The Discussion on Roman crack got me thinking. WI:
1) The Romans establish greater ties with, and possibly conquer, following a successful conquest of Mero under Augustus.
While there, the Romans discover some beans in the country side, which make men stay awake when they are tired, and are rumored to possess a host of benefits. It is, of course, coffee. By 150 AD, it's being drank by legionaries (Hey, if you can get Italian olive oil, you can get coffee from north africa) in the frozen lands of britannia and along the Rhine.
Do Rome's soldiers, better able to stay on guard at night, defeat the barbarians? Does the conquest of Ethiopia lead to effects in Yemen and India, as roman expansion and increased trade results in the adoption of Indian numerals?
We could call this timeline, I suppose, The Glory of Roast
2) Roman sashimi. They went to incredible lengths to acquire fresh fish, building saltwater ponds to raise fish in.
So. Around 50 BC, an important Roman gets shipwrecked, and is forced to subsist on raw fish for a while. He brings this back to Rome, where it catches on. (If you'll eat the fetuses of pigs....). It's the height of cuisine.
Although, how does raw tunny taste in olive oil?