is unique among surviving texts from the Roman Empire: it is the only classical cookery book. It is a businesslike collection of recipes, apparently for banquets at which no expense was to be spared, for many costly spices are called for. There are about 470 recipes in total, over 200 of which are for sauces alone. Most of the remainder are for meat, fish, and vegetable dishes, these too typically including strongly flavoured sauces. There are a few recipes for sweet dishes and one or two for flavoured wines.
The great number of spices in many Apicius recipes implies a fashion of cuisine in which the flavour of the main ingredient would often be unrecognizable, and there is independent evidence that this approach to cookery—the ‘disguised’ dish—was at times in fashion at Rome. The recipes probably come from many different sources, some no doubt inserted by cooks and copyists who worked with earlier versions of the text. It has been suggested that several recipes which give exact quantities for ingredients may come from a dietary guide for invalids and may be Greek in origin.
A few recipes are named after individuals; one or two very elaborate ones are named after a certain Apicius (see below). Patina Apiciana, one of these, happens to be mentioned by another source of about ad 200. But Apicius as a whole is impossible to date precisely. Some work under this name existed by the time the ‘Lives of the Later Caesars’ (Historia Augusta) was compiled in the late 4th century ad. Because of an anecdote in this (highly unreliable) source, it has been suggested that Apicius was intended for reading rather than for practical use. Against that, the language of the text as we know it is the Vulgar Latin of the Roman lower classes: Apicius is indeed a very important example of this variant of Latin, the direct ancestor of the modern Romance languages such as French, Spanish, and Italian. However, educated people, those with leisure for reading, demanded classical grammar, a cultured style, and a careful choice of words, none of which is offered by Apicius. It is best to conclude that it was used as an aide-mémoire for those who worked in the kitchens of the wealthy.
Apicius survived the Middle Ages in two 9th-century manuscripts, one now in the Vatican, the other in the library of the New York Academy of Medicine. Numerous copies were made from these in the 15th century as humanist scholars became interested in the work. The first printed edition appeared at Milan in 1498. No earlier English translation exists than the interesting but unreliable version by J. D. Vehling (Chicago, 1936).
Apicius is in origin a Roman personal name: the first known Apicius was a legendary gourmet of about 100 bc. Apicius became a kind of nickname, given to various cooks and gourmets. Stories tell of another, M. Gavius Apicius, of the time of Tiberius (ad 14–37) and yet another under Trajan (98–117). It was said, for example, that M. Gavius Apicius chose to live in Minturnae, Campania, because prawns grew bigger there than anywhere else. Then he heard that bigger prawns were to be found in Libya, and set out immediately. As his ship approached land it was met by a fishing-boat offering fresh prawns for sale. On learning that they were not, after all, any bigger than those of Minturnae, Apicius ordered his ship to turn and make straight for home.
The recipe text bears this same name Apicius, meaning ‘The Gourmet’, but there is no need to suppose that any of it was written by any of these individuals.
Other texts are known to have carried this same name Apicius. One that survives is the Excerpta Apicii (‘Outline Apicius’) occupying a few pages of an 8th-century manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The compiler was ‘the Illustrious Vinidarius’, illustrious once but unknown now. It contains 31 brief recipes preceded by an interesting list of spices and flavourings said to be required in every kitchen.
The most convenient edition of Apicius, with parallel English translation, is The Roman Cookery Book: A Critical Translation of The Art of Cooking by Apicius by Barbara Flower and Elisabeth Rosenbaum (London, 1958). See also Carol Déry, ‘The Art of Apicius’, in Cooks and Other People (Oxford Symposium Papers, 1995); Jon Solomon, ‘The Apician Sauce’, in Food in Antiquity (Exeter, 1995). (Note: John Edwards's The Roman Cookery of Apicius (London, 1984) includes the first English translation of the Excerpta Apicii of Vinidarius.) There is a new edition and translation of the whole text by Sally Grainger and Chris Grocock, forthcoming.
Andrew Dalby has written essays and books about food in classical times, especially Siren Feasts, on food and gastronomy in classical Greece.
Flower, Barbara, and Rosenbaum, Elizabeth (trans and ed) (1958), The Roman Cookery Book, London: Harrap.
