that  in  this  as  in  all  else  he  dr,ew  largely 
on  his  Greek  originals. 

As  depicted  in  comedy,  Greek  cooks  were  boastful.  Rankin 
in  the  work  previously  cited,  p.  77,  says  that  along  with  the 
physicians  of  ancient  times,  the  pdryeipos,  appears  to  have  been 
the  a\a£o>v  '  par  excellence/  He  boasts  of  skill  in  many  sciences 
besides  his  own,  namely,  astronomy,  military  tactics,  architec- 
ture, geometry,  painting,  and  medicine ;  and  says  that  the  train- 
ing in  his  own  art  is  not  a  matter  of  two  short  years,  but  of  a 
lifetime.  He  boasts,  too,  of  his  ability  to  please  men  of  all 
nationalities,  and  claims  to  study  not  only  the  tastes  but  also 
the  temperaments  of  his  guests.  One  member  of  the  profession, 
Athenaeus,  iv,  169,  d,  makes  this  claim  for  his  skill  that  when 
sojourning  in  Italy  he  learned  to  cook  with  such  dexterity  that 
at  times  he  made  all  the  guests  eagerly  lay  hold  of  the  dishes 
with  their  teeth.  Athenaeus,  vn,  290,  c,  quotes  another  as 
saying,  '  When  men  return  from  funerals  I  take  the  lids  from 
my  saucepans,  and  the  weeping  partakers  thereof  I  clothe  with 
smiling  faces.  I  have  known  many  who  because  of  me  have 
eaten  their  whole  estates.'  That  the  Greek  cook  was  thievish  is 
shown  by  the  speech  of  a  cook  to  his  pupils  in  Dionysius's  drama 
'O/JLwvvfjioi,  quoted  Athenaeus,  ix,  381,  d,  '  For/  says  he, 
'  They'll  count  the  joints  they  give  you,  and  they'll  watch  you.' 


I 

40  •    Roman  Cooks 

Many  other  passages  might  be  cited  to  show  the  rivalry  among 
members  of  the  profession,  the  pride  in  their  art,  and  the  respect 
considered  due  it,  for  one  claims  that  civilization  arose  from 
payeipiKri  T€%VT),  M.,  iv,  557;  K.,  in,  369.  Other  qualities 
which  Greek  cooks  possessed  were  ingenuity,  wit,  ability  to 
adapt  themselves  to  various  situations,  curiosity,  and  skill  in 
the  preparation  of  special  dishes;  but  as  we  are  concerned 
chiefly  with  Roman  cooks,  what  has  been  said  about  their  proto- 
types will  be  sufficient.  For  fuller  details  on  this  point,  consult 
Rankin  in  the  work  previously  cited,  especially  chapter  xi, 
Characteristics  of  the  Mdyeipoi' 

Let  us  consider  now  the  qualities  which  Roman  cooks  pos- 
sessed. As  in  Greek  culinary  artists,  the  boastful  tendency  is 
still  found.  Ballio,  Pseudolus»  790  fF.  sums  up  the  characteris- 
tics of  members  of  this  profession  as  follows : 

Forum  coquinum  qui  vocant,  stulte  vocant : 
Nam  non  coquinumst,  verum  furinumst  forum. 
Nam  ego  si  iuratus  peiorem  hominem  quaererem 
Coqum  non  potui  quam  hunc  quern  duco  ducere 
Multilocum,  gloriosum,  insulsum,  inutilem. 
Quin  ob  earn  rem  Orcus  recipere  ad  se  hunc  noluit, 
Ut  esset  hie  qui  mortui  cenam  coquat; 

Here  we  find  '  gloriosum  '  one  of  the  prominent  characteris- 
tics. The  cook  lives  up  to  his  reputation,  828  if.,  when  he  says, 

Audacter  dicito ; 

Nam  vel  ducenos  annos  poterunt  vivere 
Meas  qui  .essitabunt  escas  quas  condivero. 
Nam  ego  cocilendrum  quando  in  patinas  indidi 
Aut  cepolendrum  aut  maccidem  aut  saucaptidem, 
Eaepsae  sese  patinae  fervefaciunt  ilico. 

In  840  ff.  he  boasts  that  Jupiter  himself  sups  on  the  odors  from 
his  saucepans,  and  that  when  he  does  not  cook  the  king  of  gods 
goes  to  bed  hungry. 


Roman  Cooks  41 

Ubi  omnes  patinae  f  ervont,  omnis  aperio  : 
Is  odos  dimissis  pedibus  in  caelum  volat. 
Eum  odorem  cenat  Juppiter  cottidie. 

Ballio  remarks  scornfully,  845, 

Si  nusquam  is  coctum,  quidnam  cenat  luppiter? 
The  cooks'  replies, 

It  incenatus  cubitum. 

Lines  848  and  849  also  show  his  full  appreciation  of  his  own 
merit  ; 

Fateor  equidem  esae  me  coquom  carissumum  ;. 
Verum  pro  pretio  f  acio  ut  opera  adpareat 
Mea  quo  conductus  venio. 

That  his  employer  is  not  so  confident  of  getting  value  received 
is  the  implication  of  his  reply, 

Ad  furandum  quidem. 

Lines  868  ff.  this  same  cook  continues  his  boastful  strain,  and 
proudly  displays  his  knowledge  of  Greek  mythology, 

Quia  sorbitione  f  aciam  ego  hodie  te  mea, 
Item  ut  Medea  Peliam  concoxit  senem, 
Quern  medicamento  £t  suis  venenis  dicitur 
Fecisse  rursus  ex  sene  adulescentulum, 
Item  ego  te  f  aciam. 

Again,  881  if.,  he  boasts  of  his  skill  in  his  art, 


ego  ita  convivis  cenam  conditam  dabo 
Hodie  atque  ita  suavi  suavitate  condiam: 
Ut  quisque  quidque  conditum  gustaverit, 
Ipsus  sibi  faciam  ut  digitos  praerodat  suos. 


• 
42  Roman  Cooks 

We  may  be  sure  that  cooks  boasted  in  later  times  also,  espe- 
cially when  we  recall  the  treatment  which  they  received  at  the 
hands  of  gourmands,  who  for  some  special  service  rendered  their 
palates,  permitted  the  cook  to  enter  the  festive  halls,  allowed 
him  to  mimic  the  tragic  actor  Ephesus,  and  to  offer  a  bet  to  his 
master  that  the  greens  would  win  at  the  next  show  in  the  circus, 
cf.  Petronius,  Cena  Trimalchionis,  70. 

The  thievish  propensities  of  cooks  are  emphasized  even  more 
in  Plautus  than  in  Greek  literature.  As  has  been  said,  Ballio, 
Pseudolus,  790,  affirms  that  the  '  forum  coquinum '  should  be 
called  the  market  of  thieves  instead.  In  the  same  play,  851, 
the  cook  admits  that  stealing  is  a  fault  common  to  men  of  his 
calling, 

An  tu  invenire  postulas  quemquam  coquom 
Nisi  milvinis  aut  aquilinis  ungulis? 

Their  employers  were  fully  conscious  of  this  defect  in  their 
character,  hence  took  every  possible  precaution  in  order  to 
guard  themselves  against  it.  Pseudolus,  855ff.,  Ballio  gives 
his  boy  orders  for  keeping  a  sharp  watch  on  the  cook, 

$Func  adeo  tu,  qui  meus  es,  iam  edico  tibi 

Ut  nostra  properes  amoliri  hinc  omnia, 

Turn  ut  huius  oculos  in  oculis  habeas  tuis : 

Quoquo  hie  spectabit,  eo  tu  spectato  simul ; 

Si  quo  hie  gradietur,  pariter  (tu)  progredimino ; 

Manum  si  protollet,  pariter  prof erto  manum : 

Suum  siquid  sumet,  id  tu  sinito  sumere; 

Si  nostrum  sumet,  tu  teneto  altrinsecus. 

Si  iste  ibit,  ito:  stabit,  astato  simul; 

Si  conquiniscet  istic,  conquiniscito. 

Item  his  discipulis  privos  custodes  dabo. 

Note  also  Aulularia,  363-370.  Even  the  closest  watching  was 
not  a  safeguard  against  such  clever  rogues,  according  to  ths 
words  of  Euclio,  Aulularia,  551  ff., 


Roman  Cooks  43 

Mihi  omnis  angulos 

Furum  implevisti  in  aedibus  misero  mihi ; 
Qui  mi  intromisti  in  aedibus  quingentos  cocos 
Cum  senis  manibus  genere  Geryonaceo; 
Quos  si  Argus  servet,  qui  oculeus  totus  fuit, 
Quem  quondam  lovi  luno  custodem  addidit, 
Is  numquam  servet. 

This,  however,  must  be  regarded  as  an  exaggerated  statement 
of  the  case  by  a  miser  who  thought  that  everyone  was  looking 
for  his  precious  gold.  In  Aulularia,  344  and  345,  the  only 
conditions  are  given  under  which  a  cook  could  refrain  from 
stealing: 

Quod  te  scio 
Facile  abstinere  posse,  si  nil  obviamst. 

In  the  houses  of  the  wealthy,  however, 

Si  perierit  quippiam, 

Dicant,  coqui  abstulerunt;  comprehendite, 
Vincite,  verberate,  in  puteum  condite. 
Horum  tibi  istic  nil  eveniet ;  quippe  qui 
Ubi  quid  subripias,  nil  est. 

The  words  of  the  cook  in  the  Mercator  indicate  that  in  ancient 
days  as  well  as  in  modern  times  food  from  an  employer's  pantry 
often  found  its  way  to  the  cook's  larder,  Mercator,  741  ff., 

Agite  ite  actutum,  nam  mihi  amatori  seni 
Coquendast  cena:  Atque,  quom  recogito, 
Kobis  coquendast,  non  quoi  conducti  sumus, 
Nam  qui  amat  quod  amat  si  habet,  id  habet  pro  cibo. 
Sed  nos  confido  onustos  redituros  domum. 

Cooks  in  Plautus  were  not  the  only  ones  who  went  home  loaded, 
according  to  a  story  which  is  told  by  Apuleius,  Metamorphoses, 
x,  13.  The  unfortunate  Lucius,  in  the  form  of  a  donkey,  has 


44  Roman  Cooks 

the  good  luck  to  become  the  property  of  two  brothers  who  are 
the  slaves  of  a  wealthy  personage.  One  was  a  '  pistor  dulci- 
arius  '  who  made  bread  and  sweetmeats,  the  other  a  cook  who 
dressed  rich  stews,  which  were  seasoned  with  the  relishing 
juices  of  pounded  herbs  and  aromatics.  '  In  the  evening/  says 
Lucius,  i  after  the  supper,  which  was  always  on  a  magnificent 
scale,  my  masters  were  in  the  habit  of  bringing  home  to  their 
little  room  numerous  fragments  that  were  left.  The  one  brought 
large  quantities  of  roast  pig,  chickens,  fish,  and  other  delicate 
dishes;  the  other  brought  bread,  pastry,  sugar  plums,  hook 
cakes,  lizard  cakes,  and  many  kinds  of  honied  sweetmeats.' 
When  his  masters  were  not  present,  Lucius  feasted  upon  these 
dainties.  Since  the  thievish  cooks  did  not  suppose  that  a 
donkey  relished  food  of  this  kind,  naturally  each  suspected  the 
other  of  stealing  his  booty. 

Besides  taking  large  quantities  of  food  to  their  homes,  the 
host  of  cooks  in  the  kitchen  probably  enjoyed  samples,  the 
result  of  their  own  skill,  before  passing  them  on  to  the  guests. 
Compare  the  passage  in  the  Aulularia,  363-368,  where  Pythodi- 
cus,  the  slave  who  seems  to  be  in  charge  of  the  cooks  says, 

Ego  intervisam  quid  faciant  coqui: 
Quos  pol  ut  ego  hodie  servem  cura  maxumast. 
Nisi  unum  hoc  faciam,  ut  in  puteo  cenam  coquant: 
Inde  coctam  sursum  subducemus  corbulis. 
Si  autem  deorsum  comedent,  siquid  coxerint, 
Superi  incenati  sunt,  et  cenati  inferi. 

Ausonius,  Ephemeris,  vi,  Locus  Ordinandi  Coqui,  describes  the 
gentle  pleasure  with  which  the  cook  tastes  the  plates  of  his  own 
making, 

An  vegeto  madeant  condita  opsonia  gustu 
(Fallere  namque  solent)  experiundo  proba. 
Concute  ferventes  palmis  volventibus  ollas, 
Tinge  celer  digitos  iure  calente  tuos 
Vibranti  lambat  quos  umida  lingua  recursu. 


Roman  Cooks  45 

However,  a  Pompeian  '  graffito '  paints  the  cook's  condition 
under  colors  less  favorable,  for  it  says,  C.  I.  L.  iv,  1896, 

Ubi  perna  cocta  est  si  convivae  apponitur 

Non  gustat  pernam.     Lingit  ollam  aut  caccabum. 

Another  evidence  that  cooks  were  thieves  is  found  in  Plau- 
tus,  Casino,,  720  ff.  Olympio  calls  the  cook's  assistants  briars. 
Citrio,  the  cook,  replies, 

Qui  vero  hi  sunt  sentis? 
Olympio  says, 

Quia  quod  tetigere,  ilico  rapiunt;  si  eas  ereptum,  ilico 

scindunt. 
Ita  quoquo  adveniunt,  ubi  sunt  duplici  damno  dominos 

multant. 

Not  only  did  cooks  steal,  but  their  patron  goddess  even  was 
Laverna,  the  goddess  of  thieves,  for  in  Plautus,  Aulularia,  445, 
Gongrio  says, 

Ita  me  bene  amet  Laverna. 

Paulus  ex  Festo,  De  Ponor  under  '  Laverniones '  tells  us,  '  La- 
verniones  fures  antiqui  dicebant,  quod  sub  tutela  deae  Lavernae 
essent.7  The  only  story  that  we  have  of  an  honest  cook  is  the 
one  told  by  Augustinus,  De  Civitate  Dei,  xxii,  8.  A  certain 
cook  (  Cattosus  '  found  an  '  anulum  aureum  in  ventriculo  piscis, 
miseratione  flexus  et  religione  perterritus  homini  eum  reddidit ' 
who  sold  him  the  fish. 

C.  I.  L.  vi,  49,  gives  a  characteristic  which  cooks  should 
possess.  Whether  they  really  conformed  to  this  fitting  standard 
is  another  question. 

Bacchum  et  Sylenum  sobrios  vides 
Sic  cocum  decet. 

In  Greek  Comedy,  scenes  which  were  composed  of  the  jests 
of  cooks  were  frequently  introduced.  These  were  similar  to 


46  Roman  Cooks 

Pseudolus,  ui,  2.  Athenaeus,  xiv,  659,  says,  fjidXta-ra  yap 
ela-dyovrat,  (sc.  ev  Ty  veq  x&fjuoSia)  ol  fjidyeipoi,  ar/ccoTTTiKOi  nve<s. 
Koman  cooks  also  were  fond  of  jokes,  and  somewhat  given  to 
puns.  In  Plautus,  M&rcator,  748  fL,  the  cook,  who  has  been 
hired  by  Lysimachus  to  dress  a  dinner  for  his  sweetheart,  meets 
the  old  gentleman  on  the  street,  with  his  wife,  and  thoroughly 
enjoys  the  discomfiture  to  which  he  puts  him,  as  he  slyly 
reveals  the  situation  to  the  jealous  wife:  that  her  husband  had 
employed  him  to  prepare  a  dinner  for  another  woman,  that  he 
had  said  that  his  wife,  whom  he  loathed  as  a  serpent,  was  in  the 
country.  The  old  man  is  at  his  wits'  end  and  can  only  say, 
762, 

Ita  me  amabit  luppiter, 
Uxor,  ut  ego  illud  numquam  deixi. 

In  line  768  the  cook  slyly  remarks, 
Nisi  metuis  tu  istanc. 

In  the  Menaechmi,  220,  Cylindrus  is  directed  to  buy  provis- 
ions for  three  guests.  He  inquires  who  they  are,  and  on  being 
told  that  one  is  a  parasite,  he  replies, 

lam  isti  sunt  decem 
Nam  parasitus  octo  hominum  munus  facile  fungitur. 

Note  also  Aulularia,  280,  where  for  the  sake  of  a  pun  the  cook 
perhaps  wilfully  misunderstands, 

Strobilus — Postquam  obsonavit  ,erus  et  conduxit  coquos, 
Tibicinasque  hasce,  apud  forum,  edixit  mini, 
Ut  dispertirem  obsonium  hie  bifariam 

Anthrax  the  cook  replies, 

Me  quidem  Hercle  dicam  palam  non  divides. 
Siquo  tu  totum  me  ire  vis,  operam  dabo. 

Congrio,  Aulularia,,  325  calls  his  colleagues  in  the  culinary  art 
a  man  of  three  letters, 


Roman  Cooks  47 

Tun  trium  litterarum  homo  me  vituperas  ?    fur. 

In  Aulularia,  413,  even  under  trying  circumstances,  Congrio 
has  enough  sense  of  humor  left  to  play  on  the  word  ( ligna,'  as 
meaning  logs  for  his  fire,  rather  than  blows  for  his  back, 

Neque  ligna  ego  usquam  gentium  praeberi  vidi  pulcrius, 
Itaque  omnis  exegit  foras  me  atque  hos  onustos  fustibus. 

When  the  cook  in  the  Miles  Gloriosus,  Act  V,  is  called  in  with 
his  knife  to  settle  the  fate  of  the  boastful  soldier,  he  enters 
heartily  into  the  grim  humor  of  the  situation,  and  when  advised 
to  see  that  his  knife  is  sharp,  replies,  1398, 

Quin  iam  dudum  gestit  moecho  hoc  abdomen  adimere, 
Faciam  uti  quasi  puero  in  collo  pendeant  crepundia. 

It  will  only  be  necessary  to  mention  a  few  of  the  dishes  which 

cooks  were  credited  with  concocting,  in  order  to  prove  that 

ingenuity  was  one  of  their  characteristics.     Euphron,  M.  iv, 

494;   K.   m,  323,   tells  the  story  of  a  cook,   Soterides,  who 

deceived  a  king  by  his  clever  cooking.     It  was  winter,  and  the 

sea  was  far  away,  but  the  king  of  Bithynia  was  seized  by  a 

longing  for  anchovies.    Soterides  therefore  prepared  and  cooked 

turnips  in  such  a  way  as  to  imitate  the  desired  dainties,  and 

so  quenched  the  king's  passion  for  fish.     There  were  Roman 

cooks  also  who  were  equally  skilled,  and  when  we  read  of  some 

of  their  dishes,  we  do  not  wonder  that  Seneca  blamed  them  for 

most  of  the  maladies  from  which  the  rich  Romans  suffered. 

He  says,  Epistulae  ad  Lueilium,  95,  23,  '  Innumerabiles  esse 

morbcs  non  miraberis:  cocos  numera.'     Martial,  xi,  31,  speaks 

of  a  cook  who  prepared  gourds  so  ingeniously  that  you  would 

fancy  you  saw  lentils  and  beans  on  the  table.     Moreover,  from 

them  he  created  sausages,  fish,  mushrooms,  and  many  other 

things.     Trimalchio,     Petronius,    Cena,   70,   named  his   cook 

Daedalus  because  he  was  such  a  wonder  worker  in  the  art  of 

dressing  and  transforming  foods.     '  Cocks  and  pheasants  and 

such  bagatelles,'  says  Trimalchio,  47,  '  are  jobs  for  country- 


48  Roman  Cooks 

bred  cooks.  Mine  are  in  the  habit  of  sending  a  calf  boiled 
whole  to  the  table.'  One  of  his  cooks  dressed  a  whole  boar,  in 
a  remarkably  short  time,  for  his  master's  banquet,  and  stuffed 
it  with  puddings  and  sausages,  Cena,  49.  When  another  pig 
which  had  been  roasted  in  the  same  kitchen  was  carved,  thrushes 
flew  out  about  the  dining  room.  One  dish  which  was  served  on 
Trimalchio's  table  looked  at  first  sight  like  a  fat  goose  sur- 
rounded by  fish  and  fowls  of  all  sorts,  but  the  master  declared, 
*'  My  cook  has  made  all  this  out  of  a  pig  ...  he  will  make  you 
a  fish  from  the  paunch,  a  wood  pigeon  from  the  fat  bacon,  a 
turtle  dove  from  the  gammon,  and  a  fowl  from  the  shoulder.' 
Many  of  the  stories  in  Petronius  are,  no  doubt,  fanciful;  yet 
we  have  only  to  read  the  work  of  Apicius,  and  the  recipes  in 
Martial,  to  be  convinced  that  Koman  cooks  were  quite  capable 
of  such  feats  of  ingenuity.  In  earlier  times  the  tragic  actor 
Aesopus  was  celebrated  for  his  dish  of  singing  birds  which  cost 
him  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  sesterces,  Pliny,  N.  H. 
x,  141;  xxxv,  163. 

Suetonius,  Vitellius,  xm,  tells  of  a  feast  which  that  em- 
peror gave  upon  the  first  use  of  a  dish  which  had  been  made  for 
him,  which  because  of  its  extraordinary  size  he  called  The 
Shield  of  Minerva.  In  this  wonderful  dish  there  were  tossed 
together  the  livers  of  fish,  the  brains  of  pheasants  and  peacocks, 
with  the  tongues  of  flamingoes,  and  the  .entrails  of  lampreys, 
which  had  been  brought  in  ships  of  war  as  far  as  from  the 
Carpathian  Sea.  Certainly  no  one  would  accuse  of  lack  of  im- 
agination a  cook  who  could  conceive  of  or  compound  such  a  mix- 
ture. Many  other  strange  dishes  might  be  described,  but  this 
is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  cookery  of  the  Romans.  At 
some  later  time  I  hope  to  work  up  carefully  the  whole  subject 
of  Roman  dishes.  At  present  just  a  few  have  been  mentioned, 
to  show  that  ingenuity  must  have  been  one  of  the  characteristics 
of  the  Roman  cook. 

Noise  and  turmoil  often  reigned  supreme  in  the  kitchen,  and 
cooks  were  frequently  inclined  to  quarrel  about  their  respective 
merits.  In  the  Aulularia,  403,  Congrio  says, 


Roman  Cooks  49 

Sed  quid  hoc  clamoris  oritur  hinc  ex  proxumo  ? 
Coqui  hercle,  credo,  faciunt  officium  suom. 
Fugiam  intro,  ne  quid  turbae  hie  itidem  fuat. 

In  the  same  play,  324  f.,  the  two  cooks  get  into  a  dispute  and 
Anthrax  says  of  Congrio, 

Coquos  ille  nundinalist,  in  nonum  diem 
Solet  ire  coctum. 

Congrio  replies, 

Tun,  trium  litterarum  homo, 
Me  vituperas?     fur. 

Anthrax  retorts, 

Etiam  fur,  trifurcifer. 

We  have  seen  already  how  the  cook  in  the  Pseudolus,  808  fL, 
disparages  other  members  of  his  calling.  Not  only  did  cooks 
quarrel  among  themselves,  but  they  seemed  to  enjoy  creating  a 
domestic  disturbance  of  any  kind.  Compare  the  scene  in  the 
Casino,,  759  if.,  where  they  overturn  the  kettles  and  pour  water 
on  the  fire  to  keep  the  old  man  from  having  his  dinner.  In  the 
Pseudolus,  889,  Ballio  chides  the  cook  whom  he  has  hired  for 
his  prating  and  says, 

Molestus  ne  sis;  nimium  iam  tinnis;  tace. 

If,  then,  we  conjure  up  a  mental  image  of  the  average  Roman 
cook,  we  get  anything  but  an  attractive  personage.  He  was  a 
noisy,  prating,  impertinent,  old  fellow,  probably  fat  with  feed- 
ing on  stolen  dainties  from  his  master's  provisions.  His  face 
was  covered  with  smut,  his  locks  polluted  with  greasy  soot, 
and  his  clothes  steeped  in  the  odor  of  the  kitchen.  This  disagree- 
able feature  seems  to  have  been  almost  proverbial  as  the  passage 
in  Petronius,  Cena  Trimalchionis\f  2  shows :  '  Qui  inter  haec 
nutriuntur  non  magis  sapere  possunt,  quam  bene  olere  qui  in 

4 


50 


Roman  Cooks 


culina  habitant.'  At  his  side  or  in  his  hand  was  the  ever-present 
knife.  These  were,  however,  occasional  exceptions  when  his 
appearance  was  more  pleasing,  for  Martial,  XH,  64,  tells  us 
that  Cinna  appointed  as  cook  one  of  his  rosy  attendants  who 
surpassed  all  others  in  beauty  of  features  and  hair,  and  again, 
x,  66,  he  mentions  a  handsome  youth,  Theopompus,  who  became 
a  cook. 

While  many  of  the  characteristics  of  Greek  and  Roman  cooks 
are  the  same,  although  the  latter  is  boastful,  he  does  not  have 
the  same  respect  for  his  art  that  the  former  did,  and  it  is 
probable  that  cooking  was  always  regarded  as  a  more  menial 
calling  in  Rome  than  in  Greece. 


Roman  Cooks  51 

CHAPTER  VII 
THE    COST    OF    COOKS 

Before  the  days  of  Plautus  the  cost  of  cooks  was  probably  a 
matter  of  very  little  importance  even  in  the  homes  of  the  wealth- 
ier Romans.  As  has  been  already  said,  .up  to  that  time  the  daily 
cooking  was  usually  done  by  the  i  matronae '  or  the  ordinary 
slaves,  and  the  cook  was,  as  Livy  puts  it,  '  vilissimum  manci- 
pium.'  Even  in  the  time  of  Plautus,  if  we  can  trust  his  plays, 
when  a  professional  cook  was  hired  from  the  '  macellum '  for 
the  preparation  of  an  entertainment,  the  price  paid  him  was 
abnormally  small.  This  seems  especially  true  when  we  remem- 
ber that  he  brought  with  him  his  assistants  and  the  necessary 
kitchen  utensils.  Reference  is  made  to  the  latter  Aulularia, 
445,  where  the  cook  says, 

Ita  me  bene  Laverna  (uti)  te  iam  nisi  reddi 
Mihi  vasa  iubes,  pipulo  te  hie  differam  ante  aedis. 

Mercator,  781,  the  cook,  when  leaving,  says, 

Haec  vassa  aut  mox  aut  eras  iubebo  abs  te  peti. 

In  Plautus  the  regular  price  paid  a  professional  cook  for  the 
preparation  of  an  entertainment  was  a  drachma.  In  the  Mer- 
cator,  777,  the  cook  demands  his  pay,  saying,  '  Give  me  a 
drachma.7  The  passage  following  this  seems  to  indicate  that 
it  was  not  always  an  easy  matter  for  a  cook  to  collect  what  was 
due  him,  and  that  he  accepted  no  promises  but  cash  alone,  for 
he  refuses  to  be  off  until  he  receives  his  money.  Pseudolus, 
808  ff.,also  shows  that  the  price  paid  to  the  average  cook  was  a 
drachma,  but  that  there  were  special  artists  in  the  profession 
who  valued  their  services  more  highly  and  who  charged  a 
•'  nummus.'  Ramsay,  in  his  edition  of  the  Mostellaria  of  Plau- 


52  Roman  Cooks 

tus,  p.  247,  proves  that  this  term  is  almost  always  used  by  that 
author  to  mean  a  didrachma.  Ballio,  Pseudolm,  800,  asks  the 
cook  whom  he  has  just  hired  from  the  (  forum  coquinum '  why 
he  was  left  sitting  there  so  long;  if,  as  he  claims,  he  is  an 
expert.  The  cook  replies  that  this  is  due  to  man's  avarice,  not 
to  his  lack  of  genius.  He  says,  804  ff., 

Quom  extemplo  veniunt  conductum  coquom 
*  Nemo  ilium  quaerit  qui  optumus  et  carissumust ; 
Ilium  conducunt  potius  qui  vilissumust. 
Hoc  .ego  fui  hodie  solus  obsessor  fbri. 
Illi  drachumissent  miseri:  me  nemo  potest 
Minoris  quisquam  nummo  ut  surgam  subigere. 
ETon  ego  item  cenam  condio  ut  alii  coqui, 
Qui  mihi  condita  prata  in  patinis  proferunt, 
Boves  qui  convivas  faciunt  herbasque  oggerunt, 
Eas  herbas  herbis  aliis  porro  condiunt. 

This  same  cook's  pay  is  mentioned  again  in  line  847,  where 
Ballio  says, 

I  in  malam  crucem. 
Istacine  caussa  tibi  hodie  nummum  dabo? 

The  cook  replies, 

Fateor  equidem  iesse  me  coquom  carissumum ; 
Verum  pro  pretio  facio  ut  opera  appareat 
Mea  quo  conductus  venio. 

Ballio's  next  remark  may  explain  in  part  why  the  hire  of  a  cook 
was  so  cheap,  for  even  if  you  place  the  purchasing  power  of  a 
drachma  or  a  didraehma  at  the  highest  limit  possible,  it  still 
seems  a  rather  small  sum  to  pay  for  the  preparation  of  a  dinner. 
Ballio's  words,  however,  Pseudolus,  850,  (  Ad  furandum  qui- 
dem,'  imply  that  this  regular  stipend  was  supplemented  by  pur- 
loining on  the  part  of  the  cook  of  anything  he  could  lay  his 
hands  on.  The  cook's  retort,  851,  suggests  the  same  idea,  for 
he  says, 


Roman  Cooks  53 

An  tu  invenire  postulas  quemquam  coquom 
Nisi  milvinis  aut  aquilinis  ungulis  ? 

It  was  true,  no  doubt,  that  then  as  well  as  in  later  times  the 
cook  took  away  from  his  employer's  house  much  more  than  the 
actual  money  paid  for  his  services.  Compare  Martial,  xm, 
52 :  '  Let  a  duck  be  brought  to  the  table  whole,  but  only  the 
breast  and  the  neck  are  worth  eating.  Return  the  rest  to  the 
cook.'  The  amount  paid  a  cook  is  stated  again  Aulularia,  448, 
where  Congrio  the  cook,  who  has  been  severely  cudgeled  by  the 
old  miser,  observes, 

Nummo  sum  conductus;  plus  iam  medico  mercedist  opus. 

Aulularia,  309  indicates  that  cooks  sometimes  received  from 
their  patrons  additional  compensation  besides  their  regular  pay, 
for  Anthrax  says, 

Censen  talentum  magnum  exorari  potis 
Ab  istoc  sene,  ut  det  qui  fiamus  liberi  ? 

There  is,  then,  in  Plautus  sufficient  .evidence  to  show  that  a 
cook  was  paid  a  drachma,  or  at  most  a  didrachma  for  the 
preparation  of  a  dinner  or  entertainment.  To  settle  the  exact 
purchasing  value  of  this  amount  is  a  more  difficult  question. 
William  Ramsay,  Mostellaria,,  241  ff.,  in  the  article  on  Terms 
Employed  With  Reference  to  Money,  gives  the  clearest  .expla- 
nation of  money  in  Plautus.  He  says,  '  In  the  works  of  the 
Latin  dramatists  all  computations  in  Greek  money  must  be 
referred  to  the  Attic  standard  and  wherever  moderate  sums  are 
named  we  shall  not  commit  any  grave  error  if  we  consider  the 
value  of  the  Attic  drachma  =  9  d.  sterling.'  We  know  that  there 
was  a  close  relation  between  the  Greek  drachma  and  the  Roman 
'  denarius'  and  Friedrich  Hultsch  in  his  Griechische  und 
Romische  Metrologie,  p.  149,  says  that  in  later  times  in  Rome 
instead  of  the  '  drachma  wurde  der  Denar  gebraucht  und  der 
Name  Drachme  auf  diesen  iibertragen.' 

It  was  just  after  the  war  with  Antiochus,  as  we  have  seen, 
Livy,  xxxix,  6,  that (  coquus  vilissimum  mancipium  et  aestima- 


54  Roman  Cooks 

tione  et  usu  in  pretio  esse.7  After  this  time  interesting  stories 
are  found  of  the  amount  paid  for  cooks,  and  of  the  valuable  pres- 
ents made  them  as  a  reward  for  tickling  the  palate  of  their  mas- 
ter or  employer.  Plutarch,  Antony,  xxiv,  says  that  Antony 
presented  to  his  cook  the  house  of  a  citizen  of  Magnesia.  In 
Petronius,  Cena  Trimalchionis,  50,  i  nee  non  cocus  potione  ho- 
nor atus  est,  et  argentea  corona,  poculumque  in  lance  accepit 
Corinthia '  for  a  happy  device  which  met  with  the  approval  of 
his  master.  Again,  in  paragraph  70  of  the  same  work, 
Trimalchio  says  that  since  his  cook  Daedalus  is  a  clever  fellow 
he  brought  him  from  Rome  a  present  of  Noric  steel.  Cato  is 
quoted  by  Aulus  Gellius,  xi,  2,  5,  as  saying  that  '  Equos  carius, 
quam  coquos  emebant/  but  the  price  of  cooks  soon  outgrew  this 
limit.  In  the  time  of  the  first  Roman  emperors,  when  the  pleas- 
ures of  the  table  were  carried  to  the  extreme,  we  find  enormous 
prices  paid  for  cooks.  Porphyrion,  commenting  on  Horace, 
Satires,,  i,  1,  101,  says  that  '  Oassius  Eomentanus,  adeo  sine 
respectu  calculorum  suorum  prodigus  ut  sestertium  septuagies 
gulae  ac  libidini  impenderit.  Huius  libertum,  Damam  nomine, 
cocum  Sallustius  Crispus  historiarum  scriptor  fertur  centenis 
milibus  annuis  conductum  habuisse.7  Compare  with  this  the 
statement  of  Sallust,  Bellum  lugurthinum,  85,  39,  who  makes 
Marius  say  that  he  is  called  stingy  and  '  incultus  moribus  * 
because  he  has  no  cook  who  is  of  greater  value  than  a  i  vilicus.' 
'  Sordidum  me  et  incultus  moribus  aiunt,  quia  parum  scite  con- 
vivium  exorno,  neque  histrionem  ullum,  neque  pluris  preti 
cocum  quam  vilicum  habeo.' 

Even  in  Varro's  day  skilled  bakers  were  purchased  at  a 
great  price,  as  one  sees  from  a  fragment  of  his  satire  Trepl 
eSeo-jjidTGw,  Aulus  Gellius,  xv,  19,  (  Si  quantum  operae  sump- 
sisti,  ut  tuus  pistor  bonum  faceret  panem,  eius  duodecimam 
philosophiae  dedisses,  ipse  bonus  iampridem  esses  f  actus.  Nunc 
ilium  qui  nonmt  volunt  emere  milibus  centum,  te  qui  novit 
nemo  centussis.' 

Pliny,  -ZV".  H.  ix,  67,  makes  an  interesting  commentary  on  the 
rise  in  the  value  of  cooks  and  the  increase  in  luxury  in  Impe- 
rial times.  He  says  that  Asinius  Celer,  a  man  of  consular 


Roman  Cooks  55 

rank,  bought  a  fish  in  Rome  during  the  reign  of  Caligula  for 
which  he  paid  8,000  sesterces.  A  reflection,  says  he,  upon  such 
a  fact  as  this  will  at  once  lead  us  to  turn  our  thoughts  to  those 
who,  making  loud  complaints  against  luxury,  used  to  lament 
that  a  single  cook  cost  more  than  a  horse,  while  at  the  present 
day  a  cook  is  only  to  be  obtained  for  the  same  sum  that  a  tri- 
umph would  cost,  and  a  fish  is  only  to  be  purchased  at  what 
was  formerly  the  price  of  a  cook.  Indeed,  there  is  hardly  any- 
one held  in  higher  esteem  than  the  man  who  understands  how 
in  the  most  scientific  fashion  to  get  rid  of  his  master's  property. 
Juvenal,  Satires,  vn,  184  ff.,  implies  that  the  cook  was  con- 
sidered of  more  importance  for  a  household  than,  and  was 
procured  at  the  expense  of,  a  son's  education,  for  he  says, 

Quanticumque  domus,  veniet  qui  fercula  docte 
Conponat,  veniet  qui  pulmentaria  condit. 
Hos  inter  sumptus  sestertia  Quintiliano, 
Ut  multum,  duo  sufficient ;  res  nulla  minoris 
Constabit  patri  quam  filius. 

In  later  days  Tertullian,  De  Anima,  33,  speaks  of  (  cocoa 
pretiosissimos/  and  Hieronymus,  Epistul&e,  100,  6,  5  reads 
'  magni  pretii  cocos.' 

After  Plautus  it  is  difficult  to  tell  the  exact  cost  of  cooks  in 
later  generations.  A  brief  glance  at  a  few  of  the  successive 
sumptuary  laws  of  the  Romans,  which  endeavored  to  regulate 
the  expenses  of  the  table,  will  give  us  some  idea  of  the  way  in 
which  luxury  and  high  living  constantly  grew,  and  consequently 
of  the  gradual  increase  in  the  cost  and  value  of  cooks,  although 
they  are  not  mentioned  in  these  laws.  The  '  lex  Orchia/  Ma- 
crobius,  Saturn,  nr,  17,  2,  181  B.  0.,  was  perhaps  the  earliest 
of  these  laws,  and  regulated  the  number  of  guests.  The  Fan- 
nian  law,  Macrobius,  Saturn,  m,  17,  4ff.,  Aulus  Gellius,  n, 
24,  161  B.  C.,  fixed  the  maximum  expenditure  for  a  dinner  on 
festal  days  at  one  hundred  asses.  On  other  days  the  amount  to 
be  expended  was  set  at  a  limit  of  thirty  asses  for  ten  days  of 
the  month,  and  ten  asses  for  the  rest.  It  forbade  having  more 
than  five  guests  on  market  days,  and  more  than  three  other  days. 


56  Roman  Cooks 

It  prohibited  the  serving  of  any  fowl  at  repasts  except  a  hen, 
and  this  was  not  to  be  fattened. 

The  luxury  of  the  day  soon  outgrew  this  law,  and  the  need 
for  a  new  regulation  made  itself  felt.  Consequently  eighteen 
years  after  the  Fannian  law  the  ( lex  Didia '  was  passed,  Mac- 
robius,  Saturn,  m,  17,  6.  This  extended  the  regulations  of  the 
previous  law  to  the  whole  of  Italy,  whereas  the  Italians  claimed 
that  it  had  applied  previously  to  Eome  alone. 

In  107  B.  C.  the  '  lex  Licinia  '  followed,  Macrobius,  Saturn. 
m,  17,  8 ;.  Aulus  Gellius,  ir,  24,  7.  It  fixed  the  expense  of  a 
repast  at  one  hundred  asses  for  festal  days  and  days  of  public 
ceremonies,  at  two  hundred  asses  for  wedding  feasts,  and  at 
thirty  asses  for  ordinary  days.  It  limited  to  three  pounds  the 
amount  of  meat  to  be  consumed  daily. 

By  the  '  lex  Cornelia/  Macrobius,  Saturn,  in,  17,  11,  Sulla 
placed  a  limit  of  three  sesterces  on  the  expenditure  for  the 
table  for  usual  days,  but  allowed  this  to  be  stretched  to  thirty 
for  the  Nones,  the  Ides  and  the  Kalends,  and  also  for  feast  days. 
He  set  a  high  price  on  the  dainties  which  gourmands  particu- 
larly desired.  Even  the  originator  of  this  law  violated  it. 

Luxurious  living  was  the  vogue  in  the  time  of  Lucullus.  This 
tendency  explains  the  multitude  of  sumptuary  laws  in  his  day, 
but  luxury  increased  just  as  the  number  of  laws  designed  to 
restrain  it  did.  Sulla's  law  had  discouraged  so  little  the  sale 
of  taxed  foods  that  a  little  after  79  B.  C.  the  '  lex  Aemilia/ 
Aulus  Gellius,  n,  24,  12,  endeavored  to  regulate  not  only  the 
price,  but  the  kind  of  food  and  the  manner  of  its  preparation. 
This  law,  as  well  as  the  '  lex  Antia  '  which  followed  it,  was  not 
observed,  consequently  the  would-be  reformers  relaxed  their 
efforts  somewhat,  and  luxury  continued  its  ravages  undisturbed 
until  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar. 

By  the  '  lex  Mia,'  Aulus  Gellius,  n,  24,  14,  he  fixed  the 
maximum  expenditure  for  the  table  at  two  hundred  sesterces 
for  ordinary  days,  and  at  three  hundred  for  feast  days.  For 
the  wedding  feast,  and  the  one  on  the  following  day  one  thou- 
sand sesterces  might  be  spent.  Caesar  placed  guards  in  the 
markets  who  were  charged  with  the  execution  of  his  law. 


Roman  Cooks  67 

Under  Augustus  or  Tiberius,  according  to  Aulus  Gellius,  n, 
24,  15,  there  was  another  sumptuary  law.  By  this  the  cost  of 
a  dinner  was  not  to  exceed  two  hundred  sesterces  on  ordinary 
days.  It  was  limited  to  three  hundred  sesterces  for  certain 
feast  days,  and  could  even  reach  two  thousand  for  wedding 
celebrations  and  anniversaries. 

Under  Tiberius  extravagance  with  regard  to  the  table  con- 
tinued to  assume  unheard  of  proportions,  and  sumptuary  laws 
were  not  observed.  The  aediles  appealed  to  the  senate,  and  the 
senate  referred  the  matter  to  the  emperor,  Tacitus,  Annales,  m, 
52  if.  In  his  response  Tiberius  showed  that  he  was  very  scepti- 
cal about  the  efficacy  of  such  regulations. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  ineffectiveness  of  Roman 
as  of  all  sumptuary  laws.  A  few  have  been  cited  merely  to  show 
the  continuous  increase,  in  successive  generations,  of  the  amount 
spent  upon  the  table,  and  also  to  indicate  how  the  value  of  skilled 
cooks  must  have  risen  in  a  world  where  high-living  played 
such  a  large  part  that  successive  laws  were  considered  neces- 
sary in  order  to  keep  it  down  even  a  little.1  These  very  laws 
made  the  expert  '  chef '  a  most  important  personage,  for  when 
there  was  a  tax  on  certain  foods  the  cook  would  be  valued  greatly 
who  could  dress  other  dishes  so  as  to  resemble  the  forbidden 
dainties.  This  was  one  of  the  special  accomplishments  both  of 
Greek  and  Roman  cooks.  Compare  the  story  told  of  Soterides 
in  Euphron,  Meineke,  iv,  494;  Kock,  in,  323,  who  deceived  a 
king  with  his  imitation  of  anchovies  at  a  time  when  the  king 
was  not  able  to  secure  them.  Martial,  xi,  31,  tells  the  story  of 
a  cook  who  metamorphosed  gourds  in  such  a  way  that  you  would 
fancy  you  saw  lentils,  beans,  mushrooms,  sausages,  and  tails  of 
tunnies  and  anchovies  on  the  table.  Thus  he  filled  his  dishes 
and  side  dishes,  and  congratulated  himself  on  his  skill  in  fur- 
nishing so  many  dishes  at  the  cost  of  a  penny.  Compare  also 
Cicero,  Ad  Familiar  es,  vn,  26. 

1  For  Roman  sumptuary  laws  I  consulted  particularly  a  dissertation  by 
Charles  Bauthian,  Droit  Romain,  10  Luxe  et  les  Lois  Somptudires,  Paris, 
1891. 


• 
58  Roman  Cooks 


CHAPTEE  VIII 
THE    'MACELLUM 


If  we  are  correct  in  saying  that  the  Romans  hired  their  cooks 
for  special  entertainments  as  did  the  Greeks,  there  must  neces- 
sarily have  been  in  Rome  as  in  Athens  some  definite  place 
where  these  artists  could  he  found  when  their  services  were 
desired.  Eor  the  haunts  of  Greek  cooks,  cf .  Rankin,  work  pre- 
viously cited,  pp.  42  fi\  As  has  heen  already  stated,  Pliny, 
N.  H.  xvm,  108,  tells  us  that  the  early  Romans  hired  their 
cooks  from  the  ( macellum.'  Plautus,  too,  in  several  pas- 
sages in  his  plays,  speaks  of  hiring  cooks  for  entertainments, 
and  sometimes  he  tells  us  where  they  were  procured.  In  the 
Aulularia,  280,  Strohilus,  a  slave,  says: 

Postquam  obsonavit  erus,  et  conduxit  coquos 
Tibicinasque  hasce  apud  forum. 

Mercator,  697,  Lysimachus  says, 

Egomet  conduxi  coquom, 
Sed  eum  demiror  non  venire  ut  iusseram. 

In  the  Pseudolus,  790  ff.,  Ballio,  returning  home  with  his  cooks, 
says: 

Forum  coquinum  qui  vocant,  stulte  vocant 
Nam  non  coquinumst,  verum  furinumst  forum. 

Compare  also  the  words  of  the  cook  798, 

,    Si  me  arbitrabare  isto  pacto  ut  praedicas 
Cur  conducebas  ? 

And  Ballio's  reply, 


Roman  Cooks  69 

Inopia:  alius  non  erat 
Sed  cur  sedebas  in  foro,  si  eras  coquos, 
Tu  solus  praeter  alios  ? 

In  lines  804-806  also,  the  cook  speaks  of  the  custom  of  hiring 
members  of  his  profession.  The  same  custom  is  referred  to  in 
Terence,  Eunuchus,  255 : 

Dum    haec    loquimur,    interea    loci    ad    macellum    ubi 

adventamus 

Concurrunt  laeti  mihi  obviam  cuppedinarii  omnes ; 
Cetarii,  lanii,  coqui,  fartores,  piscatores 
Quibus  et  re  salva  et  perdita  profueram. 

According,  then,  to  these  three  authors — Plautus,  Terence, 
and  Pliny — professional  cooks  took  their  stand  in  the  '  macel- 
lum/ and  probably  waited  there  with  their  utensils  and  their 
pupils  to  be  hired.  They  were,  as  it  seems,  slaves  who  were  let 
out  by  their  masters.  Plautus,  as  we  have  seen,  says  also  that 
cooks  were  hired  from  the  '  forum/  but  in  this  case  he  is  per- 
haps speaking  generally  and  does  not  designate  the  special  part 
of  the  *  forum '  from  which  they  were  to  be  obtained.  i  Forum 
coquinum/  Pseudolus,  790,  is  merely  another  term  for  '  macel- 
lum/ as  Jordan,  Topographic  der  Stadt  Rom,  i,  2,  434;  and 
Eichter,  Topographic  der  Stadt  Rom,  Miiller's  Handbuch,  in, 
3,  2,  310,  think.  Bliimner,  Privat-Altertiimer,  in  Miiller's 
Handbuch,  iv,  2,  n,  p.  192,  suggests  that  '  forum  coquinum ' 
may  be  merely  a  translation  of  the  Greek. 

Let  us  now  consider  what  the  '  macellum  '  was,  where  it  was 
located,  why  cooks  resorted  there,  and  something  of  its  history. 
It  was  always  a  provision-market  in  which  fish,  fowls,  meat, 
vegetables,  and  other  edibles  could  be  purchased.  As  proof  of 
this  statement  may  be  quoted  Plautus,  Rudens,  979. 

Quippe  quom  extemplo  in  macellum  pisces  prolati  sient, 
Nemo  emat ; 

Pseudolus,  169, 

Ego  eo  in  macellum,   ut  piscium   quidquid  ibist  pretio 
praestinem. 


. 
#0  Roman  Cooks 

and  AuLularia,  373  ff., 

Venio  ad  macellum,  rogito  pisoes ;  indicant 
Caros:  agninam  caram,  caram  bubulam, 
Vitulinam,  cetum,  porcinam,  cara  omnia: 
Atque  eo  fuerunt  cariosa  aes  non  erat. 

Varro,  De  Lingua  Latina,  v,  146  and  147,  says :  '  Forum  boa- 
rium,  olitorium,  piscarium  cuppedinis  .  .  .  haec  omnia  postea- 
quam  contracta  in  unum  locum  quae  ad  victum  pertinebant  et 
aedificatus  locus,  appellation  macellum.'  Compare  also  Horace, 
Satires,  n,  3,  229 ;  Epistulae,  i,  15,  31,  '  Pernicies  et  tempestas 
barathrumque  macelli,  quidquid  quaesierat  ventri  donabat 
avaro ' ;  Martial,  x,  59,  '  Dives  et  omni  posita  est  instructa 
macello  cena  tibi  ' ;  Juvenal,  v,  95,  and  xi,  9, 

Multos  porro  vides,  quos  saepe  elusus  ad  ipsum 
Creditor  introitum  solet  expectare  macelli, 
Et  quibus  in  solo  vivendi  causa  palato  est. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  '  macellum '  was  a  provision-market. 
Naturally  enough  the  most  opportune  place  for  professional 
cooks  to  take  their  stand  was  where  food  could  be  procured,  so 
that  the  old  Roman  might  at  the  same  time  buy  food  for  his 
party,  engage  his  caterer,  and  then  turn  his  attention  to  other 
matters.  This  place  was  the  '  macellum/  and  here  cooks  really 
did  resort,  according  to  the  witness  of  Plautus,  Terence  and 
Pliny. 

The  history  of  the  '  macellum '  in  brief  is  about  as  follows : 
In  consequence  of  the  rapid  growth  of  Rome  after  the  downfall 
of  the  might  of  Etruria,  the  conqueror  of  the  Latins  Gaius 
Maenius,  consul  338  B.  C.,  removed  the  butchers  and  vegetable 
dealers  from  the  crowds  of  tradespeople  in  the  '  forum.'  Their 
place  was  taken  by  the  nobler  trade  of  the  money-changers. 
Many  of  the  passages  in  Plautus  which  refer  to  the  '  forum  ? 
mention  the  money-changers  there.  In  179  B.  C.  M.  Fulvius 
Nobilior  built  a  market  house,  the  '  macellum,'  into  which  the 
different  markets  were  brought  together.  This  structure  con- 


Roman  Cooks  $1 

sisted  of  an  open  square  surrounded  by  shops,  in  the  center  of 
which  there  was  a  circular  structure,  the  '  tholus.'  This 
'  Macellum  Magnum  '  disappeared  in  the  course  of  time,  to  give 
place  to  other  huildings,  the  Forum  of  Peace,  as  Bichter  thinks, 
and  after  the  first  century  of  the  Empire  we  find  no  mention 
of  it.  We  may  be  certain  at  least  that  it  was  situated  on  the 
north  side  of  the  '  Forum.'  Remains  of  '  macella '  which  were 
probably  modeled  after  the  Roman  are  found  in  Pompeii, 
Puteoli,  and  cities  of  Asia  Minor,  cf.  Liebenam,  Stddteverwalt- 
ung  im  romischen  Kaiserreiche,  p.  161. 


' 
62  Roman  Cooks 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  SOCIAL  POSITION  OF  COOKS  AND  THE 
ESTEEM  IN  WHICH  THEY  WERE  HELD 


The  profession  of  cooking,  and  the  cook  himself,  were  re- 
garded with  more  esteem,  and  treated  with  greater  respect  in 
Greece  than  in  Rome.  In  the  former  country,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  cook  was  never  represented  as  a  slave  in  comedy,  with  pos- 
sibly the  exception  of  one  author,  cf.  Rankin,  op.  cit.,  in  the 
chapter  on  The  Social  Status  of  the  Mdyeipoi ;  nor  have  we 
any  other  evidence  for  believing  that  he  was  a  slave  until  Mace- 
donian times.  The  respect  with  which  he  was  treated,  his  varied 
knowledge,  and  his  own  pride  and  respect  for  his  art,  the  public 
honors  conferred  on  the  fjudyeipos  would  lead  us  to  believe  that 
before  300  B.  C.  he  did  not  occupy  a  servile  position.  In  the 
first  book  of  his  History  of  Attica,  Clidemus,  quoted  by  Athe- 
naeus,  xiv,  660,  a,  says  that  there  was  a  tribe  of  cooks  who  were 
entitled  to  public  honors,  and  that  it  was  their  business  to  see 
that  the  sacrifice  was  performed  with  due  regularity.  An 
inscription  in  Hicks  and  Hill,  Greek  Historical  Inscriptions, 
No.  80,  date  404-403  B.  C.,  shows  that  a  cook  received  the  honor 
of  citizenship.  After  300  B.  C.  we  have  Athenaeus,  xiv,  659,  a, 
as  witness  of  changed  conditions,  and  the  status  of  the  cook  in 
Greece  agrees  more  nearly  with  what  we  find  in  Rome. 

A  passage  in  Plutarch's  Moralia,  Quaestiones,  Romanae, 
284,  F,  implies  that  in  Rome  from  the  earliest  times  the  act  of 
preparing  food  was  regarded  as  menial.  He  says :  Ato,  ri  rfa 
<yvvaifca<;  OUT*  a\elv  e*W,  OUT'  otyoTroielv  TO  7ra\cudv  •  77,  Ta? 
o-vv9r)Ka<;  SiafJLVTUJiovevovTes,  a9  eTronja-avro  TT/OO?  TOU?  Sa/ 
€7rel  yap  tfpTracrav  Ta9  Ov^arepa^  avrwv  elra 
Sirj\\d<yr)crav,  ev  Tat?  aXXat?  o/ioXo^ytat?  /cat  TOVT  eypd(f>7],  JJLTJT 
a\eiv  avSpl  'Pco/Aatiw  yvvaifca  fJL^re  /JLayeipeveiv. 

In  Plautus  the  cook  is  always  depicted  as  in  a  servile  condi- 


Roman  Coolcs  63 

tion.  In  the  Mosiellaria,  1-5,  the  cook  is  not  a  professional,  but 
one  of  the  common  household  slaves.  In  the  Mvnaechmi  the 
courtesan  Erotium  seems  to  have  had  a  professional  cook  as  a 
slave.  The  cook's  name  in  Plautus  is  always  a  slave-name, 
Cario,  Miles,  1397;  Citrio,  Casino,,  744;,  Congrio,  Aulularia, 
285 ;  and  Anthrax,  Aulularia,  287.  Line  310  in  the  Aulularia 
also  shows  that  the  cook  was  a  slave,  for  he  speaks  of  purchasing 
his  freedom.  In  the  same  play,  the  treatment  accorded  to  mem- 
bers of  the  culinary  profession  would  indicate  a  servile  condi- 
tion. Compare  Aulularia,  409  f.,  and  344.  An  early  Republi- 
can inscription,  C.  I.  L.  xiv,  2875,  gives  us  the  names  of  four 
cooks  who  were  slaves. 

In  early  times,  then,  at  Rome,  days  of  plain  living  and  high 
thinking,  the  cook  was  not  only  a  slave,  but  a  slave  of  low 
order — '  vilissimum  mancipium.'  Under  the  Empire  in  pro- 
portion as  luxury  increased  the  cook  occupied  a  position  more 
and  more  important.  Several  passages  may  be  quoted  from 
Cicero,  however,  which  will  show  in  what  esteem  he  held  the 
calling.  In  Pro  Roscio,  134,  he  says,  '  Mitto  hasce  artes  vul- 
garis,  cocos,  pistores,  lecticarios.'  De  Officiis,  r,  42,  150,  places 
cooking  among  the  sordid  trades  and  professions,  and  those  not 
becoming  a  gentleman.  '  Minimeque  artes  eae  probandae,  quae 
ministrae  sunt  voluptatum :  cetarii,  lanii,  coqui,  f artores,  pisca- 
tores,  ut  ait  Terentius.  Adde  hue,  si  placet,  unguentarios, 
saltatores,  totumque  ludum  talarium.'  But  even  with  his  dis- 
dain for  the  occupation,  Cicero  realized  that  civilized  man  could 
not  live  without  cooks,  for  in  a  solicitous  letter  to  Tiro,  a  favor- 
ite slave,  Ad  Familiares,  xvi,  15,  2,  he  says,  i  I  have  sent  you 
Aegypta  to  stay  with  you,  because  he  is  not  a  bad  companion, 
and  with  him  a  cook  whom  you  may  find  useful.7  However, 
even  in  Cicero's  time  the  son  of  a  cook  could  become  a  person  of 
some  importance  in  the  city,  and  could  canvass  for  an  office,  as 
the  pun  quoted  by  Quintilian,  Institutiones,  vi,  3,  47,  shows. 
'  Ut  dixit  (Cicero)  cum  is  candidatus  qui  coci  filius  habebatur, 
coram  eo  sunragium  ab  alio  peteret ;  "  Ego  quoque  tibi 
favebo."  ' 


64  Roman  Cooks 

In  Imperial  times  the  cook  was  both  a  more  important  and  a 
more  infamous  personage  according  to  the  point  of  view  from 
which  he  is  regarded.  He  is  now  found  both  as  a  '  servus,'  and 
as  a  '  libertus/  as  inscriptions  bear  witness.  Probably  there 
were  not  many  cooks  who  were  l  liberti '  until  the  days  of  the 
emperors,  but  then  the  increase  in  salaries  which  they  received 
and  the  greater  value  placed  upon  their  services  enabled  many 
either  to  purchase  their  freedom  from  their  savings,  or  to  obtain 
it  ias  a  gift  for  some  particularly  pleasing  service  which  they 
rendered  to  their  masters.  Inscriptions  tell  us  of  cooks  who 
form  a  part  of  the  imperial  household  for  '  coci  ex  familia 
Augusta  sunt '  in  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8750-8755,  also  7458,  and  6069  a. 
As  such  they  took  the  names  of  members  of  the  imperial  family. 
C.  I.  L.  vi,  8750,  reads,  '  T.  Aelius  Primitivus  archimagirus  ' ; 
and  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8752,  '  Marcus  Aurelus  Bit(hus)  praepositus 
cocorum.'  (7.  I.  L.  vi,  8751,  is  on  a  monument  which  an  '  archi- 
magirus '  made  for  himself  and  his  wives,  (  Aelia  Agrippina 
and  lulia  Cleopatra.'  These  imperial  cooks  formed  '  collegia  ' 
among  themselves  of  which  we  shall  speak  later. 

~Not  only  did  cooks  gain  their  own  freedom  under  the  Empire, 
but  some  of  them  acquired  sufficient  property  to  own  slaves  of 
their  own,  as  C.  I.  L.  vi,  6248,  shows :  '  Nireus  (Ph)ilerotis  L. 
Coci  ser(vus).'  Some  of  them  may  even  have  changed  their 
calling  after  securing  their  freedom,  for  Martial,  vm,  16,  says, 
'  You,  Cyperus,  who  were  long  a  baker,  now  plead  causes  and 
are  seeking  to  gain  two  hundred  thousand  sesterces.'  Under 
the  Empire,  according  to  Petronius,  Cena  Trimalchionis,  70, 
even  the  cooks  who  were  slaves  seem  to  have  been  allowed  more 
privileges  than  formerly,  for  Trimalchio's  cook  is  sufficiently 
important  to  come  into  the  dining  room  and  not  only  to  recline 
at  the  table  but  to  begin  to  imitate  Ephesus  the  tragedian,  and 
to  offer  his  master  a  bet  that  in  the  next  chariot  races  the  greens 
will  win.  The  treatment  of  the  cook  in  the  Cena,,  however, 
proves  nothing  except  that  he  was  dependent  upon  the  caprice  of 
his  master,  for  on  account  of  a  petty  offence  he  was  called  into 
the  festal  hall,  stripped  and  threatened  with  a  flogging,  which 
he  escaped  only  through  the  entreaties  of  the  guests.  On 


Roman  Cooks  65 

another  occasion  his  master  threatens  to  degrade  him  to  the  rank 
of  a  farm-servant  if  his  work  is  not  done  quickly. 

In  Pliny's  time  cooks  even  figured  on  works  of  art,  for  he 
tells  us,  N.  H.  xxxin,,  157,  of  a  Pytheas,  one  of  whose  works 
sold  at  the  rate  of  ten  thousand  i  denarii '  for  two  ounces.  It 
was  a  drinking  bowl,  the  figures  on  which  represented  Ulysses 
and  Diomedes  stealing  the  Palladium.  The  same  artist  also 
engraved  on  some  small  drinking  vessels  cooks  in  miniature,  of 
such  remarkably  fine  workmanship  that  it  was  quite  impossible 
to  take  copies  of  them. 

In  the  time  of  Heliogabalus,  cf.  Lampridius,  Heliogabalus, 
10,  Zoticus,  the  son  of  a  Smyrnaean  cook,  was  a  very  influential 
man  at  court,  and  sold  all  that  the  emperor  did  or  said  under 
false  pretences,  hoping  for  boundless  wealth.  He  used  to 
threaten  one  man,  lavish  promises  on  another,  and  deceive  them 
all.  He  would  tell  each  singly,  I  said  this  of  you,  or  heard  that 
of  you,  or  your  fate  will  be  this  or  that. 

Perhaps,  however,  the  most  important  .evidence  we  have  of 
the  position  which  it  was  possible  for  a  cook  to  occupy,  and  the 
amount  of  property  which  as  a  '  libertus '  he  might  acquire,  is 
found  in  an  inscription  from  Alba  Fucens,  C.  I.  L.  ix,  3938. 
It  reads,  (  Halicius  Marcio  Fausto  liberto,  Sevir.  Aug.,  Dendro- 
foro  Albensi  et  Trophime  matri.'  On  the  sides  of  the  pedestal 
on  which  this  inscription  is  found  are  the  words  '  coco  optimo.' 
The  (  seviri  Augustales '  were  boards  composed  of  important 
men  in  municipal  towns.  They  occupied  a  rank  between  the 
4  decuriones  '  and  the  citizens.  The  post  of  the  sevirate  was 
conferred  by  the  town  senate  or  council.  Six  members  were 
appointed  yearly  to  maintain  the  cult  of  the  emperor  worship, 
hence  they  were  called  '  Augustales.7  They  had  to  pay  fixed 
sums  on  their  election  to  office.  On  the  numerous  days  conse- 
crated to  the  cult  of  the  emperor  the  '  seviri '  had  to  bring  offer- 
ings, and  to  manage  or  arrange  the  festivities,  hence  the  duties 
which  their  office  entailed  often  involved  a  heavy  expenditure  of 
money.  Sometimes,  however,  '  honoris  causa/  the  initiatory 
fees  were  remitted,  as  in  a  case  mentioned  in  Petronius,  Cena 
Trimalchionis,  71.  During  their  term  of  office  they  wore  gold 
5 


I 
66  Roman  Cooks 

rings  and  a  '  toga  praetexta.'  The  right  of  wearing  the  former 
was  not  extended  beyond  the  year  of  office,  but  the  official  robe 
might  be  used  at  the  feasts  of  the  emperor  even  after  the  termi- 
nation of  this  period.  They  were  allowed  two  lictors,  and  the 
right  of  using  the  '  bisellium '  during  the  year  of  office,  and 
were  also  given  a  place  of  honor  at  the  games  and  in  processions. 
They  are  found  only  in  one  author,  Petronius,  but  the  numerous 
honorary  and  sepulchral  inscriptions  devoted  to  them,  give  us 
many  facts  concerning  their  order.  On  one  the  insignia  of  the 
'  decuriones '  were  bestowed,  for  another  the  admission  fee  to 
the  sevirate  was  remitted,  a  third  had  the  title  of  the  first  of  the 
'  Augustales.'  The  '  August  ales '  were  for  the  most  part 
1  liberti,'  especially  tradesmen  and  artisans,  craftsmen  and  mer- 
chants, who  had  amassed  a  considerable  fortune  by  their  busi- 
ness, and  who,  by  their  generosity  to  the  people,  endeavored  to 
surpass  in  popularity  and  influence  even  the  '  decuriones.' 

Petronius  gives  us  an  interesting  picture  of  a  t  Sevir  Augus- 
talis  '  in  his  Cena  TrimalcJiionis.  Trimalchio,  a  wealthy  freed- 
man,  held  this  position  in  Puteoli.  Of  his  riches  we  may  judge 
by  the  elaborate  banquet  which  he  gave,  of  the  importance  which 
he  attached  to  the  office  of  i  sevir  Augustalis '  by  the  directions 
which  he  left  for  the  erection  of  his  tomb.  He  wished  to  be 
represented  as  sitting  on  a  judicial  bench,  in  magistrate's  dress, 
with  five  gold  rings,  and  scattering  bounty  among  the  people. 
'  For  you  know/  he  says,  i  I  gave  a  public  banquet  and  a  gift  of 
two  shillings  to  everyone.'  He  wished  the  inscription  on  his 
tomb  to  say,  (  Gaius  Pompeius  Trimalchio  Maecenatianus  lies 
here.  He  could  have  been  in  any  decury  in  Rome,  but  preferred 
not  to  be.  Devout,  courageous  and  loyal,  he  started  with  small 
means  and  left  a  quarter  of  a  million,  and  never  listened  to  a 
philosopher.  Peace  to  his  ashes  and  peace  to  thee.'  The  above 
is  taken  from  Lowe's  translation  of  the  Cena  Trimalchionis,  72. 

What  we  have  said  about  the  office  of  '  Sevir  Augustalis  '  l  is 

1  For  '  Seviri  Augustales  '  see  Friedlander,  Petronius,  Introduction,  pp. 
36 ff.;  De  Ruggiero,  Dizionario  Epigrafico,  under  'Augustales';  Daremberg 
and  Saglio,  Dictionnaire  des  Antiquites  grecques  et  romaines  under  'Augus- 


Roman  Cooks  67 

sufficient  to  indicate  to  what  a  prominent  position  our  cook 
'  Marcius  Faustus,'  C.  I.  L.  ix,  3938,  had  risen. 

Because  of  the  eminence  to  which  cooks  were  raised  by  luxuri- 
ous emperors  and  gourmands,  the  Romans  of  the  more  abstemi- 
ous class,  who  sighed  for  the  simplicity  of  early  Roman  times, 
protested.  Seneca  particularly  wrote  against  all  ministers  of 
luxury.  He  says,  Epistulae  ad  Lucilium  f  88,  18,  i  Non  enim 
adducor  ut  in  numerum  liberalium  artiuni  pictores  recipiam, 
non  magis  quam  statuarios  aut  marmorarios,  aut  ceteros  luxu- 
riae  ministros,  aeque  luctatores  et  totam  oleo  ac  luto  constantem 
scientiam  expello  ,ex  his  studiis  liberalibus ;  aut  et  unguentarios 
recipiam,  et  cocos,  et  ceteros  voluptatibus  nostris  ingenia 
accomodantes  sua.'  He  characterizes  the  cook  again  in  Epist. 
ad  Lucilium,  87,  17,  i  Qui  non  est  vir  bonus  potest  nihilominus 
medicus  esse,  potest  gubernator,  potest  grammaticus,  tarn  me 
hercules  quam  cocus.'  Like  Plato,  Gorgias,  500  B,  and  E, 
he  associated  cooks  with  doctors,  or  at  least  with  diseases.  Com- 
pare also  Isidorus,  Sententiae,  ir,  42,  10,  i  Omnes  animae  virtu- 
tes  edacitatis  vitio  destruuntur.  Inde  ,est,  quod  et  princeps 
coquorum  muros  Jerusalem  subvertit;  quia  et  venter  cui  servi- 
tur  a  coquis,  virtutes  animae  destruit.' 

As  has  already  been  said,  cooks  were  both  '  servi '  and 
i  liherti.'  Inscriptions  give  examples  of  both  classes.  C.  I.  L. 
xiv,  2875,  records  a  '  collegium  '  of  '  coques  atrienses  '  of  Repub-' 
lican  times  of  which  the  '  magistri '  were  four  slaves.  It  is 
expressly  stated  that  the  cook  was  a  slave  in  C.  I.  L.  vi,  6246, 
'Eros  cocus  Posidippi  ser(vus)  hie  situs  est?;  C.  I.  L.  vi, 
8754,  i  D.  M.  Photioni  Csesaris  E".  servo  coco  Sestiano  Fabia 
Mia  fratri.  B.  M.  F.? ;  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9264,  '  Alexandr  L.  Aemili 
Eronis  ser.  cocus.'  The  name  indicates  that  he  was  a  slave. 
C.  I.  L.  vi,  6249  '  Zena  cocus  ' ;  C\.  I.  L.  vi,  5197,  '  Firmus 
cocus,  Tasus  cocus';  C.  I.  L.  vi,  7602,  <Acas(tus)  cocus'; 
C.  I.  L.  vi,  8753,  <  Eros  Cornufi.' ;  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8755,  <  Zethus 

tales';  Pauly-Wissowa,  Real-Encyclopadie  der  classischen  Altertums- 
wissenschaft  under  the  same  word  and  pp.  51  ff.,  in  The  Cults  of  Ostia, 
a  dissertation  by  Lily  Ross  Taylor,  Bryn  Mawr,  1912. 


68  Roman  Cooks 

cocus  ' ;  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9265,  <  Apollonius  cocus ' ;  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9266, 
1  Arax.  cocus  ' ;  (7.  I.  L.  vi,  9267,  '  Hermae  coco ' ;  C.  I.  L.  vi, 
9268,  'Philargurus  cocus';  C.  L  L.  vi,  9269,  '  Tyrannus 
cocus  ' ;  C.  I.  L.  iv,  6283,  '  Aprilis  coctor.' 

The  t  magistri '  of  the  '  collegium '  of  cooks  mentioned  in 
(7.  L  L.  xi,  3078,  are  two  i  ingenii.'  In  the  following  inscrip- 
tions the  cooks  are  '  liberti ' :  (7.  I.  L.  v,  2544,  i  M.  Valerius 
Bucinae  L.  Optatus  cocus ' ;  C:.  I.  L.  vi,  7433,  '  Caecili  P.  L. 
Felicis  coci ' ;  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9262, '  D.  M.  S.  Yaleriae  Epicone  con- 
iugi  B.  M.  F.  Ael.  Ephroditus  scriba  cocorum' ;  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9263, 
'  Adrastus  libertus  cocus  ? ;  C.  L  L.  vi,  9270, '  M.  Fuficius  M.  L. 
Eros';  C.  I.  L.  ix,  3938,  '  Halicius  Marcio  Fausto  Liberto'; 
(7.  L  L.  x,  5211,  <  L.  Clodius  L.  L.  Antioc.  Tuscus ' ;  C.  I.  L.  xi, 
3850,  '  L.  Arruntius  L.  L.  Hilario  Coc.' ;  C.  I.  L.  xn,  4468,  <  M. 
Egnatius  Lugius  cocus  ' ;  C.  I.  L.  vi,  33838,  '  C.  lulius  Polybi 
L.  Eros  cocus ' ;  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8750, '  Diis  Manibus  T.  Aelius  Aug. 
Lib.  Primitivus  archimagirus  ' ;  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8751,  (D.  M.  A)ug. 
Lib.  Symph(orus  arc)himagir(us)';  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8752,  '  D.  M. 
M.  Aurelius  Aug.  Lib.  Bit(hus)  praepositus  cocorum 7 ;  and 
C.  I.  L.  vi,  7458. 

The  cook  was  originally  a  slave  in  Rome,  but  as  his  calling 
assumed  greater  importance  sometimes  gained  his  freedom  so 
that  in  Imperial  times  many  '  liberti  '  are  numbered  among  men 
of  this  calling. 


Roman  Cooks  69 

CHAPTER  X 

/ 
THE     CHIEF    COOK    AND    HIS    ASSISTANTS 


In  Rome  in  the  olden  days,  even  after  cooking  became  an  art, 
there  is  little  doubt  that  modest  households  were  satisfied  with 
one  cook,  who  probably  cared  for  the  baking  also.  On  special 
occasions,  when  the  cook  was  hired  from  the  market-place,  he 
brought  with  him  not  only  his  utensils,  but  also  one  or  more 
assistants  or  pupils.  There  are  frequent  allusions  in  Greek 
Comedy  to  the  subordinates  and  '  discipuli  *  of  the  pdyetpoi, 
Athenaeus,  ix,  376,  e,  quotes  Posidippus,  who  in  his  'Kopevova-at, 
represents  a  cook  as  making  a  speech  to  his  pupils  :  '  My  pupil 
Leucon  and  the  rest  of  you,  fellow  servants  ...  so  when  a 
cook  with  helpers  and  attendants  comes  to  some  stranger  and 
brings  his  pupils/  Dionysius  also,  in  his  'O/ww/u/^oi,  Athen- 
aeus, ix,  381,  d,  gives  the  speech  of  another  ficfyet/oo?  to  his 
pupils.  He  begins,  '  Come  now,  O  Dromon.  .  .  .  I'm  leading 
you  into  an  enemy's  country.'  Note  too,  Athenaeus,  ix,  403,  e, 
where  a  cook  says, 


'A/capvav  ical  'Po'&o? 
eyevovO'  eavT&v  o-vfi^ad^ral  TT}? 
S'  ai/rov?  St/eeXtcor?;? 


Of.  also  the  fragments  quoted  from  Damoxenus,  M.  iv,  530 ; 
K.  in,  349 ;  and  Antiphanes,  M.  m,  125  ;  K.  n,  105,  by  Rankin, 
work  previously  cited,  Chapter  viu,  pp.  67  f.  For  all  special 
occasions  Greek  pdyeipoi  had  their  subordinates,  and  several 
passages  in  Plautus  show  that  Roman  cooks  held  to  the  same 
custom.  In  the  Casino,,  720  ff.,  Olympic  the  '  vilicus  '  says  to 
the  cook,  'iSee  to  it,  you  rogue,  that  you  lead  these  briars,' 
meaning  the  cook's  thievish  assistants,  '  under  their  standards.' 
Pseudolus,  855  if.,  Ballio  gives  his  boy  directions  for  watching 


/ 
70  Roman  Cooks 

the  cook,  then  says,  865,  '  Item  his  discipulis  privos  custodes 
dabo.'  He  says  to  the  cook  also,  885-888, 

Quaeso  hercle,  priiis  quam  quoiquam  convivae  dabis, 
Gustato  tute  prius  ,et  discipulis  dato, 
Ut  praerodatis  vostras  furtificas  manus. 

In  the  Aulularia,  398  fL,  a  cook  gives  orders  to  two  slaves,  prob- 
ably assistants  or  pupils, 

Dromo,  desquama  piscis :  tu,  Machaerio 
Congrum,  murenam  exdorsua  quantum  potest 

Oongrio,  Aulularia,  409,  says,  ( Ita  me  miserum  et  meos  disci- 
pulos  fustibus  male  contuderunt.'  In  the  same  play,  553,  the 
miser  Euclio  says,  '  Qui  mi  intromis[is]ti  in  aedis  quingentos 
coquos.'  Even  if  we  allow  something  for  his  exaggeration,  he 
would  hardly  say  five  hundred  cooks,  if  only  the  one  whom  we 
have  mentioned  by  name  was  in  his  house.  The  command  in 
the  Mercator,  741,  is  addressed  by  a  cook  to  his  assistants  most 
probably,  as  is  also  that  in  779  f. : 

Agite  apponite 
Opsonium  istuc  ante  pedes  illi  seni. 

Although  when  professional  cooks  were  first  numbered  among 
the  household  slaves  one  in  a  family  was  sufficient,  in  later 
times,  in  the  establishments  of  the  great,  the  number  of  cooks 
increased.  In  a  (  columbarium '  on  the  '  Via  Appia/  near  the 
tomb  of  the  Scipios,  there  is  a  gravestone  of  a  principal  f  dis- 
pensator'  of  Gallia  Lugdunensis,  a  slave  of  Tiberius,  C.  I.  L. 
vi,  5197.  It  was  erected  to  him  by  sixteen  of  his  slaves, 
'vicarii/  who  accompanied  him  on  his  return  to  Rome,  where 
he  died.  Such  a  retinue  gives  a  perspective  of  the  size  of 
his  whole  household,  and  also  of  the  number  of  cooks  he  must 
have  had,  for  in  it  there  were  one  physician  and  two  cooks. 
Seneca  refers  to  the  number  of  cooks  in  Imperial  times,  Epistu- 
lae  ad  Ludlium,  114,  26,  '  Aspice  culinas  nostras  et  concursan- 


Roman  Cooks  71 

tis  inter  tot  ignes  cocos:  unum  videri  putas  ventrem,  cui  tanto 
tumultu  comparatur  cibus';  Epistulae  ad  Lucilium,  95,  23, 
'  Quam  celebres  culinae  sunt ' ;  Epistulae  ad  Lucilium,  122,  16, 
i  Circa  lucem  discurritur,  pueri  vocantur,  celarii,  coqui  tumul- 
tuantur.'  In  the  imperial  house  so  great  was  the  number  of 
cooks  that  they  formed  a  '  collegium  '  among  themselves,  of 
which  we  shall  speak  later.  To  this  multiplicity  of  cooks  is  due 
also  a  kind  of  hierarchy  of  the  culinary  art,  at  the  head  of 
which,  according  to  Greek  custom,  was  placed  an  '  archima- 
girus  '  or  '  princeps  coquorum/  under  whose  supervision  and 
direction  the  other  cooks  worked.  C.  I.  L.  vi,  7458,  reads,  *  T. 
Aelius  Aug.  Lib.  Primitivus  archimagirus  et  Aelia  Aug.  Lib. 
Tyche  coniunx  fecerunt  sibi  et  suis  Lib.  libertabusq.  posterisque 
eorum.'  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8750,  is  so  much  like  this  that  Mommsen 
thinks  it  may  have  been  on  the  other  side  of  the  same  monu- 
ment, and  may  refer  to  the  same  person.  It  reads,  i  Diis  Mani- 
bus  T.  Aelius  Aug.  Lib.  Primitivus  archimagirus  fecit  Aelia 
Tyche  et  sibi,  et  Aeliae  Tyrannidi  coniugi,  et  libertis  liber- 
tabusq meis  vel.  Aeliae  Tyrannydis  posterisque  eorum  etc.' 
Another  '  archimagirus '  is  found  in  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8751,  '  (Diis 
manibus  A)ug.  Lib.  Symph(orus  arc)himagir(us)  (fecit  sibi, 
et)  Aeliae  Agr(ipp)inae,  (e)t  luliae  Cleopatrae,  (m)aritae 
bene  merentibus  et  (Ae)liae  Agrippnae  Nepoti  suae  libert(is) 
libertabusque  posterisque  eorum/  In  literature,  also,  the 
4  archimagirus '  is  mentioned.  Juvenal,  ix,  109,  says  that  he 
will  go  to  the  inn  early  in  the  morning,  and  with  the  '  libarius ' 
and  i  carptores  7  regale  the  inn-keeper  with  lies  about  his  mas- 
ter, to  revenge  himself  for  the  strappings  he  had  received. 
Such  treatment  would  indicate  that  he  was  a  slave  in  this  case, 
whereas  in  each  of  the  inscriptions  quoted  above  his  position 
was  that  of  a  freedman.  Sidonius  Apollinaris,  Epistulae,  2, 
9,  6,  says,  '  Ecce  et  ab  archimagiro  adventans  qui  tempus  in- 
star  e  curandi  corpora  moneret.'  Hieronymus,  Quaestiones 
H>ebr.,  in  Gen.  37,  36,  calls  the  '  archimagirus '  the  prince  of 
cooks,  as  does  Augustinus  also,  Quaest.  Hept.  1,  127;  1,  136. 
Instead  of  '  archimagirus  '  this  '  princeps  cocorum '  is  given  in 


» 
72  Roman  Cooks 

one  inscription  the  title  i  praepositus  cocorum,'  C.  I.  L.  vi, 
8752,  <D.  M.  M.  Aurelius  Aug.  Lib.  Bit  (bus),  praepositus  co- 
corum.' Compare  with  this  'praepositus  cubiculo,'  Suetonius, 
Domitian,  16.  In  still  another  inscription  he  is  designated 
1  supra  cocos,'  (7.  I.  L.  vi,  9261,  '  Hie  ossa  sita  sunt  Fausti 
Eronis  vicari  supra  cocos.'  In  (7.  /.  L.  vi,  3954,  there  is  a 
'  supra  cubicularius,'  and  another  C.  I.  L.  vi,  4439.  In  the 
Bulletino  della  C ommissione  Archeologica  Comunale  di  Roma, 
vm,  p.  64,  we  get  a  '  supra  paedagog(us)  '  in  an  inscription. 
In  the  same  journal,  xv,  263,  '  supra  cursores '  are  found. 

The  great  number  of  cooks  in  the  kitchens  of  the  emperors 
and  of  the  wealthy  brought  about  a  division  and  specialization 
of  labor.  Therefore  there  was  under  the  direction  of  the 
*  archimagirus  '  a  great  host  of  assistants,  each  with  his  special 
task  to  perform.  In  this  number  were  found  the  i  focarii,  for- 
iiacarii,  obsonatores,  f  artores,  culinarii,'  and  perhaps  the  '  pis- 
tores  '  of  various  kinds.  The  '  focarii '  were  the  scullions  who 
performed  the  common  drudgery  of  the  kitchen,  Digest  a,  iv,  9, 
1,  5;  xxxnr,  7,  12,  5;  Paulus,  Sent,  m,  6,  37;  Vulgate,  i, 
Reges,  8,  13.  They  probably  had  something  to  do  with  taking 
care  of  the  fire,  for  Corpus  Glossariorum  Lafrinorum,  ir,  557, 
explains  '  focarius  ?  by  f uXo/coVo?. 

Besides  the  l  focarii '  there  were  also  the  '  fornacarii,'  whose 
duty  it  was  to  tend  the  furnace,  cf.  Digesta,  iv,  9, 1,  5 ;  ix,  2,  27, 
9 ;  xxxiii,  7,  12,  5.  This  name  is  applied  also  to  the  slaves 
who  attended  to  the  furnace  at  the  baths. 

The  i  obsonatores  ?  did  the  marketing  for  the  '  archimagirus.' 
Plautus  in  the  Captivi,  474,  says  that  this  was  once  the  duty  of 
the  parasite.  Gnatho  does  the  marketing  in  Terence's  Eunu- 
chus,  cf.  line  258.  Plautus,  Miles  Gloriosus,  667,  reads,  <  Vel 
primarium  parasitum  atque  opsonatorem  optumum.'  In  the 
Menaechmi,  220,  the  cook  Cylindrus  is  ordered  to  do  the  mar- 
keting, but  in  wealthy  families  there  were  no  doubt  special 
slaves  who  performed  this  task  under  the  supervision  of  the 
chief  cook.  A  passage  from  Seneca,  Epistulae  ad  Lucilium, 
47,  8,  indicates  how  skilled  the  '  obsonatores  '  were,  '  Adice  ob- 


Roman  Cooks  73 

sonatores,  quibus  dominici  palati  notitia  subtilis  est,  qui  sciunt, 
cuius  ilium  rei  sapor  excitet,  cuius  delectet  adspectus,  cuius 
novitate  nausiabundus  erigi  possit,  quid  iam  ipsa  satietate  fas- 
tidiat,  quid  illo  die  esuriat.  Cum  his  cenar,e  non  sustinet  et 
maiestatis  suae  diminutionem  putat  ad  eandem  mensam  cum 
servo  suo  accedere.'  Martial,  xiv,  217,  refers  to  the  '  obso- 
nator,'  and  the  instructions  which  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
receive,  "  Tell  me  how  many  there  are  of  you,  and  at  what 
price  you  wish  to  dine.  Not  a  word  more,  dinner  is  ready  for 
you."  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8946,  contains  the  name  of  an  '  obsonator ' 
belonging  to  the  imperial  household,  '  Dis  Manibus  Taurionis 
opsonatoris  Poppaeae  Aug.'  Another  mentioned,  C.  I.  L.  vi, 
8945,  is  a  { libertus,  Aphareus  luliae  Aug.  L.  Opson.  dat  Liviae 
Hilarae.'  In  C.  I.  L.  vi,  5353,  found  in  a  '  columbarium,'  we 
read,  '  Lectus  opsonator  L.  Caes(aris).'  Spartianus,  Hadrian, 
17,  refers  to  other  imperial  i  obsonatores,  Ad  deprehendendas 
obsonatorum  fraudes,  cum  plurimis  simmatibus  pasceret.' 

Among  the  cook's  assistants  perhaps  should  be  placed  also  as 
Bliimner  thinks,  Romische  Privat-AUertumer  in  Miiller's 
Handbuch,  iv,  2,  11,  p.  193,  as  '  Kiichengehilfen  and  Unter- 
Koche '  the  i  coctores '  mentioned  in  Petronius,  95,  8,  and  the 
i  culinarii '  in  Scribonius  Largus,  230.  The  latter  are  proba- 
bly found  in  inscriptions  also.  Of.  C.  I.  L.  xn,  4470,  '  Q. 
Catio  Q.  Lib.  Hermae  culina  ' ;  although  Mommsen  says  '  Num 
de  culinario  cogitari  possit,  dubito.'  Compare  also  C.  I.  L. 
iv,  373.  Pictured  representations  of  kitchen  aids  are  found  in 
Etruscan  paintings  in  Golini  e  Contestabile,  Pitture  Scoperto 
Presso  Orvieto,  plates  5  and  6.  In  the  first  a  slave  is  engaged 
in  pounding  or  kneading  food;  in  the  ,second  two  slaves  with 
their  kitchen  utensils  are  busied  around  a  furnace,  in  which 
we  see  the  fire. 

Probably  the  '  f  artores '  also  were  more  or  less  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  '  archimagirus.'  They  were  found  in  the 
'  macellum '  with  the  '  lanii,  coqui,  and  piscatores/  Terence, 
Eunuclius,  255 ;  Cicero,  De  Officiis,  i,  42,  150.  They  are  men- 
tioned also  Plautus,  Truculentus,  107,  and  Horace,  Satires,  11, 


74  Roman  Cooks 

3,  229.  In  the  imperial  house  they  constituted  a  part  of  the 
host  whose  duty  was  to  supply  the  emperor's  table,  and  so 
would  come  under  the  sway  of  the  i  archimagirus.'  C.  I.  L.  vr, 
8848  and  8849  give  us  two  '  fartores  ex  familia  Augusta.7 
8848  reads,  i  Antigonus  Drusi  Caesaris  avium  fartor  prim,  fecit 
coniugi,'  and  8849,  '  Cinnamus  Ti.  Caesaris  fartor  avium/ 
Note  also  C.  I.  L.  vi,  6286,  <  OphiHo  fartor';  and  an  inscrip- 
tion of  Caesarea  in  Mauretania,  C.  I.  L.  viii,  9432,  '  Ossuarum 
Vitli  fartor  is.'  The  i  fartor '  seems  to  have  had  two  distinct 
functions — first  that  of  sausage  maker,  and  second  that  of 
raiser  and  fattener  of  fowls.  Donatus  on  Terence,  Eunuchus, 
257,  says  '  Fartores  qui  insicia  et  farcimina  faciunt.'  This 
was  probably  also  their  function  in  Plautus,  Truculentus,  107. 
That  they  fattened  fowls  is  shown  by  two  of  the  inscriptions 
just  noted,  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8848  and  8849.  Columella,  De  Re 
Rustica,  viii;  7,  says  too,  '  Pinguem  quoque  facere  gallinam 
quamvis  fartoris  non  rustici  fit  officium.'  According  to  Pliny, 
N.  H.  x,  139,  the  Fannian  Law  must  have  interfered  some- 
what with  this  side  of  the  '  fartores' '  business,  for  he  tells  us, 
£  Gallinas  saginare  Deliaci  coepere,  unde  pestis  exorta  opimas 
avis  et  suopte  corpore  unctas  devorandi.  Hoc  primum  anti- 
quis  cenarum  interdictis  exceptum  invenio  iam  lege  0.  Fanni 
Cos.  xi  annis  ante  tertium  Punicum  bellum  ne  quid  volucre 
poneretur  praeter  unam  gallinam,  quae  non  esset  altilis,  quod 
deinde  caput  translatum  per  omnis  leges  ambulavit.' 

The  relation  of  the  cook  to  the  baker  is  an  interesting  ques- 
tion. Originally  the  two  were  the  same,  as  is  shown  by  a  frag- 
ment from  Naevius,  cf.  Scaenicae  Romanorum  Poesis  Frag- 
menta,  Naevius,  Fragmenta  Incerta,  xiv: 

Cocus  edit  Neptunum,  Cererem, 
Et  Venerem  expertam  Volcanom 
Liberumque  obsorbuit 
Pariter. 

Paulus  ex  Festo,  De  Ponor,  p.  41,  says  that  from  this  passage 
it  is  that  w,e  learn  i  cocum  et  pistorem  apud  antiques  eundem 


Roman  Cooks  75 

fuisse.'  He  says  further  that  '  Naevius  significat  per  Cererem 
panem,  per  Neptunum  pisces,  per  Venerem  holera.'  Cf.  Cor- 
pus Glossariorum  Latinorum,  v,  521,  565,  where  the  passage  is 
explained  as  follows :  '  Ceres  f  rumentum  vel  panem,  Liber  vitem 
vel  vinum,  Venus  libidinem  vel  holer  a,  Neptunus  aquam  vel  pis- 
ces,  Vulcanus  ignem  vel  solem  significant  .  .  .  obsorbuit,  id  est 
cocus  comedit  pisces,  et  panem,  et  olera  cocta  ad  ignem,  et 
vinum  pariter  bibit.7  Pliny  also  says  that  in  ancient  Rome  the 
cook  was  also  the  baker  of  bread.  N.  H.  xvm,  108,  <  Pistores 
Romae  non  fuere  ad  Persicum  usque  bellum  annis  ab  urbe 
condita  super  DLXXX.  Ipsi  panem  faciebant  Quirites,  mulier- 
umque,  id  opus  erat,  sicut  etiam  nunc  in  plurimis  gentium. 
.  -  .  Certumque  fit  Atei  Capitonis  sententia  cocos  turn  panem 
lautioribus  coquere  solitos,  pistoresque  tantum  eos  qui  far  pise- 
bant  nominates.  Nee  cocos  vero  habebant  in  servitiis,  eosque 
ex  Macello  conducebant.'  The  professional  cook  then  was  in- 
troduced into  Rome  earlier  than  the  professional  baker,  and 
either  he  or  the  women  of  the  family  attended  to  the  baking  in 
early  times.  In  the  Aulularia,  400,  Anthrax,  a  cook,  goes  next 
door  to  borrow  an  '  artopta '  from  Congrio,  another  cook. 
'  Pistor '  in  Plautine  language  means  a  miller,  not  a  baker. 
Cf.  also  a  passage  from  Varro,  De  Vita  Populi  Romani,  Lib. 
i,  quoted  by  Nonius,  p.  223,  '  Nee  pistoris  nomen  erat  nisi 
eius  qui  ruri  far  pinsebat.  Nominati  ita  eo  quod  pinsunt ' ; 
Professional  bakers  were  introduced  into  Rome  about  173  B.  C., 
but  in  the  country  even  later  baking  was  the  business  of  women 
and  slaves,  Digesta,  xxxm,  7,  12,  5.  After  this  time  bakers 
are  often  mentioned  in  close  connection  with  cooks.  Compare 
Columella,  De  Re  Rustica,  xn,  4,  2,  and  many  other  passages. 
In  the  Anthologia  Latina  i,  pt.  1,  199,  Vespae,  there  is  a  Indi- 
cium Cod  et  Pistoris,  of  which  Yulcan  is  the  judge.  The  cook 
and  the  baker  contend  as  to  which  is  more  powerful.  The 
latter  says  that  bread  is  the  staff  of  life,  and  without  this  there 
is  nothing.  Finally  Vulcan  dismisses  them  and  bids  them  agree 
in  future. 

There  were  public  bakers,  but  in  some  establishments  the 
bread  making  was  done  in  the  home,  as  ovens  and  mills  which 


76  Roman  Cooks 

have  been  found  in  certain  Pompeian  houses  testify.  Where 
this  was  the  case,  as  it  probably  was  in  the  imperial  house  and 
in  the  wealthier  private  homes,  bakers  of  bread  may  have  been 
under  the  supervision  of  the  '  archimagirus/  as  were  also  their 
aids  the  pastry  and  sweetmeat  makers ;  the  '  placentarii,  dul- 
ciarii,  panchrestarii,  scriblitarii,  crustularii,  botularii,  lactarii 
and  libarii.' 

The  i  dulciarius/  or  '  dulciarius  pistor/  made  various  kinds 
of  sweetmeats  and  cakes,  of  flour  and  honey.  Apuleius,  Meta- 
morphoses, x,  13,  701,  describes  a  '  pistor  dulciarius  qui  panes 
et  mellita  concinnabat  edulia.'  At  night  he  brought  home  as 
specimens  of  his  art  '  panes,  crustula,  lucunculos,  hamos,  lac- 
ertulos,  et  plura  scitamenta  mellita.'  Compare  Isidorus, 
Origines,  xx,  2,  18,  '  Dulcia  sunt  genera  pistorii  operis  a  sopore 
dicta.  Melle  enim  adsperso  sumuntur.  Crusta  est  superficies 
panis.'  Martial,  xiv,  222,  says  of  the  '  pistor  dulciarius/ 
'  That  hand  will  construct  for  you  a  thousand  sweet  figures  of 
art;  for  it  the  frugal  bee  principally  labors/  Lampridius, 
Heliogabalus,  27,  speaks  of  skilled  sweetmeat  makers  in  that 
emperor's  household,  '  Dulciarios  et  lactarios  tales  habuit  ut 
quaecumque  coqui  de  diversis  edulibus  exhibuissent,  vel  struc- 
tores,  vel  pomarii,  illi  modo  de  dulciis  modo  de  lactariis 
exhiberent.'  Note  also  Corpus  Gloss.  Lat.  n,  263,  31 ;  408,  34, 
and  Trebellius  Pollio,  Claudius,  14,  11.  The  f  dulciarius  '  is 
found  in  inscriptions  also.  C.  L  L.  vi,  9374,  reads,  '  Locus 
Leopardi  dulciari,  etc./  and  C.  I.  L.  vi,  33854,  '  Locus  Cice- 
ronis  dulciari/  cf.  also  Anthologia  Latina,  Yespae,  Indicium, 
Cod  et  Pistoris,  i,  1,  199, 1.  50 ;  Vegetius,  De  Re  Militari,  i,  7 ; 
Vopiscus,  Tacitus,  6. 

The  (  placentarius/  from  l  placenta/  was  a  pastry  cook  who 
made  a  kind  of  cheese  cake,  Martial,  v,  39,  3,  (  Misi  Hyblaeis 
madidas  thymis  placentas/  which  were  often  sent  as  presents 
during  the  Saturnalia.  '  Inter  urbana  ministerea  continentur 
.  .  .  placentarii,  says  Paulus,  Sententia,  in,  6,  72.  Cf.  also 
Corpus  Glossariorum  Latinorum,  n,  408. 

Another  pastry  cook  was  the  '  scriblitarius/  a  tart  baker. 
'  Scriblita/  from  crTpeftXelv,  was  a  twist  or  tart  of  pastry  made 


Roman  Cooks  77 

of  cheese,  flour,  and  honey,  and  seems  to  have  been  served  hot, 
Martial,  in,  xvn,  1.  Plautus,  Poenulus,  43,  says,  '  Nunc  dum 
scribilitae  aestuant,  occurrite.'  Petronius,  however,  8at.  66, 
speaks  of  '  scribilita  frigida.'  Cf.  also  Petronius,  Sat.  35.  Afra- 
nius,  quoted  in  Nonius,  191,  says,  '  Pistori  nubat; — cur  non 
scribilitario  ? '  Ut  mittat  f  ratris  filio  lucunculos.'  See  also 
Scaenicae  Romanorum  Poesis  Fragmenia,  Ribbeck,  n^  p.  218. 

The  '  panchrestarius  '  was  a  confectioner,  and  is  mentioned 
in  Arnobius.  Adversus  Gentes,  n^  38. 

Other  assistants  were  the  'lactarii,  Lampridius,  Helioga- 
~balus,  27,  3.  An  inscription  of  a  '  libarius  ?  too  was  found  at 
Pompei,  C.  I.  L.  iv,  1768,  *  Yerecunnus  libarius  hie  cc.' 


78  Roman  Cooks 


CHAPTER  XI 
COLLEGIA'    OF    COOKS 


We  now  come  to  a  fact  in  regard  to  cooks  of  which,  we  should 
be  entirely  ignorant  were  it  not  for  the  evidence  which  we  find 
in  inscriptions.  The  authors  do  not  deem  it  of  sufficient  impor- 
tance to  mention  that  cooks  formed  '  collegia '  both  in  Republi- 
can and  Imperial  times. 

Industrial  guilds  of  various  kinds  existed  at  Rome  under  the 
Republic,  and  although  the  senate  had  the  right  to  abolish  them 
if  it  thought  best  to  do  so,  it  did  not  exercise  this  right  as  long 
as  they  observed  the  laws  and  were  not  troublesome.  Conse- 
quently we  find  artisans  and  tradesmen  of  various  kinds  repre- 
sented in  the  collegia  of  that  city.  There  were  corporations  of 
makers  of  rings,  of  fullers,  of  gold  workers,  of  potters,  of  car- 
penters, of  butchers,  of  poets,  of  actors,  of  flute-players,  and  of 
various  other  occupations.  We  have  no  evidence  of  a  '  col- 
legium cocorum '  in  the  city  of  Rome  during  Republican  days, 
yet  there  is  little  doubt  that  such  an  organization  actually  did 
exist  there;  for  we  find  one  at  Praeneste,  and  another  in  Sar- 
dinia, and  the  smaller  towns  of  course  took  Rome  as  their 
model.  We  have  previously  given  the  contents  and  discussed 
the  date  of  the  earliest  known  inscription  of  a  '  collegium 
cocorum/  C.  I.  L.  xi,  3078,  which  says  that  the  i  magistri '  of 
a  guild  of  Faliscan  cooks  in  Sardinia  gave  a  gift  to  Jupiter, 
Juno,  and  Minerva.  It  reads,  '  Jovei,  lunonei,  Minervai, 
Falesce  quei  in  Sardinia  sunt,  donum  dederunt;  magistreis  L. 
Latrius,  K.  F.  C.  Salv[e]na,  V-oltai  F.  coiraveront.'  On  the 
other  side  are  found  the  words,  '  conlegium  quod  est  aciptum 
aetatei  age(n)d[ai],  opiparum  a[d]  veitam  quolundam  fes- 
tosque  dies,  quei  soueis  a[rg]utieis  opidque  Volgani  condeco- 
rant  sai[pi]sume  comvivia  loidosque  ququei  hue  dederu[nt] 


Roman  Cooks  79 

[i]nperatoribus  summeis,  utei  sesed  lubent[es]    [be]ne  iovent 
optantis. 

C.  I.  L.  xiv,  2875  =  i,  1540,  has  reference  to  another  Repub- 
lican collegium  of  cooks:  '  Coques  atriensis  (f.  p.  d.  d.)  Magis- 
tres  Rodo  Or(ceui  s.),  Artemo,  Dind.  Q.  S.,  Apoli(naris  s) 
Protus  Ae(mili  s).'  This  was  probably  a  dedication  to  For- 
tuna  Primigenia,  who  was  worshipped  at  Praeneste,  and  whose 
name  is  often  found  in  inscriptions  of  that  town:  C.  I.  L. 
xiv,  2874,  2876,  2878,  2880,  2881,  2884,  2886,  2885,  2888, 
and  others.  It  is  not  clear  why  these  cooks  were  called 
'  atriensis,'  but  Mommsen's  conjecture  seems  to  be  the  best,  that 
the  '  coqui  Praenestini '  had  their  station  in  the  atrium  of  some 
temple,  probably  that  of  '  Fortuna  Primigenia  '  herself.  J.  P. 
Waltzing  in  his  Etude  Historique  sur  les  Corporations  Profes- 
sionnelles  chez  les  Romains,  i,  346,  says  that  this  was  probably 
a  domestic  '  collegium.7 

'  Collegia  Domestica  '  were  very  numerous  from  the  time  of 
Augustus  on.  The  imperial  household  and  rich  families  pos- 
sessed legions  of  slaves  and  f  reedmen.  These  slaves  and  f  reed- 
men  of  the  same  house  often  formed  '  collegia/  whose  members 
worshipped  the  '  Lares '  of  their  master,  to  whose  liberality 
they  owed  a  place  of  shelter  during  life.  The  object  of  the 
association  was  to  procure  a  fitting  burial  for  the  members. 
The  slaves  of  a  wealthy  family  or  of  an  emperor  were  often 
divided  according  to  their  trades  into  families,  and  each  family 
which  was  sufficiently  numerous  perhaps  formed  a  '  collegium/ 
Of  this  kind  are  the  l  collegia  '  found  C.  I.  L.  vr,  8750,  and 
7458,  in  which  the  cooks  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian  founded  a 
1  collegium  cocorum.'  '  T.  Aelius  Aug.  Lib.  Primitivus  archi- 
magirus  et  Aelia  Aug.  Lib.  Tyche  Coniunx  fecerunt  sibi  et 
suis  Lib.  libertabusq(ue)  posterisque  eorum.  Custodia  moni- 
menti  inhabitandi  ne  quis  interdicere  vellit  quod  si  nemo  de 
hac  memoria  nostra  extiterit,  pertinere  debebit  ad  collegium 
cocorum  Aug.  1ST,  quod  consistit  in  Palatio,  quod  neque  donari 
neque  veniri  permittimus,  quod  si  quis  contra  sic  legem  s.  s. 
fecerit,  dare  debebit  corpori  qui  sunt  in  hac  stationem  HS. 


80  Roman  Cooks 

T  M.  K'  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8750,  reads,  '  Diis  Manibus  T  Aelius 
Aug.  Lib.  Primitivus  archimagirus  fecit  Aelia  Tycbe  et  sibi 
et  Aeliae  Tyrannidi  coniugi  et  libertis  libertabusq.  meis  vel 
Aeliae  Tyrannidis  posterisque  eorum  Custodia  moni(m)enti 
inbabitandi  ne  quis  interdicere  velit,  quotsi  nemo  de  N"  memoria 
exstiterit,  pertinebit  ad  collegium  cocoru(m)  Caesaris  JST.  quot 
veniri  donarive  vetamus  si  adversus  ea  quis  fecerit  poenae 
nomine  feret  arcae  cocorum  HS.  L.  M.  !N\  Ate  ex  usuris  eorum 
celebretur  suo.  quoq.  anno.' 

Tbese  two  inscriptions  are  so  mucb  alike  tbat  Mommsen 
thinks  tbat  tbey  were  originally  placed  on  different  sides  of  tbe 
same  monument,  and  tbat  lines  3  and  4  of  C.  I.  L.  7458  were 
originally  4  and  5  of  8750;  but  tbat  after  tbe  deatb  of  Aelia 
Tycbe,  Titus  Aelius  married  Aelia  Tyrannis.  Tben  lines  4 
and  5,  cf.  8750,  in  C.  I.  L.  were  erased  and  tbe  inscription 
cbanged  so  as  to  include  ber,  by  putting  in  lines  4-7. 

Eacb  '  collegium '  bad  its  '  area '  wbicb  is  mentioned  in  tbe 
two  inscriptions  just  quoted.  For  tbe  funds  of  '  collegia '  com- 
pare also  C.  I.  L.  vi,  10237;  xiv,  3659;  vi,  9354;  vi,  9044; 
vi,  10348;  vi,  14413;  vi,  1682;  vi,  9626;  11,  2102;  xiv,  2299. 
Revenues  came  into  tbe  '  area '  from  various  sources,  of  wbicb 
one  is  mentioned  in  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8750,  and  7458.  '  Titus  Aelius 
Primitivus  arcbimagirus '  constructed  a  family  sepulcher, 
wbich  be  wisbed  to  remain  tbe  property  of  bis  descendants. 
If,  bowever,  bis  family  became  extinct,  tbe  tomb  was  to  pass 
to  an  imperial  '  collegium '  of  cooks.  Whoever  should  trans- 
gress the  '  lex  monumenti  '  must  pay  50,000  sesterces  to  this 
same  college.  We  find  another  example  of  a  fine  which  was  to 
be  paid  to  a  corporation  in  (7. 1.  L.  vi,  9485.  By  means  of  these 
penalties  the  owners  hoped  to  frighten  those  who  would  wish 
to  profane  the  tomb.  Such  fines,  says  Waltzing,  in  the  work 
previously  cited,  i,  468,  were  rarely  paid,  and  contributed 
little  to  the  budget  of  tbe  '  collegium.' 

In  C.  I.  L.  vi,  9262,  one  of  the  officials  of  the  '  collegia '  is 
given,  '  D.  M.  S.  Yaleriae  Epicone  coniugi  B.  M.  F.  Ael.  Eph- 
proditus  scriba  cocorum.'  This  Aelius  Ephproditus  or  Epa- 


Roman  Cooks  81 

phroditus  was  doubtless  a  member  of  the  same  family  as  the 
T.  Aelius  Primitivus  in  C.  I.  L.  vi,  7458  and  8750,  and  held 
the  office  of  '  scriba '  in  the  '  collegium  cocorum.'  In  some  of 
the  i  collegia '  the  president  fulfilled  the  duties  of  secretary, 
and  took  the  name  of  (  scriba  '  et  '  magister.'  See  C.  I.  L.  xiv, 
2299;  xiv,  418,  and  419.  However,  most  of  the  corporations 
had  one  or  more  special  secretaries  '  scriba,  tabularius/  or 
i  notarius.'  See  C.  I.  L.  vi,  1060,  and  compare  also  C.  I.  L.  vi, 
868.  The  i  scriba '  was  not  appointed  annually,  but  was 
named  for  life,  for  according  to  Mommsen,  De  Colle.t  p.  106, 
n.  1,  we  never  find  '  scriba  iterum.'  Although  inferior  to  other 
officers  in  the  'collegia/  he  figures  beside  them  in  inscriptions, 
C.  I.  L.  vi,  868 ;  and  1060.  In  some  of  the  organizations  he 
was  free  from  the  monthly  tribute  which  was  usually  exacted. 

The  i  collegia  domestica  '  which  were  formed  by  the  slaves 
and  freedmen  of  an  emperor,  or  wealthy  personage,  naturally 
had  their  location  in  the  house  of  the  master.  In  C.  I.  L.  vi, 
7458,  we  read,  '  collegium  cocorum  Aug(usti)  n(ostri)  quod 
consistit  in  Palatio,'  and  a  little  further  on,  '  corpori  qui  sunt 
in  hac  stationem.'  Compare  also  C.  I.  L.  vi,  8750,  and  C.  I.  L. 
xii,  4449  '(collegium  sa)lutare  (f)amilia(e)  tabellarior(um) 
Caesaris  n(ostri),  quae  sunt  Narbone  in  domu7;  C.  I.  L.  vir 
9148,  (  collegium  quod  est  in  domu  Sergiae  Paullinae/  and  also 
C.  L  L.  vi,  9149,  10260,  and  10264. 

In  the  Italian  and  provincial  cities  the  guilds  of  tradesmen 
played  quite  an  important  role,  even  in  political  matters  which 
indicates  that  they  may  have  done  so  at  Rome  also.  Under 
Tiberius  the  senate  suppressed  the  (  collegia  ?  of  artisans  and 
tradesmen  at  Pompeii.  They,  however,  remained  united,  says, 
Waltzing,  in  the  work  cited,  i,  16,  and  took  an  active  part  in 
the  election  of  79 ;  when  Pompeii  chose  its  '  duumviri  iure 
dicundo,'  and  its  aediles  some  months  before  the  terrible  erup- 
tion which  swallowed  it  up.  The  struggle  was  a  hot  one,  and 
these  high  offices  were  ardently  contested.  The  walls  of  the 
houses  of  Pompeii,  which  were  brought  to  light  after  eighteen 
hundred  years,  still  bear  about  fourteen  hundred  electoral 

6 


82 


Roman  Cooks 


posters,  in  which  societies  and  individuals  recommended  their 
candidates.  A  great  many  of  these  belong  to  professional 
guilds,  for  example,  the  6  caupones,  pistores,  libarii  and  ful- 
lones.'  The  cooks  also  are  represented  in  C.  I.  L.  iv,  373 
'(epid?)  him  Sue(t)tium  n  vir  D.  R.  P.  O.  F.  culinari  rogant.' 
Garrucci  however  and  following  him  Orelli  7227  read  this,  '  L. 
Plotium  et  Suellium  n  vir  dignum  re  publica  oro  vos  f  aciatis 
culinari  rogant.'  Whatever  the  names  may  be,  this  inscription, 
which  was  scratched  on  an  old  Pompeian  wall,  shows  that  the 
cooks  of  that  city  were  united,  even  if  their  corporation  was  not 
recognized.  Although  in  the  face  of  a  formal  prohibition  of 
Tiberius  they  did  not  dare  to  take  the  name  '  collegium/  they 
nevertheless  played  an  active  part  in  the  election  of  79,  and 
asked  votes  for  their  candidates. 


Roman  Cooks  83 


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VITA 

Cornelia  Gaskins  Harcum  was  born  in  Reedville,  Virginia, 
July  3,  1881,  She  received  her  preliminary  training  at  home 
and  in  the  Public  Schools  of  Baltimore.  In  September,  1904, 
she  entered  Goucher  College,  and  was  graduated  with  the  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Arts  in  June,  1907.  From  1907-1910  she  was 
a  teacher  in  the  secondary  schools  of  Baltimore.  She  spent  the 
years  1910-1913  as  a  graduate  student  in  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity, pursuing  courses  in  Classical  Archaeology,  Latin,  and 
Greek,  and  Comparative  Philololgy  under  Professors  Harry  L. 
Wilson,  David  M.  Robinson,  Kirby  Flower  Smith,  Basil  L. 
Gildersleeve,  C.  W.  E.  Miller,  and  Maurice  Bloomfield.  Dur- 
ing this  time  she  held  a  resident  fellowship  from  Goucher  Col- 
lege, 1910-1911,  a  scholarship  in  Latin  from  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  1911-1912,  and  the  University  fellowship  in  Classi- 
cal Archaeology,  1912-1913.  In  June,  1912,  she  received  the 
degree  of  Master  of  Arts  from  the  Johns  Hopkins  University. 
She  wishes  to  express  her  sincere  gratitude  and  appreciation  to 
all  of  the  professors  under  whom  she  has  studied  for  the  con- 
stant interest,  inspiration,  and  help  which  she  has  received  from 
them.  Especially  are  thanks  due  to  the  late  Professor  Harry 
L.  Wilson,  at  whose  suggestion  the  preceding  study  was  begun, 
and  to  Professor  David  M.  Robinson  and  Professor  Kirby 
Flower  Smith,  by  whose  kind  assistance  it  has  been  completed. 


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