ENTERTAINMENT: Dinner Parties Flashcards
Triclinium
Roman formal dining room
What happened in the Triclinium?
Rich romans would host dinner parties
For entertaining + impressing the guests
Had 3 couches - where a guest would sit depended on their status
Dinner was important meal - lasted from late afternoon to night
What were the vessels made out of in the dining room?
Gold and silver - to impress
Entertainment at dinner
Wine - two types: Calda, Mulsum
Musical performances e.g. flute
Dancing girls, acrobats panto, trained animals
Poetry recitals - normally the Aeneid
Gladiator fights
Structure of Dinner meal
Light first course - eggs, fish
Main course - meat dishes + vegetables
Dessert - fruit, nuts
PSB source Petronius, Satyricon
- Describes the calf brought in on a 200-pound plate and trays of cakes in position
- acrobats coming down through the roof
Limitations:
Fictional, but reflects the society they lived in
Letter to Speticius Clarus
About how Clarus doesn’t turn up to the dinner party, and the host demands for them to pay the cost as the host had organised a vast event with lots of food which was expensive.
Letter to Avitus
- How the persona complains to Avitus about how he would serve wine depending on the class of the guest.
- He says that it is wrong and said that if it was his dinner party, instead of drinking his normal high quality wine, he would drink different wine which would be the same to the guests.
