De Medicina is one of the oldest surviving texts about medicine. The whole book can be found here
I'm writing a short essay on it and I've found that my latin sucks and I can't completely understand the English either. This might have been a bad idea, but I'm sticking with it.
Problem 1. " to attend at times a banquet, at times to hold aloof." Am I correct to assume that this refers to fasting every now and then? (from book one, chapter one, second paragraph).
Problem 2. The diet. I'm going to assume that Mediterranean diet has remained relatively similar to these days. Is it so or has there been major changes? I have not found sources that would let me to believe otherwise.
Problem 3. Regarding sex there's this "The use is worse in the day-time, and safer by nigh". (Book one, chapter one, paragraph 3). Sex apparently is safer in the night time than it is during day time. I'm assuming that this has something to do with privacy and nothing more, but is it so?
Thank you, I'm not sure if this is the right subreddit. If not please point me to a better place! Thank you in advance for any help you can give.
Problem 2. The diet. I'm going to assume that Mediterranean diet has remained relatively similar to these days. Is it so or has there been major changes? I have not found sources that would let me to believe otherwise.
While i don't know anything about the Mediterranean diet of the time, several ingredients that are now commonly used were simply not available at the time. Tomatoes, (bell) peppers, avocados and some types of bean all originated in the Americas. The same is true of potatoes of course, but the Italian diet seems to be light on them.
Rice wasn't grown in Italy until the late middle ages, so no risotto for them.