2023-09-28 17:58:31
The ancient Romans needed olive trees to eat, illuminate their nights, take care of their skin and move their enormous empire. So much so that sometimes, like now, liquid gold reached exorbitant prices in the Mediterranean and was capable of upending entire economies. «There are two liquids that are especially pleasant for the human body: wine on the inside and oil on the outside. Both are the most excellent products of trees, but oil is an absolute necessity, and man has not erred in dedicating his efforts to obtaining it,” stated Pliny the Elder in his ‘Natural History’.
Due to Phoenician and then Greek influence, the Romans developed an absolute dependence on olive oil (oleum), which they not only used as an ingredient in cooking, but also as an ointment in the baths and a fuel for lighting their houses. Roman lamps called Lucerns were small utensils made of stone or terracotta that burned oil through wicks made of plant fibers, such as spun linen or papyrus. These objects could be carried from one room to another and used in outdoor activities because some had handles.
The pressed paste gave rise to the oil, stored in large globular ceramic vessels called dolia.
Like everything related to the mediterranean empire, a gigantic production, marketing and transportation industry developed in parallel to the enormous demand for oil. Along with cereal and wine, olives were the main agricultural production in the Roman rural world. Everything was used from the olive, even the alpechín, a leftover dark and smelly liquid that, according to Plinio, was used as an insecticide, herbicide and fungicide. The olive, for its part, was ground without breaking the stone to preserve its flavor in a grinding system called trapetum. The oil was kept in large globular ceramic vessels called dolia and then stored in special amphorae.
Depending on its quality, the oil could be “Oil-encrusted”of high quality and extracted from green olives in September for religious offerings and the manufacture of perfumes; ‘green oil’, which was made in December with olives that varied between green and black for gastronomic use (both for dressing and seasoning, cooking or frying) and ‘bitter oil‘, made with the lowest quality olives that had fallen to the ground and were used for combustion.
Measurement of olive oil in a Roman museum. ABC
On an aesthetic level, the oil served as a base to create perfumes and a natural moisturizer. It is attributed to Claudius Galen (129-199 AD), doctor at the Pergamon gladiatorial school, creating the first moisturizing cream in history from olive oil, water and beeswax. In addition, those who practiced physical exercise in the hot springs anointed their bodies with oil to protect themselves from the rigors of the sun. After the training session they removed the layer of oil, dust and sweat, a smelly substance that had a second life. As Pliny explained, “it is known that the magistrates who were in charge of [de la palestra] “They even sold the scraps of oil for eighty thousand sesterces.” The substance was then sold to make medicine against colic, ulcers and other ailments.
Julius Caesar incorporated olive oil into the annona, the supply that the army received for its maintenance. This caused its demand to skyrocket and gastronomically spread to central and northern Europe. It is estimated that a Roman legionary consumed half a liter of oil per day (the average citizen consumed about 55 liters per year). The soldiers not only used it as a seasoning to preserve food and to obtain some flavor, but also to defend themselves from both the cold and the sun. Titus Livy tells that during a great battle on the Trebbia river, during the Second Punic War, the cold was so unbearable that the Carthaginians doused themselves with oil and achieved victory. The legionnaires took note for future combats: oil could be a lethal weapon.
Military use, in turn, strained the supply chain and turned the oil into a strategic product. In times of war, the owners who owned more than 2500 square meters of olive grove They were exempt from conscription and prohibited from suspending production. Cultivation led many nomadic tribes to become sedentary through this very prosperous economic route. Not in vain, the conquest of several regions of the Iberian Peninsula seemed a priority due to the presence in the Betica province of favorable lands for this crop. Oil was one more piece of the global game that the empire was playing.
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