Fear and Loathing in Carnuntum: Wine and Other Indulgences in Antiquity

Since time immemorial, people have used certain beverages and plants to relieve pain, treat illnesses, induce religious ecstasy, or briefly escape the realities of everyday life. In ancient Rome, too, intoxicating and mind-altering substances were known. Their use, however, differed fundamentally from modern concepts: there was no clear distinction between luxury items, food, medicine, and intoxicants. Depending on the dosage and context, the same substance could be considered an everyday beverage, a medicinal remedy, a ritual offering, or a dangerous poison.

Baetish wine amphora from the storage suburb of Carnuntum (Inv. No. CAR-K-2601) - © Lower Austrian State Collections

Wine was a part of everyday life in ancient Rome. It was drunk with meals, served at festivals, used as medicine, and offered as a sacrifice to the gods. At the same time, its intoxicating effects were well known. The Romans therefore made a clear distinction between moderate enjoyment, temporary intoxication, and a permanent loss of control. Wine was also ubiquitous in Carnuntum. This metropolis on the Danube was home to soldiers, merchants, artisans, veterans, and travelers from various parts of the Roman Empire. Along with them came not only goods and religious beliefs, but also diverse drinking and leisure habits to the Danube.

From today’s perspective, wine is primarily regarded as an alcoholic beverage. For the Romans, however, it was also an important staple food. Even slaves and agricultural laborers received fixed rations of wine. Older estimates suggest that adult men in Rome consumed about 0.8–1 liter per day. Such figures should be viewed with caution, however: wine was usually diluted with water and consumed throughout the day.

High-proof spirits did not yet exist. Alcoholic beverages were produced exclusively through natural fermentation. In addition to wine, people drank beer, mead, and various fruit wines. Wine, however, held the highest social status and was associated with the Mediterranean way of life, prosperity, and Roman culture. Ancient wine likely tasted different from today’s wine. Amphorae and storage vessels were often sealed with pitch or resin, which gave the beverage a strong aroma. To enhance the flavor and extend the shelf life, honey, spices, herbs, saltwater, or boiled-down grape must were added. Sweet and semi-sweet wines were particularly popular.

Among the common specialties was mulsum, a wine flavored with honey. Passum was made from dried or heavily aged grapes. Reduced grape must was used to sweeten foods and beverages. Occasionally, however, it was heated in lead vessels. This could result in the formation of toxic lead compounds, whose sweet taste was initially quite appreciated.

A complete jug with two ribbon-shaped handles (Inv. No. CAR-K-3508) and a chalice-shaped drinking vessel with a cylindrical body (Inv. No. CAR-G-6) - © Lower Austrian State Collections

Wine was not usually drunk undiluted. Before serving, herbs and sediment were strained out, and the wine was then mixed with water. In the summer it was chilled; in the winter, it was served with warm or hot water. A heated and often spiced wine drink, known as calda, was considered both a delicacy and a remedy. Dilution was not merely a matter of taste. It was seen as an expression of moderation and self-control. Anyone who drank unmixed wine could quickly come across as uncivilized or unrestrained. At formal banquets, a so-called rex bibendi, or “drinking king,” determined the mixing ratio and, at times, the number of cups to be drunk.

Such banquets were more than mere drinking parties. They served as occasions for entertainment, conversation, and the cultivation of social relationships. The majority of the population, however, likely drank in less exclusive settings: at home, in inns, at food stalls, and in taverns. There, soldiers, merchants, artisans, travelers, women, slaves, and freedmen mingled.

Vine pruning knife with a crescent-shaped blade (Inv. No. CAR-M-1701) - © Lower Austrian State Collections

Wine was not only consumed in Carnuntum but also cultivated there. Vine pruning knives, agricultural tools, and archaeobotanical finds provide evidence of the cultivation and processing of grapevines. The widespread belief that Emperor Probus did not introduce viticulture to the region of present-day Austria until the late 3rd century CE is therefore untenable. It is more likely that he relaxed existing legal restrictions. Viticulture was already known in the Danube provinces earlier than that.

Excavations on the eastern edge of the canabae legionis — the settlement surrounding the legionary camp — yielded particularly telling evidence. Since 1978, researchers have been examining buildings there whose history dates back to the second half of the 1st century AD. Among the uncovered structures was a house behind which lay a kitchen garden with planting pits. Grapevines were also identified there. The findings show that viticulture did not take place only on large estates. Vines could also be cultivated in urban or suburban gardens for personal consumption.

Grape seeds from the Weststraße excavation site in Carnuntum - © Thanheiser/Heiss 2014

Mineralized and charred grape seeds found in the main canal beneath the Weststraße in the civilian quarter indicate that grapes were regularly consumed in Carnuntum. Since the Romans introduced cultivated grapevines to the region and likely grew many varieties of fruit locally as well, the finds also suggest that the vines were used locally—as table fruit and presumably also for winemaking.

However, local production likely did not fully meet the needs of the large military and civilian populations. Carnuntum was therefore dependent on imports. Amphora finds show that wine and other foodstuffs reached the Danube from various parts of the Roman Empire. Wealthy residents could purchase high-quality imported wines, while the majority presumably drank simpler local or regional products.

Head of a youthful Bacchus (Inv. No. CAR-M-3277) - © Lower Austrian State Collections

Wine was also a religious beverage. The Greek god Dionysus was worshiped in the Roman world as Bacchus or Liber Pater. He was regarded as the god of wine, fertility, and ecstasy. Vine leaves, grapes, drinking vessels, panthers, and the thyrsus staff entwined with ivy were among his typical attributes. Bacchus embodied the contradictory effects of wine. It could bring joy, fellowship, and liberation, but at the same time trigger frenzy and a loss of control. In addition to the cult of Bacchus, wine played an important role in libations and feasts in honor of the gods. Early Christianity also adopted it as a central symbol of the Eucharist.

Fully preserved offering bowl/patera (Inv. No. CAR-M-2940) - © Lower Austrian State Collections

In antiquity, intoxication was regarded as an altered state of consciousness that allowed people to step outside the confines of their orderly daily lives. It could be intensified by wine and other substances, but also by music, rhythmic dance, and ritual acts. In the Dionysian context, this loss of control even took on a religious dimension: Since Dionysus was regarded as the creator of wine and the source of its intoxicating effect, intoxication could be understood as a temporary participation in the divine.

At the same time, intoxication remained ambivalent. Moderate wine consumption fostered conviviality and a boisterous atmosphere; excessive consumption, on the other hand, led to disinhibition, sleep, violence, or the loss of social self-control. Ancient artists depicted this inner state through contorted bodies, thrown-back heads, loose hair, and wild dance movements. Drinking vessels, grapevines, music, and figures from Dionysus’s retinue—satyrs and maenads—were often enough to suggest intoxication and ecstasy. The images thus celebrated the liberating power of wine, while at the same time serving as a warning against its consequences.

Dancers at the Roman Festival in Carnuntum - © T. Mauerhofer 

In ancient times, the line between recreational substances and medicines was blurred. Wine was used to restore strength, aid digestion, relieve pain, and as a vehicle for other remedies. Herbs and plant-based active ingredients could be steeped in wine or administered together with it. Among the well-known medicinal and psychoactive plants were opium poppy, henbane, and mandrake. Their active ingredients could relieve pain, induce sleep, or alter consciousness. However, it was nearly impossible to determine a safe dosage. The effects ranged from complete ineffectiveness to fatal poisoning.

It can generally be assumed that such substances were used for medicinal purposes in Carnuntum. However, there is no direct evidence of widespread use of psychoactive plants as recreational drugs. Wine remained by far the most important and most widely used intoxicant.

Poppies in front of the Zivilstadttherme in Carnuntum - © T. Mauerhofer 

The Romans were aware of the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption. The Latin language distinguished between ebrietas, temporary intoxication, and ebriositas, habitual drinking. Ancient authors report incidents of quarrels, violence, insomnia, and mental confusion. Seneca described intoxication as voluntaria insania, or “voluntary madness”:

Nevertheless, the ideal was not abstinence, but moderation. Wine was meant to relax, bring people together, and enrich daily life without permanently dominating them. The finds from Carnuntum reveal this complexity. Here, wine was both a staple food and a luxury item, a commodity and a medicine, an offering and an intoxicant. Its history thus offers a direct glimpse into daily life, the economy, religion, and social life in one of the most important cities along the Roman Danube.