Eastern Wines on Western Tables

Paulina Komar, Ph.D. (2015), Wrocław University, is an archaeologist educated in Warsaw, Liverpool and Wrocław. She is currently an assistant professor at Warsaw's Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University. Her primary research interests concern wine consumption, trade and economics in Classical antiquity.

"Komar offers an exemplary analysis of the Eastern Mediterranean wine trade and its role in the wider economy. Debates overthe scale and organisation of the Roman economy are bedevilled by the disjunction between archaeology and history. By an exhaustive study of a wide range of archaeological, epigraphic, literary, comparative and oenological evidence for a single commodity, Komar provides an authoritative analysis and an exemplar of the potential that this has for our understanding of the social and economic functioning of the Roman world." Benedict Lowe, The Classical Review 71.2 479–482.

• AcknowledgementsList of Figures and TablesIn Search of Lost Wines: Perspectives and Limits1 History of Investigations2 Sources and Methodology3 Primary Commodity or Multi-purpose Containers?4 Reuse—Exception or Rule?5 Identifying the Origin of Amphoras6 Identifying the Content of Amphoras7 Tituli picti8 Pros and Cons of an Interdisciplinary Approach9 Synopsis1 Vinum contra temetum: the Role of Wines from the Eastern Mediterranean in the Origins of Viticulture and Winemaking in Italy1 From vitis silvestris to vitis domestica2 Wine: a Local Invention or a Foreign Influence?3 The Beginnings of the Consumption of Wines from the Eastern Mediterranean4 The Economic Transformation of Italy during the 5th and 4th c. BC5 Eastern Wines in Italy: Types and Chronology6 Conclusions2 De gustibus disputandum est—‘Fame’ or Ordinary Wines?1 In Search of Lost Tastes—Wines in Classical Antiquity2 Republican Wines of Some Repute3 Imperial Common Imports4 Epigraphic Enigmas5 Conclusions3 Mass or Limited? Wine Importations to Italy during the Early Imperial Age1 Roma—the Eternal City2 Campania felix3 Portus and Its Neighbourhood4 Adriatic Italy5 ORBIS Transport Costs and Wine Importations6 Conclusions4 Aristocratic Luxuries or Mass Beverages?1 Luxuries for the Elite2 Wines for Common People3 Conclusions5 Petty Traders or Wealthy Wholesalers? Who Imported Wines to Italy?1 Free Romans and Local Elites2 Italian Freedmen3 Free Greeks, Slaves and Greeks with Roman Citizenship4 Incerti5 Conclusions6 Twilight or Bloom: Eastern Mediterranean Wines in Italy during Late Antiquity1 Amphoras or Barrels?2 Late Roman Wines in the Urbs3 Late Roman Wines in Adriatic Italy (Aquileia, Verona, Padua)4 ORBIS Transport Costs and Wine Importations5 ConclusionsConclusions: The Economics of the Wine TradeAppendix 1: A Catalogue of Greek and Latin Texts That Mention Wines from the Eastern MediterraneanAppendix 2: List of Authors That Mention Eastern Mediterranean Wines Quoted by AthenaeusAppendix 3: Catalogue of Amphoras Classified as Wine Containers Discovered in Italy between the 1st c. BC and Late AntiquityBibliographyIndex