Caupona

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The term caupona ( Latin : caupona , also copona, -ae , fem.) Is mostly used as a generic term for a variety of types of ancient Roman restaurants and was also used for hostels . In individual cases it meant a wine tavern where you could have a simple snack. In wine-growing areas, the caupona could also be referred to as a bar. The fact that some innkeepers sold their home-grown wines is attested at least by a restaurant in Pompeii . The writer Varro ( res rustica ) recommends the landowners to set up stalls or restaurants along the streets. There the agricultural surpluses should be sold as a sideline and travelers fed.

Restaurants, bars and food stalls played an important role in supplying the urban population. Because in addition to drinks you could buy a warm meal there. This should have been particularly important for the lower classes. The apartments at that time made cooking in your own four walls not necessarily advisable; because of the fire hazard and the cramped living conditions.

Various other ancient terms for restaurants have been handed down: u. a. popina , thermopolium and taberna vinaria . It is questionable whether these different names can also refer to different businesses. It is very likely that some of them were used synonymously.

The premises

The architectural design does not allow a separation of the individual types of premises. As a rule, it is a long rectangular store, the narrow side of which was open to the street. Inside was an L-shaped counter , in which occasional storage containers for food and drinks were placed. Shelves and a stove complete the picture. Archaeological evidence of such buildings is seldom successful in the Roman provinces.

Other rooms can be connected to it, e.g. B. separate dining rooms (the sellariolae popinae des Martial ). Some rooms have masonry clinics and served as triclinia (dining room). A finding from Pompeii also allowed evidence of a garden restaurant (in this case more of a garden restaurant). In some pubs the adjoining rooms were used as brothels . A law passed under Domitian (81–96 AD) shows that the street in front of a restaurant was also included and served as an extended taproom.

A particularly good example of a restaurant was found in Ostia. At the entrance there was a wide counter and wall shelves on which glasses and dishes stood and food was offered for sale. Under the counter there were two sinks. The counter and shelves were clad in marble. A little further back in the shop was a marble buffet. Above it hung a large painting depicting some of the food on offer.

The offer

What was sold in detail cannot be reliably reconstructed; in regions with vineyards at least the local fruits and drinks, possibly imported wines and the popular in Roman times spice wines . In the northern provinces, beer (cervesia) and mead (hydromellum) were certainly added. Heatable, permanently installed kettles in some restaurants give the impression that mulled wine was very popular at least during the time of the year. They could just as well be used as cooking pots or storage pots for soups, stews or sausages.

The range of dishes is likely to have been rather modest: stews made from grain or legumes and simple meat dishes: smoked or air-dried sausages seem to have been sold as particularly long-lasting dishes, probably also the Gallic ham from the province of Gallia Belgica . Simple cold dishes (e.g. moretum and epityrum ), baked goods and pastries rounded off the offer.

Roman restaurants with a more sophisticated kitchen will also have existed here in the urban settlements. However, archaeological evidence can hardly be provided. Most likely through the analysis of the animal bones found and the botanical remains.

Under the emperors Tiberius (14-37 AD), Claudius (41-54 AD), Nero (54-68 AD) and Vespasian (69-79 AD) was repeated and in vain tries to limit the food sales of the restaurants to the simplest groceries. The number of decrees is, however, also a sign that hardly any landlord took care of them and that they could not be enforced in the long term.

Under Tiberius, the aediles (officials elected annually who, among other things, were responsible for public order and the markets) had to ensure that no fine baked goods were publicly displayed for sale in the cookshops and taverns. Even the sale of cooked food must have been punishable in some cases.

Roman senators during the reign of Claudius tried again to impose sales restrictions on Roman restaurants and butchers : cereal products, pulses and vegetables were sufficient for the common man. In response, Claudius is said to have exclaimed in the curia: "I beg you, who can live without his piece of sausage?" Then he described the good equipment of the old taberns, which he still knew from his time as a private person. The last quote shows very well the importance that the food stalls had in feeding the urban population. The Neronian law, enacted after the fire in Rome , forbade the sale of all cooked food, only vegetables and pulses were excluded. The Vespasian law had a similar intention.

The social standing

The public in the Roman inns was the common people; visits by the upper class to public bars aroused offense among their peers. The terms popino and ganeo (another name for a host) were considered an abuse for the people concerned. No wonder, as the hosts were always seen as dishonest. Mostly they were accused of pouring too much water into the wine (this was always drunk diluted). In the Republican era, innkeepers and cooks were considered unfit for military service because they were active in an effeminate trade. This also excluded them from almost all important civil rights . Many slaves or freedmen also worked as innkeepers. The female staff was even worse off. Almost always unfree, they also worked in the restaurants and hostels as prostitutes or at least had a reputation for pursuing this trade.

The caupones or copones (plural of caupo - the host) are mentioned in inscriptions without a negative meaning. Presumably because these job titles also referred to the tenants of the mansiones (plural of mansio). A mansio was a hostel in cities or on streets, often built and managed on behalf of the state. In the course of the Roman Empire, the job of the landlady also improved, but not that of the rest of the employees.

According to Pliny ( nat. Hist. 33, 32) it was no shame for the Roman upper class to earn part of their money by running restaurants, provided that these were run by slaves or freedmen. Some restaurants in Pompeii and grave reliefs from the provinces with tap and wine trade scenes suggest a partial prosperity of individual Roman hosts.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Suetonius: The life of the emperors, Claudius 40.1