Rice was unknown to the Greco-Roman world

Evidence

It wasn’t until comparatively recently that sugar became known, and before that honey was the main sweetener. It was also used to make alcoholic drinks. Cereals are attested to from an early date: wheat, barley, sorghum. Rice seems to have been introduced from India. There is some evidence that it was cultivated immediately before the advent of Islam in Iraq and Iran, but probably not long before. It wasn’t known to the Greco-Roman world. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 240

Categorization

• CANDY: That the Greco-Roman world had no rice is a surprising, tweetable table fact.