Latest / The Achaemenid Empire: Persia's Golden Age of Power — Fexingo History / Achaemenid Food and Drink: The Empire's Table
Transcript
- Lucas: We've talked about Persian roads, their armies, their royal women — but I realised we've never actually sat down and talked about what they ate. And it turns out, the Achaemenid table was a surprisingly vivid window into the whole empire. Luna: Oh, I love this angle. What did a Persian king actually eat for dinner? Lucas: Well, if you were the Great King — let's say Xerxes — dinner was an enormous political event. The Greek historian Heracleides of Cumae, who actually served at the Persian court in the 4th century, describes the daily royal feast at Persepolis. He says the king dined alone in a separate room, but his guests — nobles, ambassadors, visiting satraps — were served in an adjoining hall, and the king could see them through a curtain. Lucas: And the food itself? It was on a staggering scale. Heracleides says that each day, the king's dinner cost 400 silver talents — that's over 10,000 kilograms of silver. A single meal could feed 15,000 people. The menu included whole roasted oxen, horses, camels, donkeys, gazelles, and ostriches, plus endless breads, cheeses, and sweets made with honey and date syrup. Luna: Wait — date syrup? That's still a staple in Iran today, isn't it? Lucas: Exactly. The Persians loved it. They called it dibs, and they used it as a sweetener long before refined sugar ever reached the plateau. Dates themselves were a major crop in the southern provinces, especially around Susa. The Persepolis Fortification Tablets — those administrative clay tablets we've mentioned before — record huge deliveries of dates to the royal kitchens. Luna: So the tablets actually tell us what ingredients were coming in? Lucas: Absolutely. They're like ancient grocery lists. They mention barley, wheat, wine, beer, sesame oil, honey, figs, pomegranates, pistachios, almonds, and — this is my favourite — several references to a drink called buš, which was probably a kind of beer made from barley, and another called mi, which was honey mead. Lucas: And then there's wine. Persian wine was famous throughout the ancient world. The best came from the hills of Media — around modern-day northwest Iran — and from the province of Carmania, in the southeast. The Greek writer Ctesias, who was a physician at the court of Artaxerxes II, wrote that the king only drank wine from a specific vineyard, and that it was served in golden cups. Luna: But what about ordinary people? What did a soldier or a farmer eat? Lucas: The diet of a common Persian was much simpler, but still varied. Barley bread was the daily staple — often shaped into flat loaves and baked on hot stones. They ate legumes like lentils and chickpeas, onions, garlic, and fresh herbs. Meat was rare — maybe a sheep or goat on feast days — but dairy was common: yogurt, cheese, and a kind of sour milk that travellers carried as provisions. Lucas: And the Achaemenid army, which could number hundreds of thousands on campaign, required massive food logistics. The Royal Road and the relay stations — the chaparkhaneh — weren't just for couriers. They also served as supply depots. The army would march through regions that had pre-stocked grain, wine, and salted meat. Herodotus says the Persian army during Xerxes' invasion of Greece consumed the produce of entire provinces. Luna: It must have taken a enormous bureaucracy just to keep everyone fed. Lucas: It did. And the tablets show us exactly how it worked: royal storehouses issued daily rations of grain and wine to workers, soldiers, and even animals. A worker building the terrace at Persepolis might get about 1.5 litres of grain per day, plus a portion of wine or beer. Women received slightly less, children about half. Luna: Was there any food that was considered sacred or forbidden? Lucas: That's a great question. Zoroastrian purity laws had a strong influence. In the Achaemenid period, certain animals were considered unclean and were not eaten — especially dogs and birds of prey. But there's also evidence that the Magi — the Zoroastrian priests — enforced a taboo against eating raw meat. Everything had to be properly cooked or prepared. Lucas: And there's a fascinating story from the Greek writer Polybius about the Fish of the Euphrates. He says that the Persian kings kept a special fishery near the river, and only the king could eat the fish caught there. It was a symbol of his exclusive power over nature. The fish were served pickled or fresh, and they were considered a great delicacy. Luna: So food was a tool of control and status as much as sustenance. Lucas: Exactly. And feasting was diplomacy. When a satrap visited the court, he was invited to the royal table — and the food he ate was a measure of his standing. The closer you sat to the king, the better the dishes. Leftovers were sent to favoured officials as gifts — a practice called vasht, which literally means 'the king's portion'. Lucas: The Achaemenids also had a sweet tooth. They made a kind of marzipan from almonds and honey, and they loved fruit preserves. The Persian word for 'sweet' — šīrīn — is still used in modern Persian. And the festive calendar included special meals: for the spring equinox, Nowruz, they ate seven symbolic dishes, each starting with the letter 'S' in Persian — things like sabzi, samanu, and seeb. Luna: That tradition is still alive today. I've had sabzi at Nowruz dinners. Lucas: It is. And that continuity is remarkable. The Achaemenid table was truly an empire in miniature — it brought together ingredients, techniques, and customs from every province, from the wheat fields of Mesopotamia to the vineyards of the Iranian plateau. And if you've been coming with us through these conversations about the Middle East, you can see how that legacy still flavours the region's cuisine today. Luna: It's amazing how much of this has survived. And on that note — if listeners enjoy these deep dives into history, and want to help keep the show ad-free, they can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yes, and we really appreciate it. Every bit helps us keep researching topics like this — the everyday details that make the past feel real. Luna: So back to those kitchens — did they have any special cooking techniques we know about? Lucas: They did. They used large clay ovens called tandirs, which are still used in parts of Iran today, for baking bread and roasting meat. They also had bronze cauldrons for boiling and stewing. The Persepolis reliefs show servants carrying covered dishes and ewers — the same shapes you'd see in modern Persian restaurants. It's a direct line from the Achaemenid kitchen to the present.