And on February 29, Julius Caeser made Caeser salads for all his buds to celebrate the leap day. As he handed them out he said:
"Best salads in the five-hills a Rome, yo' mama couldn't do bedda......Badda-bing, badda boom" like a true Salad slingin' wiseguy....
Made 'em for almost everyone, Except Brutus who said in his super whiny way:
"Just because I don't like anchovies doesn't mean I didn't want a salad, Julius"
In the next two weeks this snubbing really frustrated Brutus, and on March 15th he, along with some of his toga wearing buds (Not Cicero, Not Mark Antony), invited Julius into the Senate and stabbed Julius Caeser, otherwise known as Jules the Salad Guy.
Then all the poor people of Rome found out that "Senate stabbed Jules.....you know....the SALAD GUY!"
Which was not viewed well.
"I mean what were are we going to eat now, fermented fish paste? Gyros? Hummus? Spanokopeta?"
This was before you could get a Calzone, a slice of pizza, or even spaghetti and meatballs which had yet to be invented (for that goodness you would need to fast forward to New Jersey about 1900 years later.)
Gladiators and Centurians were not sure which side to pick- the Salad Eaters or the Toga Wearing killers who purportedly were supposed to represent them.
Anyway, this chapter in food history is one of many that lead to a slow and bloody diminishment of Roman Influence best summed in Gibbon's 6-volume classic, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Fortunately Gibbon saw fit to keep his focus on Romans and food. This time in the New World, thus avoiding a sophomore slump, with the classic 3-volume follow-up Vinnie, don't put too many onions in the sauce: The Rise of Roman Diet and Influence in Prohibition era New Jersey and New York