That's an interesting question. I've done quite a bit of research into Roman eating habits and haven't seen anything that discussed this directly. Keep in mind that except for wall scratchings that have survived, everything else was written by wealthy people and generally didn't concern what they were munching on when they went to the games. Even the "dinner" info we have is from the same class. So that leaves us to speculate.

I would think that such food would be along the lines of 'finger' food - I can't see people lugging along their bowls to fill them up with a stew or a lentil type dish that some vendor was selling! I also suspect that there would not have been the need for anything 'large.' Remember that the only 'big' meal was at night, breakfast was some bread, maybe an egg or cheese, some watered wine. Lunch might have been a salad, some more watered wine. The soldiers lived on a kind of oatmeal and rarely ate meat. On that basis, I would guess that they really didn't expect to *eat* anything while they were watching the games. Possibly drink? Again, would they bring their own cups - almost have to, I can't see a wine seller selling 'souvenir' cups! If you consider the wealthier people accompanied by their retinues, then they might have brought their own wine and good cups to drink it from. It would have been watered as well.

But today we expect to eat. So, to look at the 'finger food'. There was some way that they would put food into one of their pieces of bread - Like salad, or the lentil type dishes, or the stew types. Remember that pork and chicken and fish were the preferred meats, not beef! Eggs and cheese were also eaten and I could see someone with a hard boiled egg or a piece of cheese.

Maybe this will give you a start on some ideas.

Jean