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Information about Marcus Gavius Apicius

For the cookbook see Apicius. For other people named Apicius see Apicius (disambiguation)


Marcus Gavius Apicius was a notorious Roman gourmet and lover of luxury who lived in the 1st century AD. He is sometimes mistakenly said to be the author of the Roman cookbook Apicius, which was actually compiled about 300 years later; there is in fact no early evidence that Apicius was an author. He was the subject of On the Luxury of Apicius, a famous work, now lost, by the Greek grammarian Apion. M. Gavius Apicius apparently owed his cognomen (his third name or "nickname") to an earlier Apicius, who lived around 90 BC, whose family name it may have been: if this is true, Apicius had come to mean "gourmand" as a result of the fame of this earlier lover of luxury.

Evidence for the life of M. Gavius Apicius derives partly from contemporary or almost-contemporary sources but is partly filtered through the above-named work by Apion, whose purpose was presumably to explain the names and origins of luxury foods, especially those anecdotally linked to Apicius. From these sources the following anecdotes about M. Gavius Apicius (hereafter called Apicius) survive: to what extent they form a real biography is doubtful.
  • Sejanus (20 BC – 18 October 31), afterwards well known as the minister and confidant of the emperor Tiberius, had in his youth "sold his body to Apicius": Tacitus, Annals 4.1.
  • Apicius dined with Maecenas (70 – 8 BC), Augustus's adviser: Martial, Epigrams 10.73. It is possible that Martial drew this idea from a facile comparison made by Seneca between Maecenas, cultural adviser, and Apicius, gastronomic adviser.
  • Drusus (13 BC - 14 September AD 23), son of Tiberius, was persuaded by Apicius not to eat cymae, cabbage tops or cabbage sprouts, because they were a common food: Pliny the Elder, Natural History 19.137.
  • The consuls of AD 28, Junius Blaesus and Lucius Antistius Vetus, dined luxuriously at Apicius' house: Aelian, Letters nos 113-114 Domingo-Forasté .
  • Tiberius saw a big red mullet in the market and wagered that Apicius or Publius Octavius would buy it. Both men began bidding for it and Octavius won: Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 95.42.
  • Apicius lived at Minturnae (Campania). Having heard of the boasted size and sweetness of the shrimps taken near the Libyan coast, Apicius commandeered a boat and crew, but when he arrived, disappointed by the shrimps he was offered by the local fishermen who came alongside in their boats, he turned round and returned to Minturnae "without going ashore": Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 7a.
  • Apicius was "born to enjoy every extravagant luxury that could be contrived". He advised that red mullet were at their best if, before cooking, they had been drowned in a bath of fish sauce made from red mullet: Pliny, Natural History 9:66.
  • Apicius advised that flamingo's tongue was of superb flavour: Pliny, Natural History 10.133.
  • Based on existing methods of producing goose liver (foie gras), Apicius devised a similar method of producing pork liver. He fed his pigs with dried figs and slaughtered them with an overdose of mulsum (honeyed wine): Pliny, Natural History 8.209.
  • Having spent a fortune of 100 million sestertii in his kitchen, spent all the gifts he had received from the Imperial court, and thus swallowed up his income in lavish hospitality, Apicius found that he had only 10 million sestertii left. Afraid of dying in relative poverty, he poisoned himself: Seneca, Consolatio ad Helviam 10.
Several recipes were named after Apicius, and probably M. Gavius Apicius is the person intended:
  • A method of cooking cabbage, marinading in oil and salt and using soda to retain greenness: Pliny, Natural History 19.143.
  • A kind of cake: Chrysippus of Tyana quoted by Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 647c.
  • Seven recipes in the Apicius cookbook .
Throughout Roman literature Apicius is named in moralizing contexts as the typical gourmet or glutton. Seneca, for example, says that he "proclaimed the science of the cookshop" and corrupted the age with his example (Seneca, Consolatio ad Helviam 10). Around the 4th and 5th centuries, Apicius begins to be named as an author: this may be an indication that cookbooks titled Apicius were in circulation by that time. The first such reference may be that in the Scholia on Juvenal (4.22), which assert that Apicius wrote about how to arrange dinners, and about sauces.

Bibliography

  • Dalby, Andrew (2003), Food in the ancient world from A to Z, London, New York: Routledge, ISBN 0415232597, pp. 16-18
  • Grocock, Christopher & Sally Grainger (2006), Apicius. A critical edition with an introduction and an English translation, Totnes: Prospect Books, ISBN 1903018137, pp. 54-58
For people named Apicius see Apicius (disambiguation)


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
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Apicius is the title of the oldest surviving Roman cookbook, usually said to have been compiled in the 4th or 5th century AD.

Apicius may also refer to:
  • Apicius (1st century BC), lived during the Roman Republic

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For people named Apicius see Apicius (disambiguation)


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
..... Click the link for more information.
Apion (20s BC - ca. 45 AD), Graeco-Egyptian grammarian, sophist and commentator on Homer, was born at the Siwa Oasis, and flourished in the first half of the 1st century AD.
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The cognomen ("name known by" in English) was originally the third name of a Roman in the Roman naming convention. The term is also occasionally seen in modern times as a synonym for nickname or epithet.
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For the cookbook see Apicius. For other people named Apicius see Apicius (disambiguation)


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.
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Lucius Aelius Seianus (20 BC – October 18, 31 AD), commonly known as Sejanus, was an ambitious soldier, friend and confidant of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. An equestrian by birth, Sejanus rose to power as prefect of the Roman imperial bodyguard, known as the Praetorian
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October 18 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century
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28  29  30  - 31 -  32  33  34
This article is about the year 31. For other uses, see 31 (number).

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Tiberius
Emperor of the Roman Empire

A bust of the Emperor Tiberius
Reign AD 14–AD 37
Full name Tiberius Caesar Augustus
(born Tiberius Claudius Nero)
Born November 16, 42 BC
Rome
Died
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Gaius Cornelius Tacitus

Gaius Cornelius Tacitus
Born: Circa 56AD

Died: Circa 117

Occupation: Senator, consul, governor, historian
Genres: History
Subjects: History, biography, oratory
Literary movement: Silver Age of Latin
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The Annals, or, in Latin, Annales, is a history book by Tacitus covering the reign of the four Roman Emperors succeeding to Caesar Augustus. The parts of the work that survived from antiquity cover (most of) the reigns of Tiberius and Nero.
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Gaius Cilnius Maecenas (70 – 8 BC) was a confidant and political advisor to Octavian (who was to become the first Emperor of Rome as Caesar Augustus) as well as an important patron for the new generation of 'Augustan' poets.
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Augustus Caesar
Emperor of the Roman Empire

Reign January 16 27 BC – August 19 AD 14
Full name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus
Born September 23, 63 BC
Rome, Roman Republic
Died August 19, AD 14 (age 76)
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Martial

Born: March 1 40(40--) AD
Augusta Bilbilis (now Calatayud, Spain)
Died: ca. 102 AD
Rome
Occupation: Author
Nationality: Roman
Genres: satire
Influences: Catullus, Pedo, and Marsus
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Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger) (ca. 4 BC–AD 65) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature.
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Drusus was a cognomen in Ancient Rome, and may refer to:
  • Drusus Caesar - was the son of Germanicus, also called Drusus III.
  • Gaius Livius Drusus was consul in 147 BC.
  • Julius Caesar Drusus was the son of Tiberius, also called Drusus II or Drusus Minor.

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September 14 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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Gaius or Caius Plinius Secundus, (AD 23 – August 24, AD 79), better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Naturalis Historia.
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Naturalis Historia (Latin for "Natural History") is an encyclopedia written circa AD 77 by Pliny the Elder.

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In its present form the Natural History consists of 37 books,

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Quintus Junius Blaesus (? – 31 AD) was a Roman proconsul who governed the Africa Province from 21 to 23. He was the uncle of Lucius Aelius Sejanus, Prefect of the Praetorian Guard and the chief advisor of Emperor Tiberius.
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Claudius Aelianus (ca. 175–ca. 235), often seen as just Aelian, born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222.
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Country Italy
Region Lazio
Province Latina (LT)
Mayor Giuseppe Sardelli (from April 2005)

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al-jamāhīriyyatu l-`arabiyyatu l-lībiyyatu š-ša`biyyatu l-ištirākiyyatu l-`uZmà
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For other uses, see Athenaeus (disambiguation)

Athenaeus (Ancient Greek Ἀθήναιος Nαυκράτιος
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The Deipnosophistae (deipnon, "dinner", and sophistai, "professors"; original Greek title Δειπνοσοφισταί, Deipnosophistai, English
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red mullets or surmullets are two species of goatfish, Mullus barbatus and Mullus surmuletus, found in the Mediterranean Sea, east North Atlantic Ocean, and the Black Sea. Both "red mullet" and "surmullet" can also refer to the Mullidae in general.
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Foie gras [fwɑ gʁɑ] (French for "fat liver") is "the liver of a duck or a goose that has been specially fattened by gavage" (as defined by French law[1]).
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