Food in the Ancient World from A to Z

by Andrew Dalby

Sensual yet pre-eminently functional, food is of intrinsic interest to us all. This exciting new work by a leading authority explores food and related concepts in the Greek and Roman worlds. In entries ranging from a few lines to a couple of pages, Andrew Dalby describes individual foodstuffs (such as catfish, gazelle, peaches and parsley), utensils, ancient writers on food, and a vast range of other topics, drawn from classical literature, history and archaeology, as well as looking at the approaches of modern scholars.
Approachable, reliable and fun, this A-to-Z explains and clarifies a subject that crops up in numerous classical sources, from plays to histories and beyond. It also gives references to useful primary and secondary reading. It will be an invaluable companion for students, academics and gastronomes alike.

Genres: Food, History

426 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2003

About the author

Andrew Dalby (born Liverpool, 1947) is an English linguist, translator and historian who most often writes about food history.

Dalby studied at the Bristol Grammar School, where he learned some Latin, French and Greek; then at the University of Cambridge. There he studied Latin and Greek at first, afterwards Romance languages and linguistics. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1970. Dalby then worked for fifteen years at Cambridge University Library, eventually specializing in Southern Asia. He gained familiarity with some other languages because of his work there, where he had to work with foreign serials and afterwards with South and Southeast Asian materials. In 1982 and 1983 he collaborated with Sao Saimong in cataloguing the Scott Collection of manuscripts and documents from Burma (especially the Shan States) and Indochina; He was later to publish a short biography of the colonial civil servant and explorer J. G. Scott, who formed the collection.[1] To help him with this task, he took classes in Cambridge again in Sanskrit, Hindi and Pali and in London in Burmese and Thai.

Reviews

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haven't read the whole thing cover to cover, but have thoroughly browsed it and used it for reference. It's mostly great for my purposes, i.e. searching for quick inspiration or for a high-level view of a topic, like 'Egg' or 'Aromatics.' However, I have absolutely no idea what system the author was using to determine if something was worthy of its own category or not? I was searching for 'Dessert' and found nothing, not even a cross reference (ultimately found what I was looking for by finding 'Sweets' and being redirected to 'Cakes'), but 'Cannibalism' has an entry? As do 'Architecture,' 'Economics,' and 'Children'??? I mean, I understand how these are at least tangentially related to food, but you'd think if you were trying to increase your text's utility as a reference material, you might reprioritize a bit. Really no complaints beyond the petty, though, and the wish that there were more illustrations implemented more judiciously.