Lentil Soup

Athenaeus mentions faki frequently—it seems that it was the ancient Greeks’ favorite winter soup. They considered lentils to be especially nourishing, so the painter Agatharchus depicted Orestes eating lentils when he was recovering from illness. But the ancients must have used an abundance of spices in their lentil soups—they had a proverb stating, “A wise man does everything wisely and in lentil soup, uses spices in moderation.”

In one of the recipes of Apicius, the Roman a