Chickens Ancient Rome: More likely an oracle than food

[guy]

 

 

The ancestors of modern domesticated chickens were revered for their exotic looks and distinctive voices.

 

Chickens were an exotic animal in the ancient world. In the Roman Republic and the early Empire, chickens were more likely to be used as oracles than they were to be eaten.

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Sacred chickens were chickens raised by priests in Roman times, and which were used for making auguries. Nothing significant was undertaken in the Senate or in the armies, without omens being drawn from the sacred chickens. The most common method of drawing these omens consisted in examining the manner in which the chickens dealt with grain that was presented to them. If they ate it avidly while stamping their feet and scattering it here and there, the augury was favorable; if they refused to eat and drink, the omen was bad and the undertaking for which it was consulted was abandoned. When there was a need to render this sort of divination favorable, the chickens were left in a cage for a certain amount of time without eating; after that the priests opened the cage and threw their feed to them.

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In ancient Greece chickens were not normally used for sacrifices, perhaps because they were still considered an exotic animal. Because of its valor, the cock is found as an attribute of Ares, Heracles, and Athena. The alleged last words of Socrates as he died from hemlock poisoning, as recounted by Plato, were "Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?", signifying that death was a cure for the illness of life.

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These first domesticated chickens weren't the hefty, fast-growing birds of today. They would have been about one-third the size of modern chickens, and their striking coloration and distinctive noises likely led people to view them as mysterious and exciting novelties rather than as potential meals, according to a new study. In fact, approximately 500 years elapsed between the time when chickens first arrived in Europe, and the time when they began to be used widely for food.

In other words, eating a chicken in central Europe in 500 B.C. might have been the equivalent of chowing down on a scarlet macaw today.

 

 

Only after long domestication did the chicken become a staple of Ancient Roman cuisine.

Here's a great video about chickens in Ancient Rome including the story of Claudius

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In 249 BC, the Roman general Publius Claudius Pulcher had his "sacred chickens" thrown overboard when they refused to feed before the battle of Drepana, saying "If they won't eat, perhaps they will drink." He promptly lost the battle against the Carthaginians and 93 Roman ships were sunk. Back in Rome, he was tried for impiety and heavily fined

 

 

 

 

The Sacred Chickens of Ancient Rome | Root Simple

Cultural references to chickens - Wikipedia

Edited June 15, 2022 by guy