Maya Holmes – Roman Revolutions

Ova Spongia Ex Lacte

By Maya Holmes | May 13, 2022 | Comments 1 comment

I made eggs with honey, which is a Roman dish called Ova Spongia Ex Lacte, which more directly translates to honey omelet. I eat eggs almost every morning, and I never really change up the steps that I take. I really enjoyed making these eggs in a different way because it was nice to change up my routine. The roman recipe translates to “Four eggs in half a pint of milk and an ounce of oil well beaten to make a fluffy mixture. In a pan, put a little oil and add the egg preparation without letting it boil. When one side is done, turn it out to a platter. Fold it, pour on honey and sprinkle with pepper.” I do not usually eat 4 eggs, so I split the recipe in half, and I also added a little bit less milk because I generally don’t like my eggs to be too heavy. It was a little bit difficult to follow the roman instructions on flipping the omelet; I just made it the way I have been taught. I had the eggs for breakfast, so I also had some sausage with them. I had never thought to put anything sweet in an omelet because it sounds like the flavors would not mesh well. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by the taste of the eggs. I also usually do not put pepper on my eggs, but to my surprise, it actually tasted better with the pepper. The combination of the honey and pepper really worked, and the flavor profiles contrasted quite nicely. Usually, I don’t like when savory elements are added to sweet ones, such as in salted caramel or salted chocolate, but I think that this combination worked pretty well for me. In looking around the internet, I found that some translations of the recipe involve putting cinnamon on the eggs as well. I tried that, but it was just too much for me. The eggs before the cinnamon were not the greatest, but definitely edible, but after the cinnamon, it was hard to get them down. If I had to do this again, I would not have added cinnamon to the eggs.

I had my friend Jasmine try the eggs as well, and she thought that they were pretty bad. In general, she is a pretty picky eater, so that was expected, but I did not expect the extent to which she disliked them. She immediately threw them out and went to brush her teeth and rinse out her mouth. Overall, she rated the eggs a 1.3/10, only giving points for the texture of the eggs.

Ingredients

3 tablespoon honey
4 eggs
275ml milk
25g butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
Good pinch of black pepper

Instructions

Beat together the eggs, milk, and oil.
Pour a little olive oil into a frying pan and heat. When this is sizzling, add the omelette mixture.
Whisk with a fork until the mix starts to solidify (this will make for a lighter omelette).
When thoroughly cooked on one side, turn the omelette over and cook on the other side. Fold in half and turn out onto a plate.
Warm the honey and pour over the omelette. Fold this over once more and cut into thick slices.
Sprinkle with black pepper and serve.

https://delishably.com/world-cuisine/ancient-food-rome

Eggs Benedon’t (Roman Omelette Souffle, 1 AD)

Gladiator

By Maya Holmes | April 28, 2022 | Comments 0 Comment

I watched the movie Gladiator, which follows the life of Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius. It begins with the emperor telling Maximus that he should be Rome’s next emperor, as opposed to the emperor’s son, Commodus. After hearing this, Commodus kills his father and asks for Maximus’s loyalty, to which he declines. Commodus then has Maximus arrested, but he kills his captors and escapes to his house, where he finds his wife and kids dead. He buries them and is then captured again and sold to a gladiator trainer named Proximo. Commodus fights in local tournaments and is successful because of his battle skills learned as a general. He then goes to fight in the Colosseum for the games ordered by Commodus, and he unexpectedly wins. Commodus comes down to congratulate Maximus on his win, as he didn’t know it was him because of his mask. When Maximus reveals himself, the crowd is in support of him, so Commodus lets him live, but he sets him up to fight Tigris, an undefeated gladiator, in his next match. Commodus orders Maximus to kill Tigris, but Maximus does not, and he once again gains the support of the crowd, which makes Commodus very angry.

After learning that his army still supports him, Maximus secretly meets with Commodus’s sister, Lucilia, and Gracchus, who plan an escape for Maximus to join his army and take back Rome. Commodus learns of the meeting and goes out to attack them. Maximus escapes, but several others die in the process. To gain back public approval, Commodus challenges Maximus to a duel. To gain an advantage, Commodus stabs Maximus before the fight. Maximus manages to disarm Commodus, who then pulls out a hidden knife and tries to stab Maximus. Maximus takes the knife and stabs Commodus in the neck and kills him. Maximus is still very hurt from his injuries, but he calls out to the people and asks for political reforms, the freedom of gladiators, and for Gracchus to be emperor. He then dies, and Lucilia carries his body, not Commodus’s from the Colosseum.

I really liked this movie; I think it represented Rome very well, even though it is not based on a true story. It shows the political problems and military discipline, love and treason, and hate and jealousy, all very Roman things. Although it is long, it was very well-written, easy to follow, and engaging throughout. The dialogue was understandable but accurate, and the battle scenes were very well filmed and very exciting. Overall, the movie was educational and engaging, and I would watch it again. My friends were pleasantly surprised to find themselves interested in a Roman history movie. They thought that they would be very bored by the movie, but they thought it was captivating and not boring at all.

The Mad Emperor

By Maya Holmes | April 7, 2022 | Comments 0 Comment

I watched the third season of the Netflix series Roman Empire, which is about the reign of Caligula, and is rightfully titled “The Mad Emperor.” It is in the form of a documentary, but it is a historical dramatization of the true events of Caligula’s life. It begins with Caligula’s early life which was heavily influenced by his relationship with his father, Germanicus, who was a general. Caligula spent a lot of time around the battlefield with him and began developing leadership skills and a war-like mentality. A scene that really stood out to me was when he was hiding in a cabinet to avoid being taken away by the Roman guards who were after his family for spreading misinformation. Germanicus had just died, and his family suspected that Tiberius had killed him so that he would no longer be the heir to the throne, so they were speaking out against Tiberius. Although I am not sure if he actually hid in a cabinet, the scene was very intense, and really emphasized the trauma that Caligula experienced as a child, which is very important to his later development.

Later in his life, Caligula was taken to Capri to live under Tiberius’ personal care, along with Tiberius’ son, Tiberius Gemmellus. There, Caligula was essentially his servant and had to hide his hard feelings against Tiberius. Surprisingly, right before Tiberius died, he named both his son and Caligula to be Emperors, despite their history. During his first six months, Caligula was a noble, well-respected leader, but after that, he descended into a state of insanity and tyranny. While the part I watched was mainly about his early life, his progression makes sense, based on his highly traumatic childhood.

I really liked watching this TV series, as it gave very good visuals and insight into Caligula’s early life. I had not thought about how his childhood would have influenced his later life and rule. It was very interesting to see how they depicted his life and it gave me a better understanding of how all of the pieces of his life fit together.