Abstract
Historical legacy, as an important constituent for the evaluation of the extent to which the past influences the present, sheds much light on some of the broader issues of the relation between the past and the present. One of the components of historical legacy is human food consumption habits. The domain of food consumption habits, in traditional Greek and Roman culture, contains a fairly noticeable diversity as it fluctuates between what seems to be two wide poles of dietary practices such as a simple diet, with the focus on minimalism and health and a luxury diet, with the focus on excess and extravagance. These poles, upon close analysis, have determined the dietary customs of antiquity while also formed a gastronomic identity. The impact of this historical legacy seems to have not only flavored Porphyry’s discussion of the nature of the philosopher’s diet in On Abstinence from Killing Animals but has also served in characterizing an advanced stage of minimalism in Greek and Roman food consumption habits.
Highlights
The history of food consumption, whether as the history of diet or historical narratives of diet, is one of the key nuclei of the history of human civilization.[1]
A component as the historical legacy of food consumption in traditional Greek and Roman culture has served in shaping an advanced stage of minimalism in Porphyry of Tyre’s De Abstinentia
Minimalism was commonplace in the Archaic and Classical periods while it was an ideal attached to mos maiorum and the broader Republican tradition
Summary
The history of food consumption, whether as the history of diet or historical narratives of diet, is one of the key nuclei of the history of human civilization.[1]. Minimalism, as “self-sufficiency”, becomes more marked in the social scene of the early Roman Empire condemning Neronian luxury.[4] Minimalism is a characteristic component of the Greek cultural tradition, in terms of food and clothing and general living standards: Out of a limited agriculture rises a simple material culture: a simple diet (mostly vegetarian— grain, olives, figs, wine), simple dress (strips of woolen or goat-hair cloth [sakkos] wrapped in various ways about the body; strips of leather tied round the feet), and uncomplicated architecture prevail throughout the archaic and classical periods.
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