"Some imagined that the receipt of its composition was to be found
in Plutarch (_De Tuendâ Sanitate_, t. vi. p. 487.), but apparently
it was only imagination. That [Greek: zomos] signified not broth,
as it has been usually translated, but _sauce_, is apparent from
the connection in which Athenæus used the word. To judge from
Hesychius, it appears to have borne the name [Greek: bapha] among
the Spartans. How little it pleased the Sicilian Dionysius is well
known from Plutarch (_Inst. Lacon._ t. v. 880.) and from others."
Sir Walter Trevelyan's question is soon answered, for I presume the
celebrity of Spartan Black Broth is chiefly owing to the anecdote of
Dionysius related by Plutarch, in his very popular and amusing _Laconic
Apophthegms_, which Stobæus and Cicero evidently followed; this, and
what is to be gathered from Athenæus and Julius Pollux, with a few words
in Hesychius and the _Etymologicon Magnum_, is the whole amount of our
information. Writers since the revival of letters have mostly copied
each other, from Coelius Rhodiginus down to Gesner, who derives his
conjecture from Turnebus, whose notion is derived from Julius
Pollux,--and so we move in a circle. We sadly want a Greek Apicius, and
then we might resolve the knotty question. I fear we must give up the
notion of cuttle-fish stewed in their own ink, though some former
travellers have not spoken so favourable of this Greek dish. Apicius,
_De Arte Coquinariâ_, among his fish-sauces has three Alexandrian
receipts, one of which will give some notion of the incongruous
materials admissible in the Greek kitchen of later times:--
"JUS ALEXANDRINUM IN PISCE ASSO.
"Piper, cepam siccam, ligusticum, cuminum, orignum, apii semen,
pruna damascena enucleata; passum, liquamen, defrutum, oleum, et
coques."
This question Vexata it seems had not escaped the notice of German
antiquaries. In Boettiger's _Kleine Shriften_, vol. iii., Sillig has
printed for the first time a Dissertation, in answer to a question which
might have graced your pages: "Wherewith did the Ancients spoon" [their
food]? Which opens thus:--
"Though about the composition and preparation of Spartan Black
Sauce we may have only so many doubts, yet still it remains certain
that it was a _jus_--boiled flesh prepared with pig's blood, salt,
and vinegar, a _brodo_; and, when it was to a certain degree
thickened by boiling, though not like a _Polenta_ or other
dough-like mass (_maza offa_), eaten with the fingers. Here, then,
arises a gastronomic question, of importance in archæology; what
table furniture or implements did the Spartans make use of to carry
this sauce to their months? A spoon, or some substitute for a
spoon, must have been at hand in order to be able to enjoy this
Schwarzsauer."
It is certain at least that spoons and forks were unknown to the
Spartans, and some have conjectured that a shell, and even an egg-shell,
may have served the purpose. Those who are desirous of knowing more
about the Table-Supellectile of the ancients, may consult Casaubon's
_Notes on Athenæus_, iv. 13. p. 241.; "Barufaldo de Armis
Convivialibus," in Sallengre's _Thesaurus_, iii. 741.: or Boettiger's
_Dissertation_ above referred to. How little ground the passage in
Plutarch, _De Sanitate Tuendâ_, afforded for the composition will appear
from the passage, which I subjoin, having found some difficulty in
referring to it:
[Greek: Oi Lakones uxos kai halas dontes to mageiro, ta loipa
keleuouso en to iereio setein.]
This only expresses the simplicity of Spartan cookery in general.
To revert to the original question propounded, however, I think we must
come to the conclusion that _coffee_ formed no part of the [Greek: melas
zomos.]