Do you love vinegar? Can't get enough of that pure lard?
Then maybe the life of a Roman legionary is for you.
Today we'll be making posca, the Gatorade of ancient Rome,
along with a boiled lard that might have been eaten by Caesar's men just before crossing the Rubicon.
Posca and lard, this time on
Who Wants to Feed a Legionnaire,
or Tasting History.
Welcome to Rome Month.
I don't know why it's always in an English accent but you know blame Hollywood.
Either way it's four weeks of ancient Roman recipes sponsored by
the folks at Creative Assembly as they get ready to conquer Rome once again with
Total War Rome Remastered out on April 29th.
So today's video is inspired by your need to keep your Roman army well fed
and supplied in the game, and to find out what an ancient Roman army might eat
we turn to the general Avidius Cassius who commanded his troops to carry no food but
"Laridum ac buccelatum at que acteum"
Lard, hardtack and sour wine, and that last ingredient the sour wine or wine vinegar which
is French for sour wine, vinaigre, is the main ingredient in posca. Well one of them. The other one is water.
And since it's basically just water and vinegar it would make for a
pretty short episode, so I'm also going to throw in a recipe from Apicius for boiled lard so we
can cover two of the three things. I'm not going to be making the buccelatum or hardtack because
I just made that, and I'll put a link to that video in the description.
So let us start with the posca. Whenever I say that I always think of Tosca my favorite opera or one of them and
if you've never heard Tosca you should hear it because it's fantastic and absolutely has
nothing to do with what we're talking about today. So that's all I will say about that.
Go listen to Tosca.
Now when it comes to a recipe for posca as drunk by the legions,
oh we don't have one. The closest thing would be what Plutarch said of Cato the Elder when he was fighting in the Punic Wars.
"Water was what he drank on his campaigns, except that once in a while, in a raging
thirst he would call for vinegar, or, when his strength was failing would add a little wine."
And it's that addition of sour wine or wine vinegar that makes it posca but we don't know
anything about the ratios of water to the vinegar, or if they ever put anything else in there.
Though we can get a glimpse at what maybe they would have done by some much later recipes but they come from
several centuries after the fall of the Western Empire, and are mostly used medicinally except for
one in the sixth century that uses it just as an ingredient to put on melon with pennyroyal but it
doesn't tell us how to actually make the posca, but I am going to read you one of those later
medicinal recipes just so you can get an idea of what the concoctions were like. They were all
kind of of the same ilk.
This one is called lithium tripic posca and that means that it had something
to do with dissolving kidney stones.
"Kidney stoooones."
"The lithontripic posca.
Of pennyroyal, of mastich, of parsley seed, of dried mint...
of common salt toasted... of coriander seed, of spikenard, of anise, of bishop's weed..
of indian leaf, of white pepper, of the seed of gromwell, of bettony, of fine vinegar...
when all are pounded, sifted, and triturated very fine, let them be mixed with vinegar for three days,
and exposed in the sun for forty days."
It then goes on to have the patient sit this potion in a warm bath.
Now an ancient Roman legionnaire would not have access to almost any of those ingredients
nor would they have access to a hot bath on most days. So we know that they weren't making this.
In fact it's likely that by the time this recipe was written down the term posca had really
completely changed to something very different from what the ancient Roman legions were drinking
but we can use it to to see maybe what kind of herbs would have gone into it, and so i'm going
to add some of those herbs in one version because why not. So for this recipe what you'll need is:
a cup of water, a little red wine vinegar, and some optional herbs. I'm going to use spikenard
and coriander seed, because I had those on hand.
Don't use pennyroyal though because even though you can get it
depending on the person it could kill you or at least make you very sick.
Don't use it.
I'm also going to add some optional salt.
Legionaries pretty much always had access to salt, so it's not odd that they would maybe add it for a little flavor or just as a way to
get their salt, but this is a good time to dispel the myth that they were paid in salt.
They weren't actually paid in salt. It was part of their ration but it wasn't a form of payment per se.
That idea comes from a mistranslation of Pliny the Elder who even when properly translated
should be taken with a grain of salt. Though the word salary does have its roots in the word
salt or sal, and you shouldn't do that today. Pay people in salt because most people won't be happy,
especially the IRS. They really don't have a sense of humor about these things...
But with the addition of salt this really does become the ancient Roman Gatorade albeit with less added sugar
and fewer fun colors.
So if you're not using any herbs just mix the ingredients and you're done,
but if you are using herbs and salt go ahead and let them soak for a while
before straining them out.
Either way this is definitely the simplest recipe I've ever made,
so simple that you really have no excuse not to hit the Like button and Subscribe unless
you don't want to, which I guess would be a valid excuse but why wouldn't you want to.
Now the recipe for laridi coctura, or cooked lard from 'De re Coquinaria' is
almost as simple but we will get to that after we look at what a Roman legion might have eaten.
"It takes supreme skill to subdue an enemy more by famine than by the sword.
For in the latter, fortune tends to have more influence than bravery."
That was Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus,
and I always get a kick out of how Medieval and Renaissance artists would depict ancient
Romans wearing the clothes of the Medieval or Renaissance, I just think it's funny. Anyway the
Vegetius wrote 'De re military' which was all about how to run a functioning Roman army, and one of
the most important things in the book is on making sure that they're well fed and watered.
"They should have grain, wine, sour wine and even salt in plenty at all times."
Though the word plenty is rather relative since
"...a frugal distribution of the provisions... will ensure sufficient plenty.
When provisions once begin to fail parsimony is ill-timed and comes too late."
Supply chain management and logistics the backbone of any army even today.
And many, many armies have been undone
by their supply chain or by lack of food and water. Writing about the Second Punic War Appian says,
"Hannibal was cut off in the midst of a plane without water and was engaged all night digging wells.
His army by toiling in the sand with great difficulty obtained a little muddy water to drink...
Scipio, mindful of this, moved against them at daybreak while they were exhausted with marching,
with want of sleep and want of water. Hannibal was troubled since he did not wish to join battle
in that plight yet he saw that if he should remain there his army would suffer severely from want of water."
Well Hannibal wasn't about to retreat because Hannibal was Hannibal and so
he took his 50,000 men and his 80 elephants and he fought a battle that he didn't want to fight,
and he lost big time. Pretty much ended the Second Punic War on that day and it was all because,
or at least partly, because he had to fight a battle due to a lack of fresh water. All he
had was muddy water and Vegetius says
"Neither should the army use bad or marsh water for
bad drinking water like poison causes disease for the drinkers."
And while wine vinegar is not going to make muddy water potable it might make somewhat bad water a little bit more drinkable.
Also historians think that the Romans possibly were under the impression that it might help ward
off scurvy because in the Middle Ages they did think that it warded off scurvy, Europeans did.
It doesn't but they thought it did so there you go, but likely the best reason for having them
carry around sour wine is that while wine vinegar doesn't actually hydrate you in fact in large
amounts it can do the exact opposite, it does slake your thirst.
"A jar of sour wine was sitting there.
So they soaked a sponge in the wine, put it on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted it to his mouth.
That is one of several versions of the story where Jesus is up on the cross and it's usually
a Roman soldier who gives him a drink possibly of posca in this case with a bit of hyssop,
but depending on the version of the gospel that you're reading it's either seen as an act of mercy
or as an act of mockery. In fact in one version they add a bit of gall to the the vinegar or the
posca and who carries around gall with them. I don't know, I don't think I want to know them.
Maybe someone can explain to me why someone would just be carrying that around. Kind of demented but
whether good or bad in the Bible, in Roman history it was always seen as a refreshing thing to drink.
Even Roman emperors took up the cup. The Emperor Hadrian of wall building renown famously ate and
drank just as his soldiers did.
"He inspired his soldiers by proofs of his own powers of endurance,
actually led a soldier's life... Cheerfully ate out of doors on such camp fare as bacon fat, cheese, and sour wine."
And not to be outdone the Emperor Caracalla "...used to eat whatever bread was readily at hand.
He would grind enough grain for himself with his own hands and make a barley cake,
which he would eat after baking it on charcoal.
He claimed that he loved being called a fellow soldier by them instead of the Emperor."
Did he though because it kind of sounds like when my old boss used to come up and chat with the team.
"What's up fellas how's it going? What's the scuttlebutt?
How was the weekend? You can tell me. I know I'm the boss but come on, we're a team."
-_-
Yeah I'm guessing once he got back to Rome he really preferred being called emperor again.
Now while grain, sour wine, salt and fat were the staples of the Roman legion's diet it's not all
that they ate, partly because they often had to provide a lot of their own food.
There are stories of towns coming together trying to get as much food as they can to give to their soldiers before
they went off to war whenever a herald would come and announce a conscription and there's a papyrus
fragment from Alexandria Egypt in the second century. It's a letter from the legionary Claudius Torrentianus to his sister.
"Take every step to supply me with two containers of the largest size of olyra,
and an artab of radish oil."
Like a care package when you go to camp.
Also food got better when you were in foreign territory because Roman legions were not above pillaging.
"Cestius sent out a great many of his soldiers into neighboring villages to take up their grain."
There are numerous mentions of troops living abroad after something has been conquered where they're living it up but
the best written one is actually a Greek source. So forgive me for using a Greek source but
it's just so good.
"Xenophon made a round of the villages, at each place he would visit the troops stationed there,
and everywhere he found them being well entertained in merry-making...
There was no place where they did not serve on the same table lamb, kid, pork, veal, poultry, and many loaves of bread,
some of wheat and some of barley. And whenever a man might wish to drink to another's health
he would drag him to the big bowl of wine, and when there he must duck his head and take a long pull
gulping greedily like an ox."
Those crazy Greeks but if things ever got a little too out of hand
they got a little too lackadaisical. There was always some stick in the mud general coming around
to put an end to the party.
In the second century BC Scipio, now this is a different scipio than
Scipio Africanus who fought Hannibal but a general all the same. He went to Spain to restore order
"When he arrived, he drove out all traders and harlots, and the soothsayers and the diviners...
He also ordered all wagons and their superfluous contents to be sold, and all pack animals...
For cooking utensils it was only permitted to have a spit, a brass kettle, and a single cup.
Their food was limited to plain boiled and roasted meats. They were forbidden to have beds, and Scipio was
the first to sleep on straw... Those who had servants to bathe and anoint them were ridiculed by Scipio,
who said that only mules having no hands need others to rub them."
"She is really a party pooper."
Then there was General Gaius Marius whose troops were known as Marius's Mules because he forced
them all to carry their own food in a bundle on their back.
And while surely it wasn't pleasant to march around with all of your meager foods on your back, it wasn't a punishment
it was just as a way to keep the army lean, but food could be used as a punishment.
"Augustus dismissed the entire 10th legion in disgrace... without the rewards of which would have been due for faithful service.
If any cohorts gave way in battle he decimated them and fed the rest on barley."
So yeah you got barley instead of wheat and Polybius says
"The public humiliation for receiving barley rations...
is best calculated to inspire fear."
It's a mighty strong feeling to have about a grain,
especially when you kind of gloss over the first part of the punishment which
was decimation or decimatio. That's when all of the men would draw lots and ten percent of them
would suffer fustuarium or being beaten to death with sticks.
I'll take the barley thank you.
But not today, no barley for me. No it's just posca and lard enough to keep any Roman soldier up and running.
Just like those that you'll be commanding in the PC strategy game Total War Rome Remastered.
So the recipe for arlard or lardo comes from Apicius and says
"Cooked lard: Boil covered in water with plenty of dill, drizzle a little oil and a little salt."
So all you need is some Italian lardo or smoked fatty pork.
You'll often see it translated as bacon but it is not bacon like
Americans know bacon, or anyone knows bacon. It's pretty much just pure fat.
A bunch of dill, olive oil and salt.
Add the dill to a pot of boiling water and then add in your lard
and cook for five to seven minutes or until it's nice and soft.
Then slice, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and serve.
Here we are posca and laridi coctura.
Here we go.
That ain't half bad.
It's actually really good. :D
So it's quite salty because it's been been cured which
it probably would have been at the time and I don't really like the texture because it's
fat, but the flavor is really nice. It kind of tastes like bacon. I don't really get the dill.
Maybe, maybe a little bit. It's good.
What it doesn't need is added oil.
Like who thought you know what, you know what this piece of fat needs? Some liquid fat drizzled on top.
Well whoever wrote De re Coquinaria who might have been Apicius he thought that, but I don't think that.
Let's try the posca.
So I actually have two glasses of posca. I have the one
with no herbs and no salt and then the one with herbs and salt. I only have one
of these cool little cups so instead I got a fancy glass. So i'll try this one first.
Definitely smells like vinegar.
That's actually not bad. I wouldn't want a bunch of it but
it's actually kind of nice. What does it remind me of,
it's like a sour Fresca or something like that without the bubbles. It's like it's sour but it's not.
It's not overwhelmingly sour. Let's try it with the herbs.
I actually really like that. Again i'm not going to want like a glass of it,
but I wouldn't turn it down.
You can really taste the- I think it's the spikenard that I'm tasting and if you don't know what spikenard is,
then you don't know what i'm talking about,
but you should order some because it has a really interesting flavor and interesting scent. It's
usually used as incense. It was actually one of the things that like Mary Magdalene
put on Jesus's feet and hair. It's got like a woodiness to it. Almost like the the smell of Aspen.
You know what Aspen trees kind of have that clean woodiness to it and it cuts the
the tartness of the vinegar, and again we don't know how much vinegar they would have used.
Maybe they used a ton of vinegar and I would just spit it out but I used a fair amount enough to color it
pretty pink, and it's it's not bad. It's not bad at all.
So one more thing about the history of posca it was also often sold on streets in Roman towns,
and Suetonius writes a story of the Emperor Vitellius coming across one such seller of posca.
"This fellow had immoral relations with Vitellius in his youth but later grew weary of him and ran away.
When Vitellius came upon him selling posca at Puteoli,
he put him in irons... but at once freed him again and made him his favorite.
His vexation was renewed by the man's excessive insolence and thievishness and he sold him to an itinerant keeper of gladiators."
And I tell you this because the rather interesting Emperor Vitellius
is the subject of next week's video where we will be making Vitellian peas.
So make sure to join me next Tuesday for our continuation of Rome month, again English not sure why, on Tasting History.