Our knowledge about the variety of foods in the ancient Athens and Rome is based not only on the various ancient manuscripts that are preserved throughout the centuries but also on drawings on aphores and other pottery. The ancient Greeks and later the ancient Romans used to decorate their pottery with various drawings which were taken from the everyday activities. Some of them show mythical gods and other figures in symposiums and other show scenes from the everyday life like the serving and the cooking of food.

The images in the next pages show the different kind of foods as they are shown on the pottery.