Your correspondent "R.O." having inquired after the author of the
conjecture that the Lacedæmonian Black Broth was composed wholly, or in
part, of coffee, such an idea appearing to me to have arisen principally
from a presumed identity of colour between the two, and to have no
foundation in fact, I have endeavoured to combat it, in the first
instance by raising the question, whether it was black or not?
This has brought us to the main point, what the [Greek: zomos melas]
really was. And here "R.O." appears to rest content upon the probablity
of coffee having been an ingredient. Permit me to assign some additional
reasons for entertaining a different opinion.
We read nothing in native writers of anything like coffee in Greece,
indigenous or imported; and how in the world was it to get into Laconia,
inhabited, as it is well known to have been, by a race of men the least
prone of any to change their customs, and the least accessible to
strangers. Lycurgus, we are told, forbade his people to be sailors, or
to contend at sea[6], so that they had no means of importing it
themselves; and what foreign merchant would sell it to them, who had
only iron money to pay withal, and dealt, moreover, as much as possible
by way of barter?[7]
But it may be said they cultivated the plant themselves; that is, in
other words, that the Helots raised it for them. If so, how happens it
that all mention of the berry is omitted in the catalogue of their
monthly contributions to the Phiditia, which are said to have consisted
of meal, wine, cheese, figs, and a very little money?[8] and when the
king of Pontus[9] indulged in the expensive fancy of buying to himself
(not hiring, let it be recollected) a cook, to make that famous broth
which Dionysius found so detestable, how came he not at the same time to
think of buying a pound of coffee also? Moreover, if we consider its
universal popularity at present, it is hardly to be supposed that, in
ancient times, coffee would have suited no palate except that of a
Lacedæmonian.
With respect to the colour of the broth, I am reminded of my own
reference to _Pollux_, lib. vi. who is represented by your correspondent
to say that the [Greek: melas zomos] was also called [Greek: aimatia], a
word which Messrs. Scott and Liddell interpret to {301} denote "blood
broth," and go on to state, upon the authority of Manso, that blood was
a principal ingredient in this celebrated Lacedæmonian dish. Certainly,
if the case were really so, the German writer would have succeeded in
preparing for us a most disagreeable and warlike kind of food; but my
astonishment has not been small, upon turning to the passage, to find
that "R.O.'s" authorities had misled him, and that _Pollux_ really says
nothing of the kind. His words (I quote from the edition 2 vols. folio,
Amst. 1706) are these,
[Greek: "O de melas kaloumenos zomos Lakonikon men hos epi to poly to
edesma. esti de hae kaloumenae haimatia. to de thrion hode eskeuazon,
k.t.l."]
The general subject of the section is the different kinds of flesh used
by man for food, and incidentally the good things which may be made from
these; which leads the writer to mention by name many kinds of broth,
amongst which he says towards the end, is that called [Greek: melas
zomos] which might be considered almost as a Lacedæmonian dish; adding
further, that there was a something called hæmatia (and this might have
been a black pudding or sausage for anything that appears to the
contrary); also the thrium, which was prepared in a manner he proceeds
to describe. Now the three parts of the sentence which has been given
above in the original do, to the best of my judgment, clearly refer to
three different species of food; and I would appeal to the candid
opinion of any competent Greek scholar, whether, according to the idiom
of that language, the second part of it is so expressed, as to connect
it with, and make it explanatory of, the first. We want, for this
purpose, a relative, either with or without [Greek: esti]; and the
change of gender in hæmatia seems perfectly unaccountable if it is
intended to have any reference to [Greek: zomos].
It may not be unimportant to add that the significant silence of
Meursius, (an author surely not to be lightly thought of) who in his
_Miscellanea Laconica_ says nothing of blood broth at the Phiditia,
implies that he understood the passage of Pollux as intended to convey
the meaning expressed above.
Another lexicographer, Hesychius, informs us that [Greek: Bapha] was the
Lacedæmonian term for [Greek: zomos]; and this, perhaps, was the genuine
appellation for that which other Greeks expressed by a periphrasis,
either in contempt or dislike, or because its colour was really dark,
the juices of the meat being thoroughly extracted into it. That it was
nutritive and powerful may be inferred from what Plutarch mentions, that
the older men were content to give up the meat to the younger ones, and
live upon the broth only[10], which, had it been very poor, they would
not have done.
When these remarks were commenced, it was for the purpose of showing, by
means of a passage not generally referred to, what the ancients
conceived the "black broth" to be, and that consequently, all idea of
coffee entering into its composition was untenable. How far this has
been accomplished the reader must decide: but I cannot quit the subject
without expressing my sincere persuasion, founded upon a view of the
authorities referred to, that the account given by Athenæus is
substantially correct. Pig meat would be much in use with a people not
disposed to take the trouble of preparing any other: the animal was fit
for nothing but food; and the refuse of their little farms would be
sufficient for his keep. Athenæus also, in another passage, supplies us
with a confirmation of the notion that _the stock_ was made from _pig_,
and this is stronger because it occurs incidentally. It is found in a
quotation from Matron, the maker of parodies, who, alluding to some
person or other who had not got on very well at a Lacedæmonian feast,
explains the cause of his failure to have been, that the black broth,
and boiled odds and ends of pig meat, had beaten him;
"[Greek: Damna min zomos te melas akrokolia t' hephtha.]"[11]
That their cookery was not of a very recondite nature, is evident from
what is mentioned by Plutarch, that the public meals were instituted at
first in order to prevent their being in the hands of artistes and
cooks[12], while to these every one sent a stated portion of provisions,
so that there would neither be change nor variety in them. Cooks again
were sent out of Sparta, if they could do more than dress meat[13];
while the only seasoning allowed to them was salt and vinegar[14]; for
which reason, perhaps, Meursius considers the composition of the [Greek:
zomos melas] to have been pork gravy seasoned with vinegar and salt[15],
since there seemed to have been nothing else of which it could possibly
have been made.
For MR. TREVELYAN's suggestion of the cuttlefish, I am greatly obliged
to him; but this was an Athenian dish, and too good for the severity of
Spartan manners. It is impossible not to smile at the idea of the
distress which Cineparius must have felt, had he happened to witness the
performances of any persons thus swallowing ink bottles by wholesale.
The passages which have been already quoted, {302} either by R.O. or
myself, will probably give Mr. T. sufficient information of the
principal ones in which the "black broth" is mentioned.