Sunset on Empire

It is only appropriate to begin this blog in Ancient Greece, and to explore how and where the sun set on the Greek Empire. Let's dig in.

It is a gross understatement to say we owe a lot to the ancient Greeks.

The Greeks' trade routes were vast, and their maritime trade played a key role in their power, because their own country was mostly mountainous (approximately 80%) and they did not develop a mountain-based agriculture (such as the Andean civilizations, the Hindu Kush-Himalaya, and as was recently discovered in the Zagros mountains). With such a small portion or arable land in their own region, colonization was a natural next step for the Ancient Greeks. And so their international trade grew from about 750 BCE, when the Greeks established colonies in Sicily and Southern Italy. This region was known as Magna Graecia, or, in Latin, "Great Greece". The term came to signify the entire Greek world, expansion to any region was based on geographic advantage in trade and the fertility of the land.

They were very swiftly strongly reliant on imports, especially including wheat, which can be found on the coins from Metapontum in 465-440 BCE. Metapontum, in fact, was part of Magna Graecia. 

In terms of foods and culinary traditions, the Ancient Greeks ate lots of bread, beans and olives because of their availability. Barley was the main grain staple of the Greek diet. They had fresh fruits and vegetables in the summer, and stored apples, cheeses, and dried fruits in the winter. And since most of the Greeks lived very near the sea, they ate lots of fish, squid, octopus, and shellfish. They did not use utensils, and they used bread both as a stand-in utensil for soup and in place of what today would a napkin, which was afterward discarded on the floor for the dogs.They drank their wines watered down and they almost never drank milk—both being considered barbaric. In terms of meal timing, supper was the main course, the agora was the marketplace where food was purchased, and men often gathered for dinner parties called symposiums. 

In Demosthenes' Funeral Speech, it was said:

"In my view also the fact that the fruits of the earth by which men live were first manifest among us, even apart from their being a superlative boon to all men, constitutes an acknowledged proof that this land is the mother of our ancestors. For all things that bring forth young produce at the same time nutriment out of the organism itself for those that are born. This very thing has been done by this land. According to tradition the olive was created by the goddess Athena, while the culture of grain, especially wheat and barley, was established by Demeter, whose mysteries were celebrated at Eleusis close to Athens. Or, “by a law of nature herself.”

The silk production industry lasted in some Greek cities up to the 19th century. 

The final region of expansion of Greek colonial expansion was the Black Sea: Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan. As can be expected, now, in this story, it was sought to exploit the fishing and fertile lands. 

Join us for an Feast where we explore Ancient Greek culture and cuisine.