OPSŌNĬUM

or OBSŌNĬUM ( ὄψον , dim. ὀψάριον ; ὀψήμα ), denoted everything which was eaten with bread, the principal substance of every meal. Those numerous articles of diet called opsonia or pulmentaria were designed to give nutriment, but still more to add a relish to food. Some of these articles were taken from the vegetable kingdom, but were much more pungent and savoury than bread, such as olives, either fresh or pickled, radishes, and sesamum. Of animal food by much the most common kind was fish, whence the terms under explanation were in the course of time used in a confined and special sense to denote fish only, but fish variously prepared, and more especially salt fish, which was most extensively employed to give a relish to the vegetable diet. The A then i ans were in the habit of going to markets ( εἰς τοῦψον ) themselves in order to purchase their opsonia ( ὀψωνεῖν , ops on are ). But the opulent, Romans had a slave, called ops on at or ( ὀψώνης ), whose office it was to purchase for his master.