As we mentioned in a previous article, only one percent of all the literature produced by the Romans in Antiquity has survived to our days. The oldest surviving text in Latin is a hymn recited by the priests of Mars during their annual festival, which was found inscribed on a stone in Rome in 1777.

Latin literature is considered to have begun in 240 BC, when Livius Andronicus adapted a Greek play into Latin (Andronicus was a Greek who was taken prisoner in 272 BC and brought to Rome, and he also translated the Odyssey).

Around the same time, Nevius composed the first epic poem in Latin, which was not a translation like those of Andronicus, but completely original, making him the first Roman poet.

15th century edition of De Agri Cultura preserved in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana / photo Sailko on Wikimedia Commons

However, as far as prose works are concerned, the oldest known dates back to 160 BC, about 80 years after the translations by Andronicus. It is De Agri Cultura, an agricultural manual aimed at Roman landowners, which also included instructions for wine production and recipes, as well as management advice on slaves.

It was written by Marcus Porcius Cato, better known as Cato the Elder, a politician and military leader famous for being the driving force behind the Third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage.

It is said that after this, Cato purposely threw African figs into the Senate, unfolding his toga, and when they marveled at their beauty and size, he said that the land that produced them was no more than three days’ sailing from Rome. There is another even stronger anecdote that whenever he gave an opinion in the Senate on any matter, he concluded by saying, “This is my opinion, and Carthage must be destroyed”

Plutarch, Parallel Lives – Cato the Elder XXVII
Alleged bust of Cato the Elder / photo public domain on Wikimedia Commons

The image of Cato was that of a staunch defender of traditional Roman life and the rural spirit, severe and strict in both public and family affairs. However, his reputation for strong morality took a hard blow when, upon the death of his wife, he remarried one of his slaves. In fact, his son would not speak to him again, and the family split into two branches. Interestingly, the more prominent of the two would be the one descended from the son he had with his second wife, to which his great-grandson Cato the Younger belonged (remembered for his staunch opposition to Julius Caesar).

Cato the Elder was also the first historian to write a complete history of Rome and other Italic cities from their foundation, unfortunately lost, and surviving only in fragments through quotes from other authors. According to Pliny the Elder, Cato used this history of Rome to teach his son to read.

A series of advice that he compiled in Praecepta ad Filium (Precepts to His Son) were precisely directed towards his son, of which only one has survived and reflects his character and way of thinking very well:

“At the right time, my son Marcus, I will explain to you what I found in Athens about the Greek world and show what advantages can be found in their writings (although we should not take them too seriously). They are a rebellious and worthless people. Take this as a prophecy: when the Greeks give us their works, our world will be corrupted, just as if they send their doctors here. They have sworn to kill all barbarians with their medicines and reward them for doing so in order to make them work more efficiently. The Greeks, of course, consider us barbarians as well as dirty Oscans. I forbid you ever to be attended by one of them.”

Cato the Elder, Maxims addressed to his son

In De Agri Cultura (On Agriculture), Cato writes from his own experience as a landowning farmer, in a simple and, in the opinion of many experts, somewhat archaic manner.

The text does not follow a plan but is rather random, loaded with superstitions mixed with practical advice, but it is fundamental to understanding what rural life was like during the time of the Roman Republic.

Cato takes the opportunity to criticize other activities such as commerce and usury and compares them to the virtues of agricultural life. He despises commerce for the dangers it poses, and usury because Roman law considers it worse than theft. According to Cato, only agriculture can form good citizens and soldiers and provide the appropriate moral values.

It is true that sometimes it is more profitable to make money through commerce, without it being very risky; likewise, monetary lending would be equally honorable. Our ancestors had this perspective and incorporated it into their laws, which required that the thief be fined and the usurer quadrupled; which citizen was considered less desirable, the usurer or the thief, one must judge for oneself. And when they honored a valuable man, the honors took this form: “good farmer, good farmer”; the one who was honored like this was considered to have received the greatest award. I consider the merchant to be a vigorous man, induced to make money; but, as I said before, it is a dangerous career and susceptible to disaster. On the other hand, it is from the farming class that the bravest men and the roughest soldiers originate, their voice is the most respected, their livelihood is more secure, and they are seen with less hostility, and those determined in that pursuit are less inclined to remain dissatisfied. And now, to return to my subject, the above will serve as an introduction to what I have committed myself to.

Cato the Elder, On Agriculture I
Placenta cake / photo Mr mircear en Wikimedia Commons

The instructions provided in De Agri cultura served for Rome to start producing wine on a large scale, increasingly employing slaves in the process. This is the first time we find the recipe for vinun graecum, an imitation of Greek wine with salt (i.e., mixed with seawater) that the Romans produced in abundance, and even though the method is different, it is still produced today in the region of Calabria.

Recipe for Greek wine: Take Apician grapes when fully ripe; mix two quadrantes of old seawater or a little salt with the must. Hang it in a bag and let it steep in the must. If you want to have a bright wine, take half Apician and half white wine, and add one-thirtieth part of boiled old wine. As a general rule: in any type of artificial wine, put one-thirtieth part of boiled wine in it

Cato the Elder, De Agri cultura 24

Other parts of the manuscript include religious rituals, which had to be performed by farmers to ensure successful harvests. And also culinary recipes like savillum (cheese cake), libum (a cake similar to the current panettone, made with flour, cheese, eggs, and honey, adorned with laurel leaves), and placenta.

Placenta cake / photo Glavior on Wikimedia Commons

The placenta is a traditional dish from ancient Rome made with several layers of tracta dough (a kind of pastry dough used in Greek and Roman cuisine) interspersed with a mixture of cheese and honey, all flavored with bay leaves, baked, and then coated again with honey. It’s something like an extremely sweet lasagna.

To shape the placenta, place a single row of tracta dough along the entire length of the base. Then cover it with the cheese and honey mixture from the mortar. Place another row of tracta dough on top and continue to do so until all the cheese and honey have been used up. Finish with a layer of tracta dough… place the placenta in the oven and put a preheated lid on top of it… When it is ready, pour honey over the placenta.

Cato the Elder, De agri cultura 76

However, as we have seen, although Cato denigrated everything Hellenic, researchers are almost certain that he copied the recipe for the placenta from a Greek cookbook.

From the Greek version of the dessert, the current tiropita and baklava would derive, and even on the island of Lesbos, a traditional layered dessert with nuts, baked, and coated with honey is still called placenta.

De Agri cultura is the only complete work of Cato that has survived. An edition, made in 1541 in Venice, is preserved in the National Library of Madrid.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on January 19, 2019. Puedes leer la versión en español en El texto más antiguo conservado de prosa latina es un manual de agricultura y recetas, incluyendo el pastel de placenta

Sources

De Agri Cultura (Cato the Elder) / Around the roman table (Patrick Faas) / Ensayos sobre Historia del Pensamiento Económico (Varios autores) / Breve historia de Roma (Francisco Eugenio Díaz) / Wikipedia

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