Feasts of Mass Destruction: Disciplina and Austerity

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Besides labor , an important feature of disciplina militaris was dietary austerity: controlling consumption, or at least governing representations of eating and drinking, in military service. Representations of food, drink, and dining reflected Greek and Roman concepts of social hierarchy, social control, and community. The subject of dining in militia is distorted by literary exclusions. Despite the warriors' feasts in Homer's Iliad , in classical culture warfare and feasting were incompatible categories and literary genres. In literature, those preparing and eating food were often of low social or moral status, rather than the normative elite male. Roman “high” genres such as history, philosophy, and oratory inherited a classical Greek tradition that relegated descriptions of food and feasting to comedy, epigram, and biography; the Romans added satire and fiction. The Greek critic Longinus regarded concrete terms for food as unsuited to lofty military narrative or panegyric; many Roman authors agreed. The ancient Spartans' reputation for military austerity was contrasted with Persian luxury. The Platonic tripartite division of the self canonized control over the appetites: reason in the mind and courage in the heart dominated the physical appetites in the stomach. These corresponded to the rulers of a city, their soldiers, and the masses. For elites and soldiers to indulge their appetites and stomachs was inappropriate, or even antisocial. The classical Greek ideal of military austerity may have emerged from hoplite warfare, emphasizing rigorous equality and unity of effort, reflecting the democratic principle of isonomia .