Explanation: Not just a military food! Roman garum was fish sauce left to ferment, and was a condiment they put on everything. Bread, meat, other fish, salad, porridge, wine, fruit, everything. It was considered such an essential foodstuff that, like bread and wine, it was provided to slaves. There were varieties that were cheap as could be, like wine, and like wine, there were varieties that would cost a year's wages for a common laborer just to get a single container of.
Since it wasn't, y'know, boiled or anything, just left to ferment, it was a great way to get fish parasites. In fact, it's widely suspected to be a contributor to the spread of Mediterranean fish parasites to the Atlantic during the Roman era. Y i k e s
It sounds gross af, tbqh. Even the Romans acknowledged that the breath of someone who had just eaten garum was revolting, though, with one Roman love poet (sarcastically?) complimenting a man for continuing to pursue a woman after she had eaten six helpings of garum. But it must have had something going for it to be so widely popular - de gustibus non disputandum est!
