L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 20 L'Italo-Americano W ho doesn't love shop- p i n g ? O n l i n e , IRL, at the mall or at the market. Food, clothes, books, trinkets, any- thing goes, really. True, in this day and age, spending m o n e y o n f u t i l i t i e s o r "extras," as we like to call them, it's become increas- ingly difficult. For many, it's d i f f i c u l t e v e n t o s h o p f o r what's necessary… But let us not think of it, right now. Let us talk about something dif- ferent and find out how our great ancestors, the ancient Romans, used to do their own shopping back in the day. In one of its most recent books, the first of a trilogy dedicated to the Great Fire of Rome, Alberto Angela describes colorful scenes of R o m a n l i f e , i n d e t a i l s s o vivid one truly feels to be r i g h t t h e r e , r o a m i n g t h e Forum, some two thousand years ago: among the pages that tickled my curiosity the most were those where the two protagonists of the book walk through an alley filled with tabernae, stalls selling c l o t h e s a n d e v e n a b o o k - store, although books, back then, were not bound as they are today, but were written o n s c r o l l s . W h a t s t r i k e s , really, in Angela's descrip- tion, is how doing shopping back then wasn't that differ- ent from the way we do it today, in the end, especially when you think of the way things go in large markets in Mediterranean countries: haggling all the way! Rome was an incredibly lively and multicultural city, with thousands and thou- sands of different products coming from every corner of the Empire: back then, you could find everything you could have thought of. For your daily shopping, a bit like today, ancient Romans had a variety of options that went from horrea, similar to today's wholesale mar- kets, to street vendors, who sold their products street by street. Horrea were usually located in specific areas of the city, where goods could be delivered and sold easily: f o r i n s t a n c e , o n e o f t h e main horrea in the capital was between the Aventine h i l l a n d t h e T i b e r , n e a r the Emporium, Rome's own river port. Each horreum had a specific name, either based on what they sold, or on that of their owner. His- tory blog Mondo Romano (www.mondoromano.com) m e n t i o n s , f o r i n s t a n c e , the horrea pipetaria, whose name came from the exotic spices you could buy there. They functioned until the 4th century, when they left s p a c e t o t h e M a s s e n t i u s basilica, and were particu- larly popular among doctors, who bought there the ingre- dients for their medicines; in fact, the area surrounding t h e h o r r e a p i p e t a r i a became, in time, the "health- c a r e b o r o u g h " o f R o m e , because healers and doctors h a d t h e i r o w n s u r g e r i e s there. Incredibly, the area kept the same role in the city until the Middle Ages. If you were after a book, t h e p l a c e f o r y o u w a s t h e A r g i l e t u m , a n a r e a between the Aventine and the Circus Maximus, home t o t h e h o r r e a cartaria where papyruses and all you may have needed to write were sold. Book- sellers also had their stores there. Just like today, you c o u l d g e t b o o k s o f e v e r y genre and, indeed, price, depending on the quality of their manufacture and of the material used in their mak- i n g . A h i g h - q u a l i t y b o o k could reach a price tag of 6 or 7 denarii, more than 50 USD. And what about our daily shopping, what about food? For that, ancient Romans had tabernae, which were the equivalent of our mod- e r n s t o r e s . W e a l l k n o w about the tabernae were you could buy and consume food because a beautifully pre- served one was discovered only a couple of years ago in Pompeii. Tabernae were a l r e a d y c o m m o n i n b o t h G r e e k a n d E t r u s c a n c u l - tures, and they didn't only sell food, but all types of goods and they often func- tioned both as a store and a workshop: the faber tignar- ius, the carpenter, worked a n d s o l d h i s p r o d u c t s i n a taberna, just like other craftsmen, like blacksmiths or tailors. Tabernae were usually f o u n d a t t h e f o r a . Y e s , f o r a a t t h e p l u r a l , because Rome didn't only have the Forum we still see today, the center of the capi- tal's religious and political life, but also other gathering spaces with the same name, which were however more like open-air markets. You may be familiar, if you visit- ed Rome, with the Forum Boarium, with its beautiful t e m p l e s o f H e r c u l e s Victor and Portunus, where you could buy meat. There w a s a l s o a F o r u m Olitorio, no longer extant b u t l o c a t e d i n t h e a r e a where the Chruch of Saint Nicholas in Prison is today, which sold vegetables and fruits. Sources also mention other fora, like those selling wine and pork meat. Similar, but more struc- tured than the fora, where the macella: here, the aver- age Roman could find every- t h i n g t h e y n e e d e d i n o n e place, just like we do today at the supermarket. Macel- la were created for safety r e a s o n s : f o r a ' s h y g i e n i c conditions weren't stellar so, to facilitate and supervise c l e a n i n g m a c e l l a , w h i c h were organized adequately and hosted in a building, were created. As you can see, two thou- sand years may have passed, but our Roman ancestors h a d t h e a r t o f s h o p p i n g already perfected! The incredibly modern ways of our ancestors: shopping in ancient Rome CHIARA D'ALESSIO Illustration of how an ancient Roman street looked like (Photo: Papepi/Dreamstime) HERITAGE HISTORY IDENTITY TRADITIONS PEOPLE

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