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None of these opulent culinary inventions could have been created without ample seasoning and the primary spice would have been pepper.
這樣豐富的菜單自然離不開大量的調味品，而當時最主要的香料便是胡椒。
Why has this particular spice remained so constantly attractive? We asked the author and academic Christine McFadden about the importance of adding a bit of pepper to your recipe:
為何這種香料具有如此持久的吸引力呢？我曾詢問過作家克莉絲汀麥克法登在食物中加入胡椒的重要性：
"As an early twentieth-century French chef said - no other spice can do so much for so many different types of food, both sweet and savoury. It contains an alkaloid called piperine, which is responsible for the pungency, and what it does to the body is ... it promotes sweating, which cools the body, which is essential for comfort in hot climates. It also aids digestion, it titivates the taste buds and makes the mouth water. And the other thing-there is research which suggests that it might be a factor in transforming the chemical energy we get from food into what is called heating energy, so in other words, it keeps us warm."
人們對胡椒的欲望永無止境，甚至為了它大動干戈。每一份羅馬食譜的開頭都是:“把胡椒放進…”一位二十世紀早期的大廚認為，沒有別的哪種香料能為如此眾多的食物提味，不管甜咸，都能搭配。它含有一種名為胡椒堿的生物堿，能給人辛辣的口感，讓人大量出汗，從而降低體溫，使人在炎熱的天氣里感覺舒適，同時也能促進消化，剌激味蕾，促進唾液分泌。而其他物質，有研究表明可能是一個因素將我們從飲食中獲得的化學能轉換成所謂的加熱能源,換句話說,為我們保暖。
The closest place to Rome where pepper actually grew was India, and so the Romans had to find a way of sending ships to and fro across the Indian Ocean and then carrying their cargo overland to the Mediterranean. Whole fleets and caravans laden with pepper would travel from India to the Red Sea, then across the desert to the Nile. It was then traded around the Roman Empire by river, sea and road. This was an immense network of trade; complicated and dangerous, but highly profitable. Here's Roberta Tomber again:
離羅馬最近的胡椒原產地是印度。羅馬人讓貨船往返于印度洋上，將貨物運抵地中海。整支商隊滿載著胡椒從印度來到紅海，然后穿越沙漠到達尼羅河岸，再通過河路，陸路到達羅馬帝國。這一貿易網絡關系復雜危險，但利潤奇高。羅伯塔補充道:
"We have Strabo in the first century AD saying that 120 boats left every year from Myos Hormos-that's a port on the Red Sea-to India.
斯特雷波稱，一世紀時，每年都有120艘船從港口米奧斯-霍密斯前往印度。
