Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-12
GARDENS OF 0IsD ROME
LIST OF AVAILABLE VEGETABLES
MUST HAVE BEEN SHORT.
Mess of Beans Used At the Feast Of the
Goddess Carva5 Onions and
Garlic. '2s

From the Nineteenth Century
1t is certain that IN the early days of
Rome the number of fruits and vegetables
was strictly limited, as compared with i'm
perial and modern days, when importations
from all parts of the then known world
continually arrived to enrich both garden
and cuisine of the Roman house or villa. 1t
Is, perhaps impossible now to determine
precisely all the strictly Indigenous vegeta-
bles which the early Romans used-I mean
IN those days when the meat-meal occurred
but once day and when libations were
made, not yet with wine. but with milk or
honey. Referring to those days Of sim
plicity. Varro says: Vigorous folk as they
were, our forebears favored their speech
with onion and garlic;;" and If we turn for
moment to the origins of some of the
most aristocratic names in Roman history
the f'ablt, the CaePiones, the Lentuli and
the Pisones-we shall find that they rather
cCrroborate the suggested LONELINESS of the
national beginnings
1t can scarcely be said that if one hears a
person addressed as Mr. Bean the fact nee
essarily impresses us: yet If In Caesars day
Roman had heard one of his neighbors
addressed ''Fabius' he would have be-
come aware that the person so addressed
was member of the most aristocratic of
the clans; albeit in that period the harm
less. necessary bean had come to be consid-
cred as fool only fit for peasants and gladi-
ators. once saw golden crown fash
Toned OF bean leaves which had been taken
had adorned the brows of some once-re-
vered parsonage. and the thought came
from the olden time: WAS he by chance,
OF the valiant Fabii, one of whom erected a
triumphant stone arch on the Sacra Via,
three hundred of whom once persisted to-
gether in the Valentine war;"
Beans and Spelt.
At the feast of the goddess Carna in her
temple on the Coelan, used to be offered a
mess Of beans. Ovid explains this custom
by saying that when her cult was instituted
the Latin soil produced only beans and
spelt- But Macrobius tells us further that
beans were looked upon as a great source
OF vitality. He says also that the Kalends
of June were called Fabariae because beans
were then ripe and were called for in sacri-
fetal rites Pliny says that in the admins
tration of justice black bean signifed
condemnation cor ,,;., w, while white one meant
not guilty The black variety was also
much used as funeral offering to the
Lemures and was laid in tombs. There is
no doubt. therefore, that however much it
had become despised in imperial days in
preceding periods the bean had been one of
the most important plants In the Roman
garden.
But the Fabii were by no means the only
illustrious family deriving their name from
garden vegetable. c The Caepiones owed
theirs to caepa, an onion; the LentuH,
theirs to lens, the lentfl: while the Pisones
derived theirs from pisum, the pea; more
over. Cicero, the cognomen of Marcus Tul-
Illus, is from cicer. the chick pea. Persius
tells us that at the feast Of Flora vetches,
beans, lupines. were scattered broadcast
the Circus Maximus..c The significance Of
this was doubtless the same as that in
tended by the rfce,r peas and beans still
thrown at weddings in various countries.
Cabbage and Potato.
The potato. was of course, wanting to the
Roman garden, but Cato considered the
cabbage to be the very king Of vegetables.
and 1t is likely that many varieties of the
plant were cultivated already in his day.
He liked it both cooked and raw, dressed
with vinegar. The best kinds OF artichokes
came from Carthage. whence had been inn
ported the nahum Punicum, or pomegran-
ate, and also the finest figs. For one recol-
lects the clever use made by the same Cato
of a bunch of quite fresh Carthaginian figs,
which, being suddenly produced from be-
meath his toga, were intended to convince
his hearers that great Carthage was be-
come too near commercial rival in the.
Mediterranean for the security of Rome.
Fennel and lettuce-both of them, with the
Phoenicians, sacred to Adonis-were regard
ed, as they still are here, as particularly
good FOR the minister OF the INTERIOR, and
also sleep producers Venus is said to
have salved the wounds of Adonis with let
tuce. Pliny mentions a family who were
not ashamed of their name: in fact a
branch of the Gems Valeria-Latucini (from
latuca, lettuce). Pumpkin and cucumber
may both have been cultivated in quite
early times The Emperor Tiberius, prob
ably carefully temperate man, at one
time Is said to have eaten cucumber daily.
Endiye and wild asparagus were greatly
esteemed, though the latter was thought
inferior to the kind grown at Ravenna and
to that brought from Germany.