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[German version] (Greek ἁλμαῖα/ halmaîa). Collective term for pickled vegetables, herbs, and fruit. From the Greek period on, people enjoyed preserving plant foodstuffs by pickling them in brine (Colum. 12,4,4), often with the addition of vinegar, spices and other ingredients such as milk and honey (Plin. HN 19,153; Dioscorides 2,174 Wellmann). Columella (10,117; 12,9 f.) has recipes for pickling capers, lettuce, herbs, onions, European cornels, plums and various kinds of apples and pears. In simple cuisine, salgama were eaten with bread or cereal porridge; at more lavish meals, sa…

[German version] [1] Praefectus praetorio Orientis, AD 365 Praefectus praetorio Orientis in AD 365. N. was born in Etruria. His career led through lesser offices, held prior to 354, via the comitiva Orientis 354-358 and the quaestura (sacri palatii) at the court of the Caesar Iulianus [11] 359(?)-360 and finally to the Praetorian Prefecture of Gaul (Lib. Epist. 1315). N. attained this office in 360, but withdrew into private life as a loyal follower of Constantius [2] II in 361, when Julian was readying himself for a campaign again…

[German version] Mostly annual plants, parts of which are suitable for eating, either raw or cooked. In the ancient world, there were large numbers of vegetables; there is evidence for Imperial Italy alone of fifty garden species and fifty wild species. Today largely unknown or uncommon, in ancient sources they were divided into three large groups: 1. legumina (primarily the protein-rich pulses, such as beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils, lupins; cf. the lists in Columella 2,7,1-2; Plin. HN 18,117-136); 2. olera (especially the vitamin- and fibre-rich leaf-vegetables, tubers,…

[German version] (Greek ὑδρόμελι/ hydrómeli, Latin [ aqua] mulsa). A beverage usually made of one part honey and two parts water (Columella 12,12; Dioscorides, De materia medica 5,9 Wellmann) that was usually consumed fermented with an alcohol content of 15% but occasionally also unfermented. Apart from beer, mead was the oldest intoxicating drink in the Mediterranean. When wine arrived in the historical period, mead was supplanted first in Greece and then largely in Italy, especially because grapes wer…

(οἶνος/ oînos; Lat. vinum). [German version] I.Egypt and Ancient Near East Archeological finds (excavations, pictorial representations in tombs) as well as Egyptian and Roman texts contain a plethora of information about the growing, production and use of wine in Egypt from the Early Period to the Ptolemaic-Roman Period. Wine (Egyptian jrp; Coptic ērp; Old-Nubian orpj/ē; cf. in Sappho 51 ἔρπις/ érpis [9. 46], probably an old foreign cult word [7. 1169]) was grown primarily in Lower Egypt or the Nile Delta and in the oases, clearly because of the favourab…

[German version] (ἁλία/ halía). Small salt container (Plin. HN 33,153) made of silver, occasionally of clay. It belonged in every Roman household and was used for adding salt during dinner, but had a special function in the domestic cult as well: Up to the Imperial Period, the salinum was used in food offerings between the main course and dessert (Liv. 26,36,6; Stat. Silv. 1,4,130 f.). This cultic significance explains why the salinum was handed down from father to son (Hor. Carm. 2,16,13 f.). Mola salsa Gutsfeld, Andreas (Münster) Bibliography M. Besnier, s. v. S., DS IV/2, 1022  A. Hug, s.…

[German version] (σάκχαρον/ sákcharon, Lat. sacc[ h] aron). Sugar obtained from the pith of sugarcane, a plant not native to the Mediterranean region. The Greeks first came to know of sugarcane and its sweet juice with the Indian campaign of Alexander [II 4] (Str. 15,1,20; Theophr. Hist. pl. 3,15,5). Sugar does not appear to have reached the Mediterranean region in crystalline form before the beginning of the 1st cent. AD, when direct sea trade from Egypt to India got under way (Peripl. maris Erythraei 14 Casson). In any case, the word saccharon entered the sources (Plin. HN 12,32) a…

I. Greek [German version] [I 1] Christian apologist and theologian, 2nd cent. (Τατιανός; Tatianós). Christian apologist and theologian (born c. AD 120). By his own account, T. was from the East Syrian/North Mesopotamian region (Or. 42). His work betrays a knowledge of classical authors relying upon Hellenistic scholarly tradition. His travels brought T. into contact with a variety of the philosophical and religious systems of his period ( i.a. participation in mystery cults, which he fails to define more precisely). In Rome, study of the Bible finally brought hi…

[German version] Traditional Roman drinking party, a regular accompaniment to a festive   cena , often lasting long into the night. For a long time it was reserved for men, but from the end of the Roman Republic women, too, could partake. The comissatio, a socially highly important form of gathering, reached Rome by the end of the 3rd cent. BC at the latest. The word is derived from the Greek word for revelry, κῶμος ( kômos); its structure and rules corresponded to a large extent to those of the symposium ( Banquet). Apart from the drinking, the entertainment consisted …

[German version] (γλεῦκος/ gleûkos; [ vinum] mustum). As yet unfermented - or just fermenting - juice of pressed fruit such as apples, pears, dates, figs, pomegranates, cornel cherries, quinces and service tree fruit (Plin. HN 13,44-45; 14,102-103. 125; 15,109). The most important type of must was made from grapes (Columella 12,41; Plin. HN 23,29); its Latin name was vinum mustum, from which the English word 'must' derives. Fresh must, whose aperient and invigorating effects were prized by doctors (Celsus, Med. 4,26,5-6; Dioscorides 5,9; Gal. De alimen…