The Romans ate a varied diet consisting of vegetables, meat and fish. The poorest Romans ate quite simple meals, but the rich were used to eating a wide range of dishes using produce from all over the Roman Empire.
Romans typically ate three meals a day – breakfast (ientaculum), lunch (prandium) and dinner (cena). Cena was the main meal.
The Romans did not sit down at a tables to eat their meals. They spread out on couches around a low, square table. They basically ate lying down! They also ate most of their meals with their fingers (although they did use spoons for some of the dishes, such as soup, and have knives to cut their food into bite-size pieces).
Fruit and Vegetables
A range of different fruits and vegetables were eaten by the Romans. They would have had: carrots, radishes, beans, dates, turnips, pears, plums, pomegranates, almonds, olives, figs, celery, apples, cabbages, pumpkins, grapes, mushrooms and many more. Some of these fruits and vegetables had never been seen in Britain before the Romans invaded.
Meat
The Romans kept animals for their meat. The rich ate beef, pork, wild boar, venison, hare, guinea fowl, pheasant, chicken, geese, peacock, duck, and even dormice (served with honey). The poorer Romans didn’t eat as much meat as the rich, but it still featured in their diet.
Fish
Lots of seafood was consumed by the Romans. They particularly enjoyed shellfish and fish sauce known as liquamen.
Bread and Porridge
Bread was a staple part of the Roman diet. Three grades of bread were made, and only rich ate refined white bread.
Pottage, a thick porridge-like stew, was made from millet or wheat. To this the Romans would add cooked meats, sauces and spices.
The Romans liked cheese (which was mainly made from goat’s milk) and eggs (from a variety of different birds).
Romans didn’t know about sugar, so honey was used as a sweetener. Rich Romans also used salt, pepper and a range of spices to add flavour to their meals.
Roman Banquets – What did rich Romans eat?
Check out this video clip – it gives a really good sense of some of the foods that were available to rich Romans and how they would go about eating them.
What did the Romans drink?
Wine was the main drink of the Roman Empire. It was always watered down and never drunk ‘straight’. In addition to drinking wine, the Romans also drank wine mixed with other ingredients. Calda was drunk in the winter and was made from wine, water and spices. Mulsum was a honey and wine mixture.
The Romans didn’t drink beer and rarely drank milk.
Find out more facts about the Romans by visiting our Romans resouces page.
Thanks! This helped me with my Roman Homework from school!
OMG, thank you so much for this amazing site, This site has helped me with my homework, I can’t believe that they ate laying down! That’s so crazy !!
Thanks again,
Amber 🙂
This was really helpful. You have put a lot of hard work into this. Thx and keep up the fantastic effort and work.
Helped with my 1/3 of grade project. Thanks so much.Wish 6th grade wasn’t so hard though Xp
This is the best Roman Website I have ever seen?. I am so glad that you made this website and it really does help me with my Roman Menu!?
This website helped me alot with my Roman project for school and I’m so glad I found it
this is an excellent website it helps me with my Roman project
Thank you this was a very helpful source of information!
really good help thanks asighnment finished xox
THANK YOU SO MUCH! This really helped out with my Roman menu, all the other websites asked for a bit of money for it!
Helped me A LOT on hmwk!!!
it sounds good
Wow! What a blast from the past – thank you! Am a primary teacher looking for resources. The children won’t believe that that clip came from when I was their age! Thanks guys.
Love it thx so much
good work
It was a good website that helped me with my Roman project
it was good thx so much
helped me too 😛
Thank you so much this is going to be a great project!!!!!!!
this is amazing
THANKS FOR ALL INFO….GREAT!!! WEBSITE.
Brilliant site for researching some school homework about the food that both the rich and poor Romans ate.
The video was also very helpful too.
Thank you.
Glad you found it useful, Mel. Thanks for using Primary Facts.
Great help wit project thanks
thanks because this website helped me with my roman project
I think it is very good quality and it is the most helpful for most of my searches. The videos are great to!!!
thx really helped me with my homework
Glad we were able to help you, Abi. Thanks for using Primary Facts.
Thanks, those information helped me a lot with my home work.
SAME
wow thanks heaps! helped me out with a really big assignment i had to do about rome 🙂
WOW THNX THIS HELPED ME ALOT WITH MY ROMAN PROJECT IN YR7
This helped with my homework thanks a lot
This is amazing it totally helped with homework I will tell friends
Thanks, David!
This helped me do y4 homework roman feast . Eliana
Glad we were able to help you with your homework, Eliana. Thanks for visiting Primary Facts.
this has helped me a lot our topic at school is the romans
I have told them many facts from this website
Thank this help me with my hwk….:-) 🙂
this helped me with my project in school! thanks
Thx helped alot with my latin work 😀
Helps Me So Much For School
I LOVE THE ROAMANS MADE MY PROJECT THE BEST ONE EVER XXXXX.
This site totally rocks it helped me a lot with my project about the Romans
thankyou helped with my homework
This helped alot with my homwork thanks 🙂
This really hellped me whith my CBA
this helped me alot with my homework
great stuff thanks really helped with my 800 word year 8 assignment
helped a lot with a project ^_^
i love the romans
Year 3
Thanks James this helped me a lot with my homework. ★★★★★
projects done THANKS!!!!!!!
it helped me do my roman project in year 3
good site
It helped me with my homework to write reports
In year 7
I like this page it helped me a lot I give credit to whoever made it.
marveloous helped me with my Roman project alot
cooool website this is 🙂
helped alot with roman scroll home work 😎
This helped alot with my PROJECT
AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It really helped me with my homework.
So good!!We’re meant to be creating a brochure about roman food!:P:)LOL!!
great
Pretty good doing a project in school and this helped me a whole lot!:)
this a very good website i think i will be using it agian.
really helped me with my homework and I liked the clip. ;>
thx this helped with my homework alot =)
thanks helps alot with my roman project 🙂
this helped a lot with my homework. Glad I found this website. Thanks a lot 🙂
This has helped me do my diary entry about the Romans in year 4 can’t wait to see what my teacher says ♥♥ 😛
I love this site now on Monday I am going to tell my friends about this website♥♥♥♥♥
This is good for my Roman project I am going to tell my class:-D
this helps a lot with my project
Very good. helps me with my roman project
Same it helps me with my project
i like this website because it help me with my work to
🙂
thanks helped me alot in my roman project
Awesome helped me out with home work thanks
Thanks for letting us know, Lola. Glad we were able to help!
Thanks helped me with ma roman project notes for school. In year 7 we have to write a lot and this helped me write a whole page, thanks!
Same hear I am I year 7 and o need to write 3 fact files
THANKS ALOT
Optimum! 😉
COOL