The humble sausage  The humble sausage is popular the world over with many nations and individual regions having their own characteristic versions using the meats and other ingredients native to that region and employed in traditional dishes. The word ‘sausage’ can refer to the loose ground or minced meat, typically pork, beef or poultry combined with salt, spices and other flavourings, which can be formed into patties or stuffed into a skin. Other ingredients such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders.

What we usually think of as ‘a sausage’ is the cylindrical product encased in a skin. Traditionally casings use animal intestine, but mass-produced versions are more likely made from synthetic materials. Sausages that are sold raw are cooked in many ways, including pan-frying, broiling and barbecuing. Some sausages are cooked during processing such that the casing may be removed.

Sausage making is also a traditional food preservation technique by curing, drying (often in association with fermentation or culturing, which can contribute to preservation), smoking, or freezing. Some cured or smoked sausages can be stored without refrigeration. Most fresh sausages must be refrigerated or frozen until they are cooked.

History  According to the on-line Merriam-Webster dictionary the first known use of the word ‘sausage’ was in the 15th-century in the meaning defined right. In Middle English ‘sausige’ was derived from Norman French ‘sauseche’ or ‘saucis’, which was itself derived from the Late Latin ‘salsicia’ (from Latin salsus, ‘salted’).

The salt link makes sense as traditionally sausage makers salted various meat scraps, offal, blood and fat to help preserve them. These mixes were stuffed into casings made from the cleaned intestines of the animal thereby producing the characteristic cylindrical shape. Unsurprisingly sausages, puddings and salami are among some of the oldest of prepared foods, whether cooked and eaten immediately or preserved to varying degrees. The historical record on sausages begins around 4,000 years ago. An Akkadian cuneiform tablet from Mesopotamia, for example, records a dish of intestine casings filled with some sort of forcemeat [1][2].

In China a type of sausage, lup cheong, is recorded from the Northern and Southern dynasties (589 BC to 420 BC). It is described as made from goat and lamb meat with salt, and flavoured with green onion, bean sauce, ginger, and pepper [3].

Sausages were popular with both the ancient Greeks and the Romans, and most likely with the various tribes occupying the larger part of Europe. The earliest appearance in classical literature, for example, is of a type of blood sausage mentioned around 800 BC in Book 18 of Homer's classic saga ‘The Odyssey’ [4]:

‘Here at the fire are goats' paunches lying, which we set there for supper, when we had filled them with fat and blood.’

Later, Hesychius mentions that, in 500 BC, the Greek dramatist and philosopher Epicharmus of Kos [5] wrote a comedy called Orya (‘The Sausage’; literally meaning ‘the pork’). Further literary evidence for sausages in ancient Greece is provided by Aristophanes' comedic play Hippeis (‘The Knights’). The play is a satire on political and social life in 5th-century BC Athens in which a sausage-seller vies for the confidence and approval of Demos, an elderly man who symbolizes the Athenian citizenry [6][7].

An early example of Italian sausage is lucanica, discovered by Romans after the conquest of Lucania, a historical region of southern Italy. The descendants of this ancient Roman sausage, its recipe greatly changed over the millennia, can be found in Italy (luganega), Spain (longaniza), Portugal (linguiça), Greece (loukaniko), Bulgaria (lukanka) and beyond [8]. Today, this sausage is identified as Lucanica di Picerno, which is produced in Basilicata whose territory was part of the ancient Lucania [9][10].

Thanks to the Romans, the first recognisable recipe using lengths of intestine rather than a stomach as the casing can be found in Book 2 of Apicius’ De Re Coquinaria (‘On Cookery’). The Apician recipe botellum sic facies instructs the cook to [12]:

‘Take the yolks of six hard-boiled eggs, chopped pine nuts, onion, and sliced leeks, and mix with blood [and forcemeats]. Add ground pepper and fill the intestine with the stuffing. Cook in stock and wine.’

From the Middle Ages, various European cities became known for their local sausage varieties, differing only by the types of meats that are used, the flavouring or spicing ingredients (garlic, peppers, wine, etc.), and the manner of preparation. Types such as the ‘Frankfurter’ (Frankfurt am Main), ‘Bologna’ (Bologna, Italy), and ‘Romano’ (Rome) are instantly recognizable being named for their places of origin. Likewise, salami (named for the salting process, Italian: salare, ‘to salt’) is a similarly popular type of sausage with numerous national and regional varieties.

One final thought  Given the definition, etymology and our brief history, why exactly would any vegetarian or vegan eat a sausage? Just a thought. Bon appétit.

Endnotes:

1. Bottéro, J. (1985), ‘The Cuisine of Ancient Mesopotamia’, The Biblical Archaeologist, 48(1), 36-47, Available on-line: https://doi.org/10.2307/3209946 (accessed October 25th, 2021).

2. ‘Forcemeat. is derived from the French farcir, ‘to stuff’ and describes a uniform mixture of lean meat with fat made by grinding, sieving, or puréeing the ingredients.

3. Zeuthen, P., (2007), ‘A Historical Perspective of Meat Fermentation, Early Records Of Fermented Meat Products, Raw Cured Ham’, in Toldrá, Fidel (ed.), Handbook of fermented meat and poultry, p. 4.

4. Homer's Odyssey, Line 44, translated by A.T. Murray.

5. Epicharmus wrote between thirty-five and fifty-two comedies though many have been lost or exist only in fragments.

6. Demos meaning the ordinary citizens of an ancient Greek city-state.

7. Aristophanes’ ‘The Knights’, Classical Literature, Accessed October 26th, 2021.

8. Perry, C., (2012), ‘Forklore: A Very Important Sausage’, Los Angeles Times (accessed October 26th, 2021).

9. Riley, G., (2007), ‘The Oxford Companion to Italian Food’, Oxford: OUP, pp. 301-302.

10. ‘The Lucanica di Picerno, A Historical Sausage’, Arte Cibo (accessed October 26th, 2021)

11. The Roman festival of Lupercalia was held on February 15th, involving Juno Lucina, and is usually understood as a rite of purification and fertility to purify the city, promoting health and fertility. Lupercalia was also known as dies Februatus after the goat thong whips called februa used in the rituals and was the basis for the month named Februarius (February).

12. Edwards, J., (1988), ‘The Roman Cookery of Apicius’, London: Rider, p.26.

Educating Romans

In ancient Rome ludus (pl. ludi) referred to a private school outside the home where a teacher (called a litterator or a magister ludi, and often of Greek origin) taught boys and some girls at the age of 7 basic reading, writing, arithmetic, and sometimes Greek, until the age of 11.

For the most part, however, about 80% of Romans survived as artisans or by farming their small patch of land to feed their families and maybe produce a surplus to buy what they could not grow. Education was only of interest to people of leisure, in other words, the wealthy. Their aim was to rise through the cursus honorum ('course of honours', or more colloquially 'ladder of offices'). This was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring men of senatorial rank in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. The cursus honorum comprised a mixture of military and political administration posts; the ultimate prize for winning election to each 'rung' in the ladder was to become one of the two consuls in a given year.

Education, therefore, was designed to provide the job training to achieve success. The elite were taught at home (including girls who mainly learned to read and write), but for those who could afford it, attending a private school or ludus was an option. Lessons concentrated on the correct use of language. Accurate reading, writing and pronunciation of Greek and Latin were the focus from ages six to nine. Higher literacy skills were developed from nine to twelve, especially rigorous grammatical and linguistic analysis of poetry. From then on until age 17 the emphasis turned to rhetoric and developing the ability to persuade by argument. In the process moral and philosophical judgement was honed. For a few, a year studying in Greece became a finishing school in all things intellectual and artistic.

Endnotes:

1. From an article by Peter Jones in ‘Q&A’, BBC History Magazine October 2021, p. 57.

A Century equals Eighty?

With the title ‘5 Facts You DIDN’T KNOW About The Romans’ a recent YouTube video sounded intriguing. In ascending order, the first fact, number five beginning at 45 seconds, introduces the idea that a centurion commands 100 men but then states that if you research the Roman army you will discover a century was only 80 strong. This is indeed the case, but the fact ‘you didn’t know’ was that a century was indeed 80 soldiers, but 100 men. The argument goes that a contubernium of eight soldiers included two often forgotten or unmentioned slaves. In other words, a century comprising ten contubernia equals 80 soldiers plus 20 slaves for a total of 100 men. Unfortunately, in this two-minute segment no references were provided, so we thought we would have a look.

Definitions  First stop, Wikipedia. The entry for ‘Contubernium (Roman Army Unit)’ is largely based on an article published on the ThoughtCo website written by NS Gill, an ancient history and Latin expert from Minnesota, USA. Under the subtitle ‘Contubernium of Soldiers in the Roman Army’ her entry reads (Gill, 2018):

‘There was one leather sleeping tent to cover a group of eight legionaries. This smallest military group was referred to as a contubernium and the eight men were contubernales [1]. Each contubernium had a mule to carry the tent and two support troops. Ten such groups made up a century. Every soldier carried two stakes and digging tools so they could set up camp each night. There would also be enslaved people associated with each cohort. Military historian Jonathan Roth [2] estimated there were two calones or enslaved people associated with each contubernium.’

For those unfamiliar with the Latin terms or Roman military organisation, then some explanation is in order. Firstly, according to William Smith’s ‘A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities’:

‘…in its original meaning, contubernales (σύσκηνοι) signified men who served in the same army and lived in the same tent. The term is derived from taberna, which, according to Festus, was the original name for a military tent as it was made of boards (tabulae). Each tent was occupied by ten soldiers (contubernales), with a subordinate officer at their head, who was called decanus, and in later times caput contubernii (Vegetius, Epitoma Rei Militaris, II.8, 13; cf. Cicero, pro Q. Ligario oratio, 7; Hirtius, De Bello Alexdrino, 16)’ (Smith, 1875, s.v.).

Interestingly Smith refers to ‘ten soldiers’ (our emphasis above) led by a decanus, a ‘chief of ten’ in late Latin. Today we might presume a decanus was a non-commissioned officer (NCO) but the rank structure in the Roman army does not equate to current models. A decanus was more likely the senior or longest serving soldier in the conturbernium. Smith’s definition makes no reference to servants or slaves. Yet Gill cites Roth to introduce two calones, a term derived from Latin calo ‘a servant in the army, soldier's servant’ (Lewis and Short, 1879). Was Smith correct or is the answer Roth’s estimated addition of two slaves per conturbnium of eight soldiers. Frustratingly, most contemporary definitions of the conturbernium include the eight soldiers but make no mention of two calones. Yet, as Smith definition of calones bears out, they clearly existed from the accounts of ancient authors such as Festus, Servius and Gaius Julius Caesar himself:

‘…the servants of the Roman soldiers, said to have been so called from carrying wood (κᾶλα) for their use (Festus, s.v.; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. VI.1). They are generally supposed to have been slaves, and they almost formed a part of the army, as we may learn from many passages in Caesar: in fact, we are told by Josephus that, from away living with the soldiers and being present at their exercises, they were inferior to them alone in skill and valour…The word calo, however, was also applied to farm-servants.’ (Smith, 1875, s.v.)

So, despite evidence for two slave/servants per contubermium, modern descriptions of the Roman army ignore them in favour of the 80-soldier Century typical of the early Imperial period, or Principate, onward. If, however, we travel back into Roman military history, then we do find evidence for a Century being 100 strong.

Centuria  The Roman Century, or centuria, is derived from the Latin word centum meaning ‘one hundred’. Yet, as with most words, there is more than one sense in which centuria can be used. In military parlance it was a division of Roman infantry, the smallest tactical unit of a legion. According to Lewis and Short’s 1879 ‘Latin Dictionary’ the term centuria also meant:

• An assemblage or a division consisting of a hundred things of a kind; hence in general any division, even if it did not consist of a hundred.

• A unit of area, specifically in agriculture where it represented a number of acres.

• One of the one hundred and ninety-three orders (‘centuries’) into which the second Etruscan king, Servius Tullius, divided the Roman people according to value of their property. The assemblies in which the people voted according to centuries were called comitia centuriata.

The latter definition is significant because it gives a clue how the centuries in the Roman army were originally of 100 men and why, even when later they varied between 60 and 160 men, the term ‘century’ continued to be applied.

The Etrusco-Roman Army  The early Roman army (Latin: exercitus Romanus) of the Roman Kingdom and of the early Roman Republic was based on an annual levy. The army consisted of 3,000 infantrymen and 300 cavalrymen, the latter all being drawn from the wealthiest social class known as equites, the ‘equestrians’. The Latin, Sabine and Etruscan tribes under the Roman command would each provide an extra 1,000 soldiers and 100 cavalrymen. At this time, when warfare chiefly consisted of small-scale plundering raids, it has been suggested that the army followed Etruscan or Greek models of organisation and equipment.

While much of Roman history of this period is founded on legends, during the reign of Servius Tullius, the army was reformed or, rather, refined. Accordingly, all healthy, property-owning male Roman citizens were divided into five distinct classes for military service, from the poorest in the ‘fifth class’ to the richest in the ‘first class and the equestrians above them’. This socio-economic class system was based on the individual's wealth since soldiers had to provide their own weapons and equipment. The highest social class, the equestrians, continued to serve in the mounted cavalry units known as equites. The five other classes were organised, according to their voting tribe, into infantry units of 100 men called centuria (‘centuries’). Presumably the commanders of these centuria where the centuriones (‘centurions’). If so, then the first centurions did indeed command 100 soldiers as the name implies.

At first there were only four Roman legions (Latin: legio (pl. legiones); from legere (‘to choose; to collect’). The term legio therefore has the meaning of a selection or chosen body of men; hence it is often described as a levy. These legions were numbered ‘I’ to ‘IIII’, where first legion was seen as the most prestigious and fourth was not written ‘IV’. The bulk of this army was made up of Roman citizens. These citizens could not choose the legion to which they were allocated, however. Any man ‘from ages 16 to 46 were selected by ballot’ and assigned to a legion.

Mid-Republic  At some point, possibly in the beginning of the Roman Republic after the kings were overthrown, the legio (or ‘levy’) was subdivided into two separate legions each commanded by one of the two annually elected Consuls who controlled Roman affairs. In the first years of the Republic, when warfare consisted of mostly raids, it is uncertain if the full manpower of these legions was ever summoned at one time. The legions became organised in a more formal way in the 4th-century BC, as the Roman method of waging war evolved into more frequent and planned operations, and each consular army was increased to two legions. In the Republic, however, these legions had a short-lived existence. Excepting Legions I to IV that formed the consular army (i.e. two per Consul), other units were levied according to the needs of the campaign. At the same time, Rome's Italian allies were required to provide a legion in support of each Roman legion.

The Manipular Legion  With the appearance of the military tribunes after 331 BC (at first these tribunes took turns as the legion's commanding officer) the internal organisation of the legion became more sophisticated. The developments from the classic phalanx to the ‘manipular’ system also allowed important tactical innovations. More importantly, for the first time, the classes of soldiers who comprised the legions were based on experience and age rather than wealth, with standard weapons and equipment issued by the state. In the middle years of the Republic, the Roman army was organised into three lines, the Hastatii, the Principes, and the Triarii. Each of these three lines was subdivided into maniples of 120, 120 and 60 men, respectively. A full legion, therefore, still fielded about 3,000 men.

The maniples each consisted of two centuriae (centuries) and each maniple was commanded by the senior of the two centurions. Centuries were nominally 80 soldiers strong (not the expected 100 of the earlier levy), but in practice might be as few as 60, especially in the less numerous maniples of Triarii. Each century had its own standard and, as before, comprised ten contubernia.

And finally  Although the army continued to evolve, the century system endured. Thus, throughout the Principate the 80-man century persisted to eventually become one of those well-known, but seemingly contradictory, facts. Centurions, therefore, certainly commanded 80 fighting men but as allude to by our ancient authors, they also were responsible for at least a further 20 calones. Thus Centurions were responsible for a total strength appropriate to any definition of their rank, 100 men.

Endnotes:

1. In a wider sense, the name contubernales was applied to any persons connected by ties of intimate friendship and living under the same roof.

2. Roth, J., (1994), ‘The Size and Organization of the Roman Imperial Legion’, Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Vol. 43, No. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1994), pp. 346-362.

References:

Gill, N.S., (2018), ‘The Roman Army of the Roman Republic’, ThoughtCo., Available on-line: https://www.thoughtco.com/roman-army-of-the-roman-republic-120904 (accessed 12 October 2021).

Lewis, C.T. and Short, C., (1879), A Latin Dictionary, s.v. ‘calo’, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Smith, W., (1875), ‘A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities’, s.v. ‘Conturbernales’, London: John Murray.

Ancient sources:

Publius (or Flavius) Vegetius Renatus, Epitoma Rei Militaris Liber II (‘Concerning Military Matters Book II’), LacusCurtius, Available on-line: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/vegetius2.html (accessed 12 October 2021).

Marcus Tullius Cicero, pro Q. Ligario oratio (‘Oration in defence of Quintus Ligarius’), LacusCurtius, Available on-line: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/lig.shtml#2 (accessed 12 October 2021).

Sextus Pompeius Festus, De verborum significatione libri XX ('Twenty Books on the Meaning of Words'),

Aulus Hirtius, De Bello Alexandrino (‘the Alexandrian War’), LacusCurtius, Available on-line: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Caesar/Alexandrian_War/A*.html#16 (accessed 12 October 2021).

Maurus Servius Honoratus, In Vergilii Aeneidem commentarii (‘Commentary on the Aeneid of Vergil’), LacusCurtius, Available on-line: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Serv.+A.+6.1 (accessed 14 October 2021).

Vaguely Historical Costume

We think it is great for children to dress up but many of the products for sale are, to the trained eye, rather dubious. What follows is a critique of such costumes highlighting the common, repetitive oddities. Clearly, this should not to be taken too seriously. Rather, we hope to draw attention to the mistakes that continue to influence, or have been influenced by, so-called historical costumes seen on television and in film.

A quick search for children’s Greek or Roman costume on well-known on-line marketplaces will produce a variety of quite similar results for both boys and girls. Looking at the search results and one might be tempted to conclude that the different manufacturers or suppliers have blindly copied a competitor’s dodgy attempt at making a costume. The descriptive tags used for marketing these products, however, have little to commend them and are quite misleading. Here, then, are a few examples highlighting the faux pas.

For the Boys  Described as a ‘Boys Toga Costume’ it is very definitely not a toga. It is, however, one of the better products we have seen for sale, albeit with some caveats [1]:

• The footwear shown (which, incidentally, is not included) does have (very) loose parallels with known imagery and would be significantly better than wearing modern sandals.

• The belt is a needlessly long ‘gold rope’ but this could easily be shortened.

• The tunic is ‘100% polyester’ but for a costume retailing for about £20 this can be forgiven. The shape and styling are quite good. The excess length could be easily drawn up through the belt and bloused over since boys in ancient Greece or Rome typically wore their tunics with a hemline above the knee.

• The sash, which is ‘sewn to the shoulder with a gold ring accent’, is a total nonsense. We recommend getting rid of this trip hazard.

In summary, this particular product is a good basis for an ancient Greek ‘khiton’ or Roman ‘tunica’. As said before, although often confused and misidentified as a Roman ‘toga‘, such tunics are very definitely different garments. But if you wanted to add a toga, or the less well-known Greek equivalent, the ‘himation’, to your costume, then what would this look like?

The himation (ancient Greek: ἱμάτιον / hə-MAT-ee-un) was a large rectangular piece of woollen cloth worn by ancient Greek men and women from the Archaic through the Hellenistic periods (c. 750 BC to 30 BC). It was typically worn over a man’s khiton or woman’s ‘peplos’ (see below) and thus played both the role of a cloak or shawl. Many vase paintings depict women wearing a himation as a veil covering their faces. The himation was sometimes worn alone without a khiton underneath. In this manner it served both as a khiton and as a cloak being then called an ‘akhiton’.

The himation was markedly less voluminous than the Roman toga, which was a very specific garment worn only by citizens. The toga was invariably made of wool cloth of varying sizes up to six metres (about 20 feet) in length. It was generally worn over a tunic with draped folds over the left shoulder and the excess material wrapped round the body in a swag. After the 2nd-century BC, the toga was worn almost exclusively by men and, as previously mentioned, only by Roman citizens.

For the Girls  Searching for an appropriate costume for girls we discovered the ‘Grecian Goddess Costume’ (shown right). As for the boy’s tunic, we think this is one of the better offerings currently for sale, but it too comes with a few caveats:

• Firstly, what is with the diaphanous strip of material? It serves no purpose, has no historical provenance, will probably get tangled and, as is so often the case in school, will most likely be discarded by the child. It is best gotten rid of.

• The criss-crossing ‘gold’ belt is not a separate item but integral to the garment. Belts were, however, both functional in holding the dress closed about the body and decorative. Where we have surviving depictions of this cross-belted style, on statues for example, it seems the belt was crossed over the chest and tied at the waist. In this instance the belt is purely decorative, but it looks the part.

• The dress is again ‘100% polyester’ but, as before, what should one expect for a costume retailing for less than £10. The shape and styling are surprisingly quite good and imitate the ankle length peplos (Greek: πέπλος) worn by respectable ancient Greek and Roman women from circa 500 BC, during the late Archaic and Classical period, onward.

Essentially, a peplos was a long, rectangular cloth draped about the body and left open on one side. The top edge was folded down about halfway, so that the folded-down portion gave the appearance of a second piece of clothing. The garment was then belted about the waist and the folded top edge pinned at the shoulders. In our opinion, the ‘Grecian Goddess Costume’ imitates that styling rather well.

Summary  As with most things you only get what you are prepared to pay for. Most of the children’s costumes for sale are cheap and cheerful but do not let that put you off. Some are slightly more ‘historically’ correct than others and we would recommend choosing these over the more dubious, clichéd offerings. Should you be inspired to make your own, then perhaps our guide to creating a simple ancient Greek or Roman costume, available here, might help.

Endnotes:

1. The quoted text is taken from the retailer’s description.