(? - ? Republic era)
(25 BC - ?)
(late 4th century BC/early 5th century BC)
So, who was this Apicius? At least three Romans shared the name. The most about whom we know is Marcus Gavius Apicius (b. 25 BC). He served under Augustus and Tiberius as a culinary expert and he provided us with information on ancient Roman cuisine.
This Apicius was considered to be a strange character who enjoyed "high society" and "living well". Known for his sauces and extravagant dishes, he served oddities such as flamingo and nightingale tongues, camel heels, roasted ostrich and stuffed sterile sow's womb. These dishes were meant to startle the middle class. We see the same such attempts today with items such as chocolate covered grasshoppers, alligator tail and ostrich. As Apicius' finances fell into disarray he feared he could no longer maintain his extravagant and expensive lifestyle and chose to take his own life by poisoning himself.
There are many interesting stories about Apicius. He was ridiculously absurd in his search of the ultimate culinary experience. Pliny credits Apicius with the idea of force feeding figs to geese to enlarge their livers. This would indicate that the origins of foie gras are Italian instead of French.
It is assumed that this Apicius was responsible for two cookbooks. Apicius' first book, De condituris, was completely on sauces. This was later absorbed into De re coquinaria, one of the oldest cookbooks found, which was a single volume of various recipes integrated together. This 2nd cookbook was compiled around the 4th century.
Information taken from The Oxford Classical Dictionary and A Taste of Ancient Rome by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa
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