Christmas is a time of feasting. So too was the Roman festival of Saturnalia, held in honour of the god Saturn, which took place between 17 and 23 December, when even a poor peasant might kill a pig fattened up for the occasion or, if not, hope to join the company of someone who had. Drinking and riot too were all part of the festivities. Such self-indulgence was fair – or fare – enough once a year, but throughout the year? That was what made Roman moralists reflect sadly on the corruption of that frugal and simple life which they judged to have been the key to Roman greatness.
Romans traced this decline back to their overseas victories against Carthage, Greece and Asia (2nd-1st century bc), which did indeed bring billions into Roman coffers but also, it was claimed, an unhealthy taste for art collecting, sex and exotic wines and foreign food. The millionaire philosopher Seneca, adviser to the Emperor Nero, inveighed vehemently against the medical and social effects of such indulgence. His point was that, since doctors taught that keeping a balance in the body was the key to health, excess of any sort was asking for trouble, especially if it involved consuming foods that did not seem to be somehow ‘compatible’:
‘Medicine once amounted to nothing more than a knowledge of a few plants to stop bleeding and to heal wounds. Only a hungry person could actually enjoy the sort of food available in the old days. People’s health was simple then, for a simple reason: it takes a plethora of dinner-courses to create a plethora of diseases… That is why nowadays there are as many ways to be ill as there are to live… Bring on all the courses at the same time – oysters, sea-urchins, shellfish, mullet, cook them all together and serve them up all together.
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