{"podcast":{"title":"Instant Classics","slug":"instant-classics-7455513","podcast_index_feed_id":7455513,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/IMP2568764140","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/83e996b4-727e-11f0-8ba1-9fb63af495b7/image/eb7021cccbb20b933b6663c884166ea5.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Vespucci","episode_count":49,"summary":"Join world-renowned classicist Mary Beard and Guardian chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins for Instant Classics — the weekly podcast that proves ancient history is still relevant. Ancient stories, modern twists… and no degree in Classics required. Become a Member of the Instant Classics Book Club here: https://instantclassics.supportingcast.fm/","last_synced_at":"2026-06-12T00:18:23.216693+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/instant-classics-7455513"},"episode":{"title":"What Did the Romans Eat? Part 1: Posh Food","slug":"what-did-the-romans-eat-part-1-posh-food","published_at":"2026-03-05T06:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/instant-classics-7455513/what-did-the-romans-eat-part-1-posh-food","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/instant-classics-7455513","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR4398578156.mp3?updated=1772586168","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR4398578156.mp3?updated=1772586168","summary":"When we think about Roman food, most of us imagine wealthy citizens stuffing their faces with rare delicacies while reclining on their sides and taking occasional breaks to use the vomitorium (urban myth alert). In this two-part special, Mary and Charlotte cut through the fermented fish sauce to look at what the Romans really ate. And no, the vomitorium was not a place where they made themselves vomit. In this first episode, Mary and Charlotte look at posh food, beginning right at the top - in the imperial palace. Happily, there are some stories of jaw-dropping extravagance, including Elagabalus (a fave of the show) hiding pearls in the rice as a surprise for his guests. And the favourite dish of the Emperor Vitellius involved pike liver, peacock brain, flamingo tongue and lamprey sperm - all mixed together. But just as many emperors favoured a martial diet and household economy. Augustus - a snack guy - boasted about his ascetic preference for with cheese, figs and bread. Tiberius was criticised by the elite for serving leftovers. You can never trust anecdotes about the emperors, but most of the stories have a plausibility when you read them alongside a surviving cookbook - Apicius’ De re culinaria. Here we find out about garum - or fermented fish sauce (which Mary thinks is less disgusting than it sounds), animal wombs, dormice as well as a lot of vegetarian dishes (more to Charlotte’s taste). Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: Emperors’ reported eating habits are discussed in Mary’s Emperor of Rome (Profile pb, 2024) You can find a complete (rather lumpy) translation of Apicius online here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29728/29728-h/29728-h.htm Several modern writers collect some of Apicius’ recipes and adapt them for “the modern kitchen”: eg John…","meta_description":"When we think about Roman food, most of us imagine wealthy citizens stuffing their faces with rare delicacies while reclining on their sides and taking oc…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3272,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/instant-classics-7455513/episodes/what-did-the-romans-eat-part-1-posh-food/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/instant-classics-7455513/what-did-the-romans-eat-part-1-posh-food.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}