Apicius: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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'''Apicius,''' ("bee-keeper"), was a name applied to three celebrated [[Roman]] [[epicure]]s, the first of whom lived during the [[Roman Republic|Republic]]; the second of whom, '''Marcus Gavius Apicius'''—the most famous in his own time—lived under the early Empire; the third of whom, probably no relation, was the late [[4th century|4th]] or early [[5th century|5th]] century author of the '''one surviving Roman [[cookbook]]'''.

The famous "Apicius," M. Gavius Apicius, moved in the Imperial circle of [[Tiberius]] and his son Drusus (died 23AD CE[[23]]) and was a close friend of [[Sejanus]], according to [[Pliny]]'s ''Natural History'' (Book 19:137). Pliny considered Apicius born to enjoy every extravagant luxury that could be contrived (''ad omne luxus ingenium natus'', in ''Nat. History'' 9:66). According to Pliny, in his search for astounding delicacies (plates of [[nightingale]]s' tongues and such), Apicius fed his [[pig]]s with dried [[fig]]s and slaughtered them by means of overdoses of [[honeyed wine]]. If it is true that he had his geese force-fed with dried (''figs?'') and [[honey]] in order to enlarge their [[liver]]s, this would indicate that the origins of ''[[foie gras]]'' are Greco-Roman, not French.

This Apicius invented various dishes and sauces in which refined delicacy was taken to eccentric extremes. Having heard of the boasted size and sweetness of the [[shrimp]]s taken near the [[Libya]]n coast, Apicius commandeered a boat and crew, but when he arrived, disappointed by the ones he was offered by the local fishermen, turned round and had his crew return him to Rome ''without going ashore.'' Such exploits rated a mention in [[Tacitus]]' ''Annals'' (4:1:2). He is said to have kept a school, after the manner of a [[philosopher]], to the disgust of the [[moralist]] [[Seneca]] (''Consolamentum ad Helviam'') who saw him as a corrupter who infected the age with his example. But when Seneca links Apicius with the great literary patron and book collector [[Maecenas]], the force of his diatribe in favor of the good old Roman ways is blunted for us.

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Such pursuits for an upper-class Roman were considered so demeaning in the eyes of his contemporaries (and so scandalous to the ascetic Church fathers who succeeded to their position) that a legend grew up that, though he lived in the lap of luxury, with a more than comfortable fortune, he impoverished himself through his culinary extravagances to such an extent, that he became haunted enough by the fear of ''practically'' starving to death, —to poison himself to escape such a fate. The reader is cautioned to take this legend ''cum grano salis.''

The well-known collection of Roman recipes for cooking that has been alluded to, in ten very brief little books, entitled ''[[De re coquinaria]],'' ("The Art of Cooking") is of later date, the late 4th or early [[5th century]] CEAD, written in a debased [[Latin]] that the epicure would have not approved and is conventionally attributed to one otherwise unknown "Caelius Apicius." It is likely that the real title was ''Caelii Apicius'' ''i.e.'' "the ''Apicius'' of Caelius". It shows that, like most of the sophisticated luxuries in Roman culture, Roman [[haute cuisine]] was founded on Greek originals.

The ten books are divided like modern cookbooks:

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# ''Halieus'' - Fish

Appended to the ten books is a very abbreviated epitome ''Apici Excerpta a Vinidario'' a "pocket Apicius" by a certain Vinidarius, made in the [[5th century]].

Once manuscripts surfaced, there were two early printed editions od Apicius, in [[Milan]] [[1498]] and [[Venice]] [[1500]]. But in the flood of heavy tomes of pagan and Christian antiquity, it was delightful to read a Roman ''cookbook.'' Four more editions in the next four decades reflect the appeal of Apicius. In the long-standard edition of C. T. Schuch (Heidelberg, 1867), the editor added some recipes from a manuscript of the [[7th century]] in the ''[[Bibliotheque Nationale]]'', Paris. The modern standard edition is by Mary Ella Milham (''see link'').

==External links==