I was reading about Epicurus and his diet of water, olives, and bread. I'm curious as to the type of bread. Was it like a pita bread? A more hearty and crusty bread? Any kind of modern day equivalents? Also how were the olives he would been eating? Comparable to olives of today?
They mainly ate a barley cake known as Maza. It really is quite delicious, but only when it is baked right. It is a bit chewy, but is quite filling. See now, the Greeks happened to love their breads, and even went as far as having competitions to see who has the best bread recipe in the land. There were about 50 to 70 varieties of breads out there, but to pinpoint which kind of bread Epicurus ate would be rather difficult. The Greeks grew Emmer Wheat and Barley, and were ridiculed by the Romans, and perhaps everyone else, for it. Hell, even the Greek army were considered to be bread-eaters, rather than the meat-eaters of today.
In terms of olives, not much has changed, to be honest, beyond having more varieties, and a faster system of extracting the oil from the olives.
Water. No one drank water in ancient Greece. Why? Because they ran the risk of catching an incurable disease such as Typhoid Fever. Of course, today we have vaccines, but back then, between 430 to 426 BC inclusive, a plague wiped out 1/3 of Athens' population, ending its reign as a dominant force in the Mediterranean. If someone wanted water, they would mix it with some wine, which was known to kill of most, but not all, of the pathogens within it.
By the way, it was only in 2005 that Typhoid was the plague that killed them off. Scientists found this by studying the teeth of the bodies found in a mass grave pit in Kerameikos, Greece.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_cuisine
http://www.cooksinfo.com/food-in-ancient-greece
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060123163827.htm
http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Life/
Maza recipe: http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/roman/fetch-recipe.php?rid=roman-barley-cake