Harcura, Cornelia Gaskins
Roman cooks.
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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<(/ooeiT09), 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 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\ao>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 domu 7 ; C. I. L. vi r
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
BIBLIOGEAPHY
Bang, M. Die HerJcunft der Roemischen Sklaven, Mitteilun-
g-en des Kaiserlich deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts,
Boemische Abteilung, 1910, pp. 223-251.
Bliimner, Hugo Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe
und Kunste bei Griechen und Rb'mern, Leipzig, and
Berlin, 1912.
Die RomiscJie Privat-Altertumer, in Miiller's Handbuch
der klassischen Aliertumswissenschaft, iv, 2, u, Munich,
1911.
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Vols. i-xv,, Berlin.
Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquites grecques et
romaines, Paris, 1892.
Deecke, Wilhelm. Die Falisker, Strassburg, 1888.
Diehl, Ernst. AHlaieinische Inschriften, Bonn, 1909.
Pompeianische Wandimchriften und Verwandtes, Bonn,
1910.
De Yit. Totius Latinitatis Onomasticon, 1859-1887.
Pick-Bechtel. Griechische Personennamen, Grottingen, 1894.
Friedlander, L. Darstellungen <ms, der SittengesdyicJite Roms
in der Zeit von August bis zum Ausgang der Antonine,
Leipzig, 1910.
Georges, K. E. Lexikon der lateinischen Wortformen,, Leipzig,
1890.
Hiilsen, Ch. Das Forum Romanum, Rome, 1904.
Jordan, H. Topographie der Stadt Rom, Berlin, 1878.
Kock, T. Comicorum AUicorum Fragmenta, Leipzig, 1880.
Lindsay, W. M. The Latin Language: An Historical Account
of Latin Sounds, Stems, and Flexions, Oxford, Claren-
don Press, 1894.
Marquardt, J. Das Privatleben der Romer, Leipzig, 1886.
Meineke, A. Fragmenta Comicorum Graecorum, Paris, 1855.
i
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Pape, W. Wdrterbuch der griechischen Eigennamen, 1875.
Pauly-Wissowa. Real-Encyclopddie der classischen Altertums-
wissenschaft, Stuttgart, 1901-
Rankin, Edward Moore, The Role of the MdyeipoL in the Life
of the Ancient Gr&eJcs, Chicago, 1907.
Richter, O. Topographie der Stadt Rom, in Miiller's Hand-
Inch, m, 3, Munich, 1901.
De Ruggiero, E. Dizionario Epigmfico di Antichita Romane,
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Schulze, W. Geschichte lateinischer Eigennamen, Berlin,
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Schmidt, Karl. Griechische Personennamen bei Plautus, in
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fessionnelles chez les Romains, 1896.
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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