During the Roman Imperial period huge quantities of black pepper arrived into the Empire from southern India and were employed in a range of contexts, from the culinary and medicinal, to the religious. This article seeks to examine the popularity of black pepper in the Roman Empire and test the theory that its consumption was not simply restricted to elite circles, but reached a wider spectrum of the population. In particular, price and wage data from the Edict of Maximum Prices is examined to see how feasible it was for those lower down the socio-economic spectrum to make such purchases.

中文翻译：

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罗马帝国的黑胡椒消费量

在罗马帝国时期，大量的黑胡椒从印度南部进入帝国，并在从烹饪和医学到宗教的各种环境中得到使用。本文旨在研究黑胡椒在罗马帝国的流行，并检验黑胡椒的消费不仅仅局限于精英圈子，而且已经覆盖了更广泛的人群。特别是，检查了《最高价格令》中的价格和工资数据，以了解那些社会经济地位较低的人进行此类购买的可行性。