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Taste or Taboo: Dietary Choices in Antiquity: By Michael Beer

december 2011 These well-balanced positions connecting the data one has—writings on the banquet—and the claims made upon that data demonstrate the nuance and solidity of Nadeau’s thesis. His presentation of the excesses allowed at banquets demonstrates this approach: “Normativity and excess are interpretations subject to relative and varying imperatives; certain behaviors, certain categories of food, indeed quantities, can be considered excessive in certain contexts and normal at other occasions” (p. 336). In Greece, the relationship between excess and moderation at banquets was ambiguous and context specific. Athenaeus writes of gluttons who forget to share. Athletes are allowed to eat more. Nadeau contrasts the pedagogical role of Plutarch: “To take advantage of the health benefits, one must protect against excess of all kinds according to Plutarch: food, drink, erotic pleasures.” And Lucien chimes in, showing banquets as an excuse for excess in the manner of a modern Thanksgiving repas. The ancient Greek simplicity serves as a point of reference for the decadence of later Roman practices. In sum, this book on table manners in the ancient world is no mere history of Miss Manners. Nadeau thoroughly embeds his analysis of the better points of dining in Greece and Rome in a social and cultural framework. The reader will learn about the fluid boundaries between the elite societies of Greece and Rome while developing a grasp of the nature of writing composite histories. Scholars and students interested in the ancient Mediterranean world, the transmission of culture, and food culture will profit from this plunge into the social norms of the era of the Second Sophistic. Historian Robin Nadeau’s thorough work on the transmission of table manners in ancient Greece and Rome presents a key case in understanding social change.