Garum: do mar à mesa dos romanos

Abstract

We wish to present the results of our doctoral research on the subject of Roman garum. Our primary goal is to present the latest findings on the historical role of garum in the Roman West by offering a multidisciplinary analysis of the immense amount of data generated on the subject in recent decades. We seek to change the conventional notion that garum consumption was reserved for the elites by presenting literary and archaeological evidence that proves the product was a multiplex technological and commercial phenomenon serving as a source of low-cost protein for the Roman people, packaged and shipped over long distances inside amphorae—at the centre of a historical process that continues to the present day. This will be our point of departure in challenging Finley's minimalist theories about the ancient economy.