While everyone can agree that pizza as we know it originated with the Italians it is unclear if the ancient Romans, most notably during the time of Julius Caesar ate pizza.

 

Obviously they would not have had access to some of the ingredients that we would expect such as the tomato which did not touch the European palette until after Columbus but we do know that the ancient Romans were very advanced for their time.

 

With advances in culture it only becomes expected that people’s diets begin to change and people experiment with new ideas when it comes to cooking. We know from historical records that the Romans were familiar with flat bread. There is no reason to not to expect they would have topped the flat breads off with different ingredients such as meats and fruits. They were very sophisticated in the cooking since they ate pastries and cakes so it is possible they even included different sauces.

 

So the answer is the Romans did not eat pizza as we know it and if we use the definition of pizza very loosely then you could say “yes” they ate pizza. But the same would have been true for many cultures around the Middle East and Mediterranean.