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The Dinner Party

The Dinner Party. www.misterconnor.org. CENA. Breakfast ( ientaculum ) and lunch ( prandium ) were light meals, often skipped entirely. The main eating event of the day was dinner ( cena ).

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The Dinner Party

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  1. The Dinner Party www.misterconnor.org

  2. CENA • Breakfast (ientaculum) and lunch (prandium) were light meals, often skipped entirely. • The main eating event of the day was dinner (cena). • Most people imagine endless orgiastic indulgence of weird and exotic dishes but this was only true of a small number of Romans. • Most people had a relatively simple dinner.

  3. Logistics summus • Meals took place in the triclinium (the three-couch room). • Large houses in Pompeii seem to have a triclinium indoors for winter and another with an open-air roof for the summer. • The host reclined at position x, the most important guest at position y. • Couches sloped slightly downwards; each couch sat three diners. medius y x imus

  4. Manners • “Evening dress” was the synthesis – a loose-fitting and brightly embroidered gown. • Diners ‘reclined’, lying forward across the couch. • Food was taken with the right hand, the plate held with the left. • Knives or spoons would be used where necessary. • Garum was a commonly used condiment/ sauce.

  5. The Order • A standard cena had three courses: • 1. Gustatio – Light appetisers such as eggs, olives, salad, etc. This was immediately followed by mulsum, wine sweetened with honey. • 2. Cena – Often meat or fish served with vegetables. In more luxurious dinenrs this may have been a succession of different meat dishes. • 3. Secundae Mensae – Fruit, nuts or cakes. This may extend into a commisatio: a drinking party.

  6. Garum • …is thus made: the intestines of fish are thrown into a vessel, and are salted; and small fish, especially atherinae, or small mullets, or maenae, or lycostomi, or any small fish, are all salted in the same manner; and they are seasoned in the sun, and frequently turned; and when they have been seasoned in the heat, the garum is thus taken from them. A small basket of close texture is laid in the vessel filled with the small fish already mentioned, and the garum will flow into the basket; and they take up what has been percolated through the basket, which is called liquamen; and the remainder of the feculence is made into allec...

  7. Master of ceremonies • A master of ceremonies (rex convivii), often the host, decided when guets should drink, and the proportion of wine to water in the mixing bowl (cratera). • Romans rarely drank wine neat; proportions could be four-fifths of water to one fifth of wine. • This explains how they managed to get through long drinking sessions.

  8. Evidence • Horace: • “Off home I go to prepare my meal: fritters, leeks and peas. Three boys serve the food; two cups and a ladle stand on a white stone slab. There is a cheap salt-cellar and an earthenware jug and saucer.” • Clearly not all dinners were feasts. • Martial offers a menu for a dinner party of seven guests: • “Lettuce, leeks and mint. • Lizard-fish garnished with sliced eggs, served with fresh herbs. • One young kid. • Meat-balls, beans and young sprouts. • A chicken, a ham now seeing its fourth dinner. • Ripe apples. • Wine.”

  9. Comissatio • This often went past midnight. • Guests drank and slaves provided entertainment. • This may have included musicians, dancers (more traditional Romans despised this), jugglers, clowns, dwarfs and acrobats. • These individuals would usually be slaves. • It was improper for guests to dance themselves. • More intellectual dinner-parties may include poetry recitals or comic actors. • However, conversation was the key to success; it marked a civilised dinner.

  10. The End of the Night • Upon leaving the domus or villa, guests were guided home by slaves holding lamps (there were very few street lights and city streets could be dangerous). • Muggings, and indeed murder, were more commonplace than now. • There was no police force. The town vigiles may have served some public order purpose but their main job was essentially as firemen.

  11. The Skinny • Cena was the main event of the day, taking place in the triclinium. • Less ostentatious than perhaps has been portrayed. • Most had the same seating lay-out. • Lying forward, eating from the right hand. • Gustatio, Cena, Secundae Mensae - Garum • Rex Convivii; diluted wine. • Entertainment at the commisatio. Conversation was king. • Slaves lighting the path home – dangerous streets.

  12. Sources • Taylor, David. Roman Society. Bristol Classical Press, 2001. • http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/reclining-and-dining-and-drinking-in-ancient-rome/ • http://etiquipedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/dining-etiquette-in-roman-empire.html • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garum

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