Foods in the ancient world must have been pretty boring.
No potatoes, tomatoes, corn, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, pineapples, vanilla, chocolate, no spices except what was imported from Asia, just to name a few.........................
In Arabia Felix, particularly Yemen and Oman, frankincense from Boswellia Sacra and myrrh from Commiphora were harvested with skill and care in southern Arabia. These weren't just local luxuries; they were global exports. Pliny the Elder wrote that all the incense produced in the world is attributed to Arabia, describing the region as measuring 1,200 stadia in length and 200 in breadth, with no land more fertile. In reality, these goods also came from the Horn of Africa—Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Getting that incense to Rome required infrastructure. The Incense Route was a major path from southern Arabia through the land of the Nabataeans to Hegra, Petra, their port of Gaza, and onto Roman ports around the Mediterranean, especially Alexandria and Rome. Strabo noted that through Nabataea, aromatics from Arabia and Indian goods were carried, some overland through Petra and then to Rhuma.
To secure these routes, Emperor Augustus sent Aelius Gallus. Pliny the Elder wrote that Aelius Gallus, prefect of Egypt, was sent by Augustus into Arabia but returned without success due to the difficulty of the terrain and the deceit of his guides. He led an expedition with over 10,000 men, aiming to open direct land routes through Arabia Felix, but the army suffered from disease and heat, highlighting the logistical power of the Nabataeans, which Rome would later absorb.
The Nabataeans controlled the traffic of spiced goods for centuries. Petra, their capital, wasn't just a city; it was a fortified distribution hub, flourishing between the 4th century BC and the 2nd century AD. It controlled overland trade from Arabia and became Rome's ally before being annexed under Trajan in 106 AD. The closely guarded entrance, the Siq, was a natural narrow gorge over half a mile long. The Nabataeans, masters of the desert, captured violent winter rains with sophisticated dams and cisterns to irrigate the harsh terrain, creating a verdant city with plazas for trade, temples, a theater, and countless rock-cut tombs. Notable structures included the so-called Treasury and the Monastery, which may have been places of worship for distinguished deified rulers. Hegra, Petra's southern capital, was a key stop between Dhofar and Petra, featuring monumental rock-cut tombs and serving as a desert hub and storage site before camel caravans advanced north. Rome absorbed Nabataean land routes and ports in 106 AD, creating the province of Arabia Petraea.
Rome imported staggering volumes, an estimated 3,000 tons of incense annually. Pliny wrote, "We drain the wealth of India, China, and Arabia. Each year, 100 million sesterces are spent on these goods." He also noted that a fleet of 120 ships sailed yearly from India to Alexandria. The maritime trade route, detailed in the 1st-century AD Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, described great quantities of pepper, spikenard, and fine cloth shipped from Indian ports like Baraza and Muziris on large vessels riding the monsoon winds. From Egyptian ports like Berenice and Myos Hormos, ships timed the monsoon winds to reach Muziris and Kerala, India. Berenice, on Egypt's Red Sea coast, became a major Roman port after the conquest of trade routes. From there, a short desert route led to Coptos on the Nile, then by river to Alexandria. The Amnis Traianus, a canal from the Red Sea to the Nile initiated by the Persians and enlarged by the Romans, also facilitated trade.
Pepper from India—black, long, and white—was highly prized in Roman kitchens, temples, and apothecaries. Scholars estimate that 2,000 to 3,000 tons of pepper entered the Roman world annually by the 2nd century AD. It wasn't just a culinary fix; it was medicine. Galen, the famous physician, wrote that pepper is hot and biting, heating and thinning the humors, prescribing it to stimulate digestion, warm the body, and treat everything from coughs to melancholy. Pepper dominated Roman cuisine, appearing in over 80% of Apicius' recipes for meat, fish, fruit, and wine sauces. Pliny the Elder noted, "We buy it by weight like gold, not for medicine, but for pleasure." Spices like pepper, saffron, and myrrh were vital therapeutics for doctors, treating coughs, fever, and melancholy. In temples, incense was a divine language; at home, it was for purification; in death, it was for preservation. Pliny emphasized, "Arabia alone produces frankincense and myrrh, without which no public or private rites are complete."
These goods were stored in the Horrea Piperataria, Rome's spice market, an extensive series of warehouses to store precious goods in the heart of the city, dating to the time of Domitian. The warehouses were destroyed in the fire of 191 AD during Commodus' reign. According to Cassius Dio, the fire destroyed buildings near the Sacred Way, including those storing Arabian and Indian spices and luxury goods. Most of the pepper imported from India ended up in kitchens and doctors' clinics across the empire, passing through warehouses like the Horrea Piperataria in the Roman Forum. Physicians like Galen, working near the Forum of Peace, would travel down the Vicus ad Carinas to access these spices. The Horrea Piperataria, near the hulking ruins of the Basilica of Maxentius, was essentially a vault for expensive imported products. Along the Sacred Way, stands and shops sold these precious goods to the citizens of the Roman Empire.
The Roman Empire ran on conquest, control, and scent—from Oman to Domitian, from tap to temples. This was an empire bound by incense, a global network sealed with spice and smoke, stored in the heart of Rome.
