The diet of the people in late antiquity as recounted by the Latin and Greek ancient Christian writers

Ireneusz Milewski

Uniwersytet Gdański , Poland

Abstract

Ancient Christian literature is a source of an enormous wealth of information, including observations of the eating habits of the Roman Empire inhabitants in the fourth and fifth centuries. Due to the obvious reasons, those accounts are scarce as they are usually found on the margins of other descriptions. Moreover, the in­formation provided does not shed much light on the dietary habits of the people in late antiquity. The accounts gathered by me have references to eating bread, vegetables, fish, meat (rarely), wine and olive oil. There are sporadic cases where the Fathers of the Church mention in their writings other products consumed by the inhabitants of the Roman Empire.

Keywords:

ancient Christianity, ancient Christian writers, later Roman Empire, everyday life in late antiquity

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Published
2013-01-25


Milewski, I. (2013). The diet of the people in late antiquity as recounted by the Latin and Greek ancient Christian writers. Vox Patrum, 59, 379–386. https://doi.org/10.31743/vp.4049

Ireneusz Milewski 
Uniwersytet Gdański



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