Meals

Early days – simple food, vegetarian, cold meals, simple cooking/table service. Set in Atrium. Mother, father, children together sit down. Dependents other room. Dishes common crockery/wood. Silver saltcellar. No knives/forks, but spoons + fingers. During Republic, no difference between rich + poor in food. No specially trained cooks, professional cook hired – bring own utensils. 

Wars + travel to Asia Minor, Greece, Punic Wars => Romans see luxury Poor still eat the same, dark bread, some meat, cheap wine - Soldiers eat grain. But rich ate expensive/rare foods. Separate dining room. Dining couches. Slaves served reclining dinners. Had high priced chef. 

3 meals / day. Cena = chief meal. Jenteculum = breakfast. Vesperna = dinner. Prandium =Luncheon. Cena middle of day => after work, no vesperna, pradium at lunch. 

Breakfast = bread, dry / dipped in wine, sprinkled in salt. Raisins, olives cheese added. Eat breakfast on way to work, schoolboys stopped by bakery, buy pancake. Sometimes meal w/ eggs + mulsum/milk., but only for people who ate no lunch.

 Lunch = Cold meal, 11:00, bread, salad, olives, fruit, nuts, cold meat from dinner. Sometimes hot meat + vegetables served Never elaborate. 

Siesta = midday rest after lunch, take nap in summer, all activity stopped for 2-3 hours Senate + law courts still open. 

Supper = on farm, had early supper. Leftovers from noon dinner, vegetables and fruit Merunda = this meal => later any snack/refreshment. 

Formal Dinners: Social function. Wealthy Roman in town => host / guest of dinner on every afternoon. Country estates – guests = friends/neighbours. 

Dining Couches = Couches with 3 sections. A bolster at one end, 2 others, cushions. Sloped from front to rear. Broad and lower than common coach. Dining room hold 3 couch. Guests recline on couch. Equidistant from table, served from 4th side. 9 people = limit at normal table. 

4 people to couch only when family/intimate friend If unexpected guest come, family member might give seat. Reserve some places for umbrae = (shadow) unexpected friends guests came. When guests here, wife of host sat not recline. Children sit on stools. When many guests, large room used, 2+ tables, hold 9 each. 

Diner approach couch from behind, lie on left side, support by left elbow. Highest, middle, lowest. In middle couch, highest on left, lowest on right. Highest + middle to guests, lowest for host + wife or least important guests. Each couch high, middle, low section. High section on lowest couch = for host. 

Place of honour = High section on highest couch. 

Consul’s place = low section on middle couch. Most distinguished guest. Can talk to messenger easily. 

Sigma = (Greek letter) Curved couch, 1 cushion on inner side, many guests accommodate. Ends were places of honour. Consul’s place = right end (when facing table) 

Sideboard = only other furniture, shelf/table/open cabinet. Display silverware, tableware. Plates not put on table, only hold serving dish and silver saltcellar or offerings to gods. Table not large, but beautiful/expensive, not covered by cloth => 1st cent. AD had cloth. 

Arretine ware = red glazed pottery, inexpensive, designs in relief. – ordinary dishes. Glassware + silver things found – pitchers, serving dishes, bowls, cups, spoons. 

Gustus = appetizers Cena = dinner Secunda mensa = desert.

Gustus = oysters, shellfish, salt-water fish, uncooked vegetables (onions, lettuce), eggs, piquant sauces. Mulsum drunk, wine too heavy for empty stomach. Called promulsis or antecena 

Cena = fish, meat, fowls, vegetables. Several courses, 3 moderate number. Wine (w/ water) in moderation, don’t dull sense of taste. 

Secunda mensa = pastry, sweets, nuts, fruit (fresh/preserved). Wine drunk freely. Ab ovo ad mala = From egg to apples = From soup to nuts. 

Simple dinners: Gustus: asparagus + eggs | Cena: young kid + chicken | Desert : fruit 

Complex 1: Gustus: lettuce, onions, tuna, sliced eggs Cena: sausages w/ porridge, cauliflower, bacon, beans Desert: pears, chestnuts, wine, olives, parched peas, lupines 

Complex 2: Gustus: mallows, onions, mint, elecampane, anchovies w/ sliced eggs, sow’s udder in tuna sauce. Cena: Kid, chicken, cold ham, green beans, young cabbage sprouts. Desert: Fresh fruit w/ wine. 

Pontices Dinner: 

Gustus: 1) Raw sea urchins, oysters, salt water mussels, thrush on asparagus, hen, panned oysters, mussels. 2) Mussels, shellfish, jellyfish, figpeckers (small birds), loin of goat, loin of pork, fricassed chicken, figpeckers, salt water snails. 

Cena: Sow’s udder, boar’s head, panned fish, panned sow’s udder, domestic duck, wild duck, hare, roast chicken, starch pudding, bread. 

Wine = High quality. 

Dinner in middle of afternoon => lasted till bedtime, at least 3 – 4 hours. Might last till midnight. If expected to be long, start early. Tempestiva convivia = early dinner, start before 9th hour. 

Family dinners: Spent time in conversation, trained slave read aloud in some. Gentlemen’s Dinners: music, dancing, juggling by professionals. Elaborate dinners: souvenirs given, Martial’s Epigrams contain couplets attach to gifts. 

Serving Dinner: When guests entered, gods invoked = saying grace. Then took places on couch. Sandals removed by own slaves, water + towels wash hands. Each guest bring own napkin. Each course placed on tray, then dishes passed out. Course finished, place dish on tray, then remove. Table sometimes cleared and wiped. Water + towels gave to guests, used fingers to eat. Between dinner + desert => wine, salt + meal given to lares. Guests called for sandals, then left. 

Convivium = living together, Cato declared word for talking over dinner 
Symposium = Greek word. Drinking together. 

Commisatio, compotatio = drinking dinner, wine supper. 
Drink much wine, questionable amusements 
Greek customs unknown to Romans until after 2nd Punic War. 

Use perfumes + flowers = believed to slow intoxication. Put on after desert/wine brought on. 
Rex (magister, arbiter) bibendi = Master of the Revels, threw highest dice 
Set rules for drinking, determine proportion of wine to water, decide entertainment 
Set penalties and forfeits for breaking rules Leges insanae = rules for drinking => Horace. 

Wine mixed in large bowls, then ladled into goblets. Ladle held a 12th of a pint or was graduated by 12ths. At commisatio, all drink same amount of wine, same proportions of wine. Drinking healths – propose health of someone. 

=> slaves put as many 12ths into goblet as in person’s name. Drink in one swallow. 

Gambling, scandalous practices, roam from house to house, being host, causing trouble, etc. Vulgar rich held banquets, ostentatious display of furniture, tableware and food. Couches made of silver – Wine wash hands – 22 courses in meal 7000 birds served, dish of fish liver + flamingo tongue + brain of peacock + pheasants. Lucullus spent $10,000 on dinners like this.