SAEDNEWS: Archaeologists examining a 2,000-year-old villa in buried Pompeii discovered that the slaves who lived there consumed dietary supplements. Findings include fruits like pears and apples, as well as protein-rich legumes, which were part of their daily diet.
According to SaedNews’ history service, in early December the Pompeii Archaeological Park announced that archaeologists had uncovered food remains in the specialized slave quarters of the Civita Giuliana villa. The finds included a large basket of fruit—pears, apples, and sorb—and jars filled with beans. These provisions were discovered beneath today’s Juliana Street, in the areas specifically designated for the villa’s enslaved workers.
The park’s statement explained: “These foods supplemented the diets of men, women, and children living in 16-square-meter cells, each with three beds. Owners, who valued these workers as productive assets worth thousands of sesterces, deemed it appropriate to enrich their grain-based diet with vitamin-rich fruits and protein-packed legumes.”
The villa’s slave quarters—the largest known in the region—housed dozens of workers in extremely cramped rooms. Experts estimate that the 50 laborers living there required roughly 40,785 pounds of grain per year. Remarkably, the park noted, the slaves’ diet was nutritionally superior to that of many free residents. “To prevent malnutrition-related disease and ensure maximum productivity, dietary supplements were essential,” the study noted.
Some jars of beans and fruit baskets were stored on upper floors of the slave quarters. Park officials suggested two reasons for this: protection from pests, as remains of rodents have been found in the lower dirt-floored areas, and the possibility of rationing by type of work, age, or gender under supervision of trusted slaves—a system previously reconstructed from the same sections.
Gabriel Zuchtriegel, park director and co-author of the study, said the findings highlight “the absurdity of ancient slavery.” He added, “Humans were treated like tools or machines, yet humanity cannot be erased so easily. The line between slave and free was always blurry. We breathe the same air, eat the same food, and sometimes slaves were better fed than so-called free citizens. That is why thinkers like Seneca or Saint Paul were justified in seeing us all as, in some way, enslaved—or at least spiritually free.”
This study is among several intriguing discoveries about ancient Roman diets in 2025. Earlier this year, research on garum, the empire-wide favorite fish sauce, was published.
