SC - APICIUS

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
> 
> I am reading the content of the food site  *Cena Bene* .  It states the
> following:
> 
> >>>Apicius was a first century author of De Re Coquinaria>>>

Marcus Gavius Apicius was a gourmand living in the reign of the emperor
Tiberius. He is one of the Roman noblemen traditionally associated with
authorship of De Re Coquinaria. The other is an Apicius who lived, as I
recall, in the second-century reign of Trajan. I don't recall his full
name offhand. Marcus Gavius is said to have squandered a truly enormous
fortune on fine dining, and when his fortune was down to a mere million
gold pieces he is said to have committed suicide. It is reputed that
this was because he had no money left with which to entertain on a grand
scale, but one must remember that one of the qualifications for the
Senate at the time was a million in gold, and once his bank balance went
below that he was A) no longer eligible for the Senate, and would be
bounced to the middle class, and B) a man no longer able to supply
Tiberius and his various functionaries with bribes, not to mention
having no lucrative fortune to leave to Tiberius upon his death.
Tiberius is considered a fairly bad emperor because he really didn't
seem to want the job, and ended up pretty much despising the people of
Rome, and engaging, according to Suetonius, in some rather unfortunate
sexual activites throughout most of his later life.

But I digress... ;  )   
 
> Am I correct in thinking that Apicius was the author of De Re Coquinaria?

Authorship is attributed to someone by that name. Whether or not that is
correct, and who the real Apicius was for sure, is unknown, largely
because the earliest known copy of De Re Coquinaria dates from something
like the fifth or sixth century, I believe. The rest is speculation.

> And if so why to we site "Apicius" and not De Re Coquina?  (I never knew
> Apicius was a *he*)

It's easier to type Apicius than to type De Re Coquinaria, just as it's
easier to type Digby than to type The Closet of the Eminently Learned
Sir Kenelm Digbie, Knight, Opened, Wherein Lie Such Secrets of
Distillation, Confectionery, and of the Huswife's Art as will Delight
etc. etc. etc. blah blah etc. The main reason people might not do this
in a relatively academic or scholarly setting, where the reference books
are pretty well-known across the board, is if an author is known for
more than one such work, as with Arnald De Villanueva, for example.
    
> And is it pronounced:"Ah  pih  kus  ?

a-PEESH-ee-us

a-da-MANT-ee-us ;  )
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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