This article analyzes the materials uses that took the olive oil in the Roman cuisine, but also shows the symbolic values that the peoples of the Mediterranean (especially Greek and Roman) gave to this oil. Therefore some recipes from the book De re coquinaria, attributed to Apicius, are analyzed and confronted with other authors of imperial Roman times. First, it studies the culinary uses of olive oil; second, it speaks of the omnipresence of olive oil on Antique Greek and Roman dietary practices; thirdly, it shows some of the medicinal properties of olive oil. Finally, this article exposes the importance of olive oil in the daily lives of ancient people. Listed here, the material and symbolic uses of oil are mentioned, in particular as a source of light, stricto and lato sensu. In conclusion, the olive oil feeds lamps, but also the spirit, and it represents, along with wine and wheat, one of the elements that constitutes the material basis of Mediterranean food, but it also developed as a metaphor of culture against the savagery and barbarism.