Apicius

''Apicius'', also known as ''De re culinaria'' or ''De re coquinaria'' (''On the Subject of Cooking''), is a collection of Roman cookery recipes, which may have been compiled in the fifth century CE, or earlier. Its language is in many ways closer to Vulgar than to Classical Latin, with later recipes using Vulgar Latin (such as ''ficatum'', ''bullire'') added to earlier recipes using Classical Latin (such as ''iecur'', ''fervere'').

The book has been attributed to an otherwise unknown Caelius Apicius, an invention based on the fact that one of the two manuscripts is headed with the words "API CAE" or rather because a few recipes are attributed to Apicius in the text: Patinam Apicianam sic facies (IV, 14) Ofellas Apicianas (VII, 2). It has also been attributed to Marcus Gavius Apicius, a Roman gourmet who lived sometime in the 1st century CE during the reign of Tiberius. The book also may have been authored by a number of different Roman cooks from the first century CE. Many of the recipes contain the ingredient silphium, which is speculated to have become extinct in the first century CE, which supports the earlier date. However, based on textual analysis, the food scholar Bruno Laurioux believes that the surviving version dates only from the fifth century (that is, the end of the Roman Empire): "The history of ''De Re Coquinaria'' indeed belongs then to the Middle Ages". Provided by Wikipedia