Beneath a shady tree, the hero spread 

His table on the turf, with cakes of bread; 

And, with his chiefs, on forest fruits he fed. 

They sate; and, (not without the god’s command,) 

Their homely fare dispatch’d, the hungry band 

Invade their trenchers next, and soon devour, 

To mend the scanty meal, their cakes of flour. 

Ascanius this observ’d, and smiling said: 

“See, we devour the plates on which we fed”.

 

 

Dido (above) seems upset that her 12-inch marinara has still not been delivered

See? Using bread for plates and then ‘topping’ those plates with food and consuming the whole. The Italians, or more precisely, the founders of Rome were eating pizza more than two thousand years ago!

If it was good enough for Virgil – the writer of one of the founding texts of ancient literature, not the Thunderbirds character – it’s good enough for me.

Although it appears that the original pizza topping, let’s call it pizza Troietana, consisted of forest fruits. I’d prefer a Hawaiian, personally.

Similarly there is no evidence from The Aeneid of whether deep pan was more popular than thin crust and whether the Etruscans were familiar with the concept of a stuffed crust.