Today’s Mediterranean diet leans on olive oil, vegies and fish. But the ancients mainly ate bread

Andrey Zhuravlev/Getty The Roman emperor Julian (332–363 CE) called bread the food that “among us is thought to be the most nourishing”. Bread and other cereal-based foods were indeed central to ancient Mediterranean diets. This was supplemented by pulses, oil, wine and whatever seasonal produce people could obtain. This is not quite the “Mediterranean diet” we think of today, with its vegetables, olive oil and grilled fish. Although bread was fundamental to Julian’s Roman world, it wasn’t…