For my second ACTA, I decided to watch a Roman movie with a few of my friends. This movie was called Gladiator. As someone who has never been exposed to Roman culture and information, this movie was very powerful and almost overwhelming for me. The violence, battles, and strong emotions of the actors made the film very compelling. I am typically not a fan of movies that have a lot of fighting in them, but I surprisingly found myself fairly engaged throughout most of the movie. With all of this being said, there were a variety of things and scenes that stood out to me.  

  For example, one thing that stood out to me was the Roman urge to remain in high status. Within the movie Gladiator, Commodus, a character was told by Caesar, his father, that he could not become emperor. Emperor Caesar, however, gave permission to his adopted son, Maximus to become emperor. Commodus, striving for wealth and power, reacted to this decision in an extremely violent way. He was responsible for killing and strangling his own father. The astounding violence does not stop here. After Emperor Caesar is found dead, Commodus orders that Maximus is to be arrested and then executed. Throughout the film, it is clear that Commodus would do just about anything to become more elite. Throughout the Roman Empire, Roman political institutions played a large role in Roman life. Roman society was divided mostly into two classes: plebeians and patricians. Patricians consisted primarily of the wealthy elite, whereas plebians were known as the “common” people. Most individuals aimed to be a patrician for obvious reasons.

Additionally, another thing that stood out to me in this movie was the use of horses in battle. Horses were almost always used in every battle scene. Throughout the later years of the Roman Empire, horses were a huge component of daily Roman life. They were obviously used for transport and battle purposes in the Roman Empire, but also other emerging empires. Additionally, horses were also essential for Roman chariot races. The chariot scene from this movie undoubtedly brought about the importance of horses. In this scene, two horses were attached to a chariot and were used to attack the gladiators in the arena. In this movie, Maximus serves as a mighty gladiator, so he was involved in various chariot races and was very successful in them. During this part of the movie and the other battle scenes, I could not help but wonder if horses were being abused in these situations. 

Overall, I definitely recommend this movie to others. Despite some scenes being very graphic, the movie visuals and Roman cultural depictions were extremely energetic, entertaining, and accurate to what we’ve learned in class. One of the scenes that was especially graphic and distressing was when Maximus’ wife and child were hung and executed. Maximus’ reaction was extremely powerful and emotional. He collapses as he grabs the feet of both his child and wife. I enjoyed comparing some of the scenes to portions of my notes from class, especially our week on “Empire and the Arena”. I watched the movie with three other friends from my Roman Revolutions class. They all had similar reactions!

For my second ACTA, I decided to cook my own Roman-inspired dessert. The dessert that I chose to make were pancakes with honey and sesame seeds. I found this recipe off a Roman meal website that included quotes of famous Romans that participated in cooking. Approximately 1,800 years ago, Galen, a Greek physician and philosopher in the Roman Empire, talked about how to make these Roman pancakes, called teganitais. He claimed, “the oil is put in a frying-pan resting on a smokeless fire, and when it has heated, the wheat flour, mixed with plenty of water, is poured on” (britishmuseum.org). Unlike Galen, 1,800 years ago, I was able to use a stovetop with electric heat to fry these pancakes. Despite these few technological differences, it was interesting to see the similarities between the recipe processes from such different time periods.  

Overall, the process of making this dessert was fairly easy. The recipe only required five simple ingredients: flour, honey, oil, water and sesame seeds. All I had to do was measure out my ingredients and then place them into a mixing bowl. In order to properly measure my substances, I had to convert the ingredients from the metric system into the imperial system. After mixing the ingredients, I placed small scoops of batter into a hot pot of oil. I fried the mini pancakes for about a minute and 30 seconds on each side. I used a mixture of canola and olive oil. After doing that, I placed the pancake on a paper towel. I let it cool for a few minutes and then eventually drizzled honey on top and then the sesame seeds. They looked relatively appetizing. Additionally, because I have celiac disease, I substituted wheat flour for gluten-free rice flour. It seemed to still work out, however, the pancakes did not rise as much when they were being fried.  

The simplicity and lack of sweetness in this “dessert” made me reflect more on what Roman foods were like back then. Ancient Romans primarily ate foods that were seasonally or locally accessible. Their diets primarily consisted of cereals, legumes, some meat, cheese, and vegetables. They did not have access to the complex sweeteners and sugars that our society uses today to make desserts so candied and sugary. In general, I liked the taste of my creation. It was simple, a nice texture, and had a thick inside. However, one thing I would change in the future is to add more toppings. To add more flavor and spice in the future, I might have added chocolate chips, cinnamon, ground cloves, or some sort of fruit. Additionally, honey is not my favorite, so I might have switched that ingredient to maple syrup. I think making this dessert slightly sweeter would have made the dish taste a little better overall. 

   *Additionally, I had one of my friends Natalie try one of my Roman pancakes. At first, she had claimed it was a little bland, but she then took another bite and liked it much better. She said that the honey and sesame seeds added a nice touch and pulled all of the flavors together. She said that without those ingredients she might have not considered this recipe a dessert because of how dull it tasted. We cooked this meal in the VCAM and it was a very engaging and different experience!  

Link to recipe:

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/cook-a-classical-feast-nine-recipes-from-ancient-greece-and-rome/

Ingredients: 

-120 grams of flour 

-225 mL of water 

-2 tbsp clear honey 

-Oil for frying 

-1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds  

Images of the cooking process:

Thank you so much for reading!  

-Tiffany Mikulis