Sunday, September 30, 2012

Who forgot the oil?

There is one thing throughout the Cena that has struck me as consistently being odd whether I've just missed it or it is entire absent. There is no olive oil. This foodstuff, and basic commodity, was highly prized in the Roman world and was so prevalent that perhaps Petronius felt no need to discuss the substance. The Romans used olive oil for nearly everything including food, light, bathing, moisturizing and even household maintenance.  Olives, which are mentioned, and olive oil were produced in much of the Mediterranean world with the primary producers in the Imperial Period being Baetica (southern Spain) which was replaced in the 2nd century A.D. by North Africa (modern Tunisia and Morocco) although oil was still produced in surpluses throughout Greece and Italy.

I feel that it is one aspect of Trimalchio's boasting where he really slipped up, so to speak. He brings out Falernian wine, which has been recently discussed luckily, and boasts about its quality and how he only serves the best to his convivae. But why not boast about having olive oil from some exotic place or some especially expensive type? Or that he brought olive trees from Spain or North Africa as he did with Attic bees; although it would be about as effective. Maybe it is my own bias, having spent the last 4 years researching the olive oil industry of Baetica (which was inarguably the most popular in the Early Imperial Period) but I feel that Petronius' omission of this staple of the Roman diet and life is just plain odd. It is really a shame that Trimalchio doesn't mention oil, and where he got it from, since it would help to narrow down the dating for the Satyricon based on who was the dominant producer (or not producing anymore) at the time.

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