What is pizza? And what is in that picture from Pompeii?

https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/best-veggie-pizza/

What is pizza? I know that is a silly question, but there are so many varieties and toppings that settling on one definition, so dependent on personal preference, is next to impossible. The Romans got it right with the Latin phrases, quot homines tot sententiae and, of course, nil disputandum de gustibus.

The quintessential pizza, as if described by the philosopher Plato, to which all other pizzas aspire, is obviously a crust, sauce, cheese, and perhaps a variety of toppings. It bakes until the crust is done and the cheese is melted. This is the simplistic recipe for pizzaness or a pizza-like object. All pies are, indeed, a variation on a theme.

https://www.pizzanapoletana.org/en/ricetta_pizza_napoletana

In an attempt to protect their heritage and define more clearly this culinary gift to the world, Italy has an official and legal definition of pizza, which sets the requirements for crust, sauce, cheese, toppings, and baking. Pizzaioli who follow these directives even display a sign or a sticker (pictured above) on the front door of their shop, advertising the authenticity of their product so that patrons know they are getting the real thing. (On a side note: While searching for this information on the official rules, I came across a great article from Pizza Bien which tells us where to buy real pizza in Italy. It is well worth a read.)

Although this gastronomic delight is now a staple around the world, pizza may have its origins in the ancient Roman world. For those who argue that this delicacy did not originate in ancient Rome, a pizza of sorts is mentioned in two passages of Vergil's Aeneid as a part of the same story arc.

https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/goddesses/celaeno/

In their journey to found a new Troy somewhere in the west, the beleaguered Trojans attack the Harpies and kill some of their cattle. The harpy Celaeno (pictured above) then curses these wandering warriors to endure so much hunger that they cannot reach their promised land until they have eaten their very tables:

una in praecelsa consedit rupe Celaeno,                            245

infelix vates, rumpitque hanc pectore vocem:

'bellum etiam pro caede boum stratisque iuvencis,

Laomedontiadae, bellumne inferre paratis

et patrio Harpyias insontis pellere regno?

Accipite ergo animis atque haec mea figite dicta,              250

quae Phoebo pater omnipotens, mihi Phoebus Apollo

praedixit, vobis Furiarum ego maxima pando.

Italiam cursu petitis ventisque vocatis:

ibitis Italiam portusque intrare licebit.

Sed non nate datam cingetis moenibus urbem                   255

quam vos dira fames nostraeque iniuria caedis

ambesas subigat malis absumere mensas.'

Aeneid III.245-257

And my translation:

Celaeno alone settles on a very high rock,

an unhappy prophetess, and calls out this voice from her heart:

'Is it war actually for the slaughter of our herds and cattle laid low,

sons of Laomedon, war you intend to bring in

and drive the innocent Harpies from their native kingdom?

Therefore receive and fix in your mind these words of mine,

which the all-powerful father foretold to Phoebus, then Phoebus Apollo to me,

then to you I, the greatest of the Furies, reveal.

Italy in your course you seek and you call upon it with the winds:

You will go to Italy and you will be permitted to enter its ports,

but you will not surround your owed city with walls

before cruel hunger and the wrongdoing of our slaughter

forces you to eat your tables gnawed by your jaws.'

https://dcc.dickinson.edu/cultural-context/german?page=15

Further on, Aeneas' son Ascanius jests that the Trojans are eating their tables:

Aeneas primique duces et pulcher Iulus

corpora sub ramis deponunt arboris altae,

instituuntque dapes et adorea liba per herbam

subiciunt epulis (sic Iupitter ipse monebat)                            110

et Cereale solum pomis agrestibus augent.

Consumptis hic forte aliis, ut vertere morsus

exiguam in Cererem penuria adegit edendi,

et violare manu malisque audacibus orbem

fatalis crusti patulis nec parcere quadris:                              115

'heus, etiam mensas consumimus?' inquit Iulus,

nec plura, adludens, ea vox audita laborum

prima tulit finem, primamque loquentis ab ore

eripuit pater ac stupefactus numine pressit.

Continuo 'Salve fatis mihi debita tellus                                  120

vosque' ait 'o fidi Troiae salvete penates:

hic domus, haec patria est. Genitor mihi talia namque

(nunc repeto) Anchises fatorum arcana reliquit:

"Cum te, nate, fames ignota ad litora vectum

accisis coget dapibus consumere mensas,                              125

tum sperare domos defessus, ibique memento

prima locare manu molirique aggere tecta."'

Aeneid VII.107-127

And this is:

Aeneas and the first leaders and handsome Iulus

lay down their bodies beneath the branches of a tall tree,

and they set up their meals and they spread out their spelt cakes

through the grass for their dishes of food (thus Jupiter himself advised)

and they pile Ceres' plate with wild fruits.

With other things here eaten by chance, as their lack of eating

drove them to turn their bites onto their scanty Ceres/grain/cakes,

and to break the plate with their hand and bod jaws

and not to spare the spread out tables of fated baked item:

'Hey! Are we eating our tables too?' says Iulus, joking,

and there were no more. This statement having been heard

first brought an end of their labors, the first from the mouth of the speaker

the father snatched and stunned by the divine will he pressed.

Immediately he says 'Greetings, land owed to me by the fates

and greetings, i you faithful gods of Troy:

here is our home, this is our country. For my father Anchises

(I recall now) left behind such secret things of the fates:

"Son, when hunger will compel you, carried to unknown shores,

to eat your tables at a hewn feast,

then weary hope for homes, and there remember

to place with your first hand and to build houses with a wall."'

In these passages we clearly see that the Trojans are using their bread as plates to hold other food (VII.111: Cereale solum pomis agrestibus augent). The reference to gnawing or tough chewing (III.256-7: vos dira fames nostraeque iniuria caedis / ambesas subigat malis absumere mensas) indicates that these could very well be a form of hardtack (survival bread) typically used by sailors and other wandering groups for millennia.

https://secretsofsurvival.com/how-to-make-hardtack/

It makes perfect sense that pizza, as we know it, would have its roots in vegetables, fruits, meats, mushrooms, seafood, etc. placed upon various types of flatbread (leavened or unleavened). These foods add flavor, convenience, neatness, or even assist in the ability to eat the hard, dried-out wafer. Even though many will call this the ancestor of pizza, in reality there are many examples of this type of food from around the world: think about a tostada from Mexico, a gyro from Greece, a sandwich from Britain, and even that cheese on a cracker you constructed and ate yesterday.

The earliest mention in writing of the actual word "pizza" dates to AD 997 in the Codex Diplomaticus Cajenatus, a collection of documents pertaining to the governance of Gaeta in central Italy. The passage in medieval Latin records an annual requirement of payment to the house of the bishop:

Tantummoduo persolvere debeatis omni anno salutes in dies natali domini sive vos sive vestris heredes in suprascripto episcopio tam nobis quam a nostris posteris successores duodecim pizze et una spatula de porco; et unum lumbulum; simul et in die sanctum pascha resurrectionis domini annualiter duodecim pizze et unum parium de pulli.

And my translation:

You merely must pay in every year of salvation on the birthday of the Lord either you or your heirs in the aforementioned bishop's house either to us or to our following successors twelve pizzas and one leg of pork, and one loin; and likewise on the holy day Easter of the resurrection of the Lord annually twelve pizzas and one pair of chickens.

There is no description of what form this pizza takes, but the word is there. A search of the origin of this term reveals, in a variety of online dictionary sites, that pitta may be a variation in Italian (and, yes, pita should come to mind), maybe coming from the Vulgar Latin picea, and related to the Greek petea, or possibly even the Old High German bizzo or pizzo. What this tells me is that the origin of the name is unknown and most likely impossible to prove.

The impetus for this discussion of the definition and origin of pizza comes from the 2023 discovery of a fresco in Pompeii which seems to show a pizza with abundant toppings. Take a look at the entree on the left:

https://www.popsci.com/science/pompeii-ancient-pizza-fresco/

The item certainly looks like a pizza, and it surely looks appetizing! Both the daily British paper The Guardian and the American Smithsonian Magazine (along with numerous other news sources) ran articles announcing to the world that a snapshot of the ancestor of the pizza had been discovered.

The question remains, though, is it really a pizza? If we go by the official definition provided by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana listed above, we have to say no. Why does the dish in the fresco not make the cut? The main reason is that tomatoes were not introduced to Europe by the Spanish exploring South America until the 16th century. There is also some discussion that true mozzarella cheese may not have been available until the 12th century, but variations of this necessary topping may have been around since the 1st century AD.

So what mouth-watering dish do we see in this fresco? Publications which did not jump on the pizza bandwagon (including the New York Times, National Public Radio, and even Popular Science) claim that this is merely an ancestor of our modern staple, a sort of proto-pizza, or maybe even a tasty focaccia.

So, what does it all mean? My thoughts are that the entree represented in the fresco is not a pizza, but a disk of bread providing a base for other items, most likely a mix of fruit and vegetables. This does reflect the historical use of hardtack I described above, and continues a tradition of providing a platform for foods even exiled Trojans would recognize and enjoy.