Q.Imagine that you are a Roman housewife preparing a shopping list for household requirements. What would be on the list?

A Roman housewife’s list would start with the staples: wheat or barley for bread, olive oil for cooking and lamps, and wine (often diluted with water) for daily meals. She would also need salt, which was essential for preserving meat and fish, and a range of vegetables like lentils, beans, cabbage, and onions, along with fruits such as figs and grapes when in season.

For protein, she might add cheese, eggs, and occasionally salted fish or pork, depending on the family’s means. Household needs would include charcoal or wood for the hearth, clay or bronze pots for cooking and storage, and a hand-mill for grinding grain. She would not forget basic toiletries—soap-like substances, olive oil for bathing, and a strigil for scraping the skin—plus simple cloth for clothing and rags. …

Picture the scene: a Roman domus or a modest apartment block in Ostia, early morning. The mistress of the house — the materfamilias — is not just buying food. She is managing a small economy. Her list reflects a world where almost nothing comes pre-packaged, where the baker, butcher, and fuller are separate trades, and where the household itself does much of the work we now take for granted.

First, the absolute staples. Wheat or emmer for bread and porridge (puls) would top the list — but not as flour. Most Roman households bought grain and either ground it at home or took it to a local mill. Alongside that, olive oil for cooking, lamps, and even soap-like cleaning, and wine — usually diluted with water, often sour or resinated, but essential. Salt is non-negotiable, both for seasoning and for preserving meat and fish. These four — grain, oil, wine, salt — were the backbone of every Roman shopping list, rich or poor.

Then come the perishables, bought almost daily because there was no refrigeration. Vegetables like cabbage, leeks, onions, garlic, and lentils; fruits in season — figs, apples, grapes, olives. If the family could afford it, there would be cheese (often from sheep or goats), eggs, and a bit of meat: pork was the favourite, but poultry, lamb, or even salted fish (garum’s cousin, salsamenta) might appear. Fish sauce — garum — was the Roman ketchup, a fermented condiment used in nearly every savoury dish, and a housewife would never let it run out.

Now, the list goes beyond food. A Roman household needed things we would call “cleaning” but which were bought as raw materials. Wood ash or natron for laundry, fuller’s earth for scrubbing, and a coarse soap-like paste for the body. Candles or oil for lamps, and wicks. Broomcorn for sweeping. Clay pots, amphorae, and storage jars — because everything came in bulk and had to be decanted. If the house had slaves, the mistress might also list cheap tunics, sandals, or blankets for them, since clothing wore out fast in hard labour. …