Apicius (1st century BC)
Encyclopedia
Apicius is the name of a Roman
lover of luxury who lived in the 90s BC and was said to have outdone all his contemporaries in lavish expenditure. According to Poseidonius, Apicius was responsible for the banishment from Rome of Rutilius Rufus, who was the author of a history of Rome written in Greek
and was notable for the modesty of his entertaining.
As Tertullian
observes, this early Apicius gave his name to a series of later gourmets and cooks, notably Marcus Gavius Apicius
and a slightly later Apicius
who lived in the 2nd century AD. Apicius was not transmitted as a family name, but was apparently applied as a nickname, meaning "gourmand". For the same reason, the name of Apicius was eventually thought appropriate for a cookbook, and as such was applied both to the late Roman cookery text currently known as Apicius
and to the quite different and much briefer Excerpta Apicii ("Abridged Apicius") ascribed to Vinidarius
.
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
lover of luxury who lived in the 90s BC and was said to have outdone all his contemporaries in lavish expenditure. According to Poseidonius, Apicius was responsible for the banishment from Rome of Rutilius Rufus, who was the author of a history of Rome written in Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and was notable for the modesty of his entertaining.
As Tertullian
Tertullian
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
observes, this early Apicius gave his name to a series of later gourmets and cooks, notably Marcus Gavius Apicius
Marcus Gavius Apicius
Marcus Gavius Apicius is believed to have been a Roman gourmet and lover of luxury, who lived sometime in the 1st century AD, during the reign of Tiberius. The Roman cookbook Apicius is often, but incorrectly, attributed to him. He was the subject of On the Luxury of Apicius, a famous work, now...
and a slightly later Apicius
Apicius (2nd century AD)
According to the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus, Apicius is the name of a cook who found a way of packing fresh oysters to send to the emperor Trajan while he was on campaign in Mesopotamia around 115 AD. The information comes by way of the Epitome or summary of the Deipnosophists, since the full...
who lived in the 2nd century AD. Apicius was not transmitted as a family name, but was apparently applied as a nickname, meaning "gourmand". For the same reason, the name of Apicius was eventually thought appropriate for a cookbook, and as such was applied both to the late Roman cookery text currently known as Apicius
Apicius
Apicius is the title of a collection of Roman cookery recipes, usually thought to have been compiled in the late 4th or early 5th century AD and written in a language that is in many ways closer to Vulgar than to Classical Latin....
and to the quite different and much briefer Excerpta Apicii ("Abridged Apicius") ascribed to Vinidarius
Vinidarius
Vinidarius was the compiler of a small collection of cooking recipes, preserved in a single 8th‑century uncial manuscript, claiming to be excerpts from the recipes of Apicius...
.
Sources
- Poseidonius fragment 27 Jacoby, quoted by AthenaeusAthenaeusAthenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...
, DeipnosophistaeDeipnosophistaeThe Deipnosophistae may be translated as The Banquet of the Learned or Philosophers at Dinner or The Gastronomers...
4.168d - TertullianTertullianQuintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
, ApologeticusApologeticusApologeticus or Apologeticum is Tertullian's most famous work, consisting of apologetic and polemic; it was written in Carthage in the summer or autumn of 197 AD, during the reign of Septimius Severus. In this work Tertullian defends Christianity, demanding legal toleration and that Christians be...
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