KITCHENS AND DINING ROOMS AT POMPEII ... - Get a Free Blog

meal. 186 Ancient authors described and judged dining room luxury on the basis of interior
architecture and decoration, and environmental setting. I will discuss each in turn.
Interior architectural elaboration Proper proportions allowed a traditional set of dining
furniture to be arranged inside, and dictated the division of interior space (for the dining party in
back and the servants and entertainers in front). Vitruvius is the only ancient source on proper
proportions for dining areas, and his advice is brief, even simple:
As wide as triclinia are, their length should be twice as great. The elevations of
all chambers that are oblong should have the following scheme, that the
measures of length and width be added together and from that sum, half is
taken, and that is the height of the room. But should the rooms be exedrae or
square oeci, their height should be raised up to one and a half times their width.
Pinacothecae, like exedrae, should be drawn up with ample dimensions. Oeci
corinthii, oeci tetrastyli and those that are called oeci aegyptii should have the same
measure of proportion in their widths and lengths as are described above for the
triclinia, but on account of the insertion of columns, they should be more
spacious. 187
Other halls in a foreign manner are those which the Greeks call Cyzicene. These
are situated with a north aspect, and especially with an outlook upon gardens;
they have folding windows in the middle. The halls themselves are broad and
long enough to have two triclinia facing each other, with room to pass around;
and these, on both hands, have garden windows with folding lights, so that the
guests, under cover, may have a view of the garden. The height of the hall must
be one and a half times its width. 188
The proportions of 2:1 laid out above by Vitruvius for triclinia seem rather precise; in fact,
identifiable triclinia at Pompeii and Herculaneum rarely reach such elongated dimensions. 189 In
186 Satis pulchrum: Plin. Ep. 2.17.5; aboard the galleys of Caligula: Suet. Cal. 37.2 (ref. to the ships found and
raised from Lake Nemi); in a plane tree: Plin. Nat. 12.10; combined with an aviary: Var. R. 3.4.3; in a fruithouse:
Var. R. 1.59.1-2.; sliding ceilings or flowers: Petr. 54.4, 60.2; Historia Augusta, Antonius Heliogabus
19.7, 21.5, Carus, Carinus et Numerian 17.4.
187 Vitr. 6.3.8: Tricliniorum quanta latitudo fuerit, bis tanta longitudo fieri debebit. Altitudines omnium
conclaviorum, quae oblonga fuerint, sic habere debent rationem, uti longitudinis et latitudinis mensura componatur et
ex ea summa dimidium sumatur, et quantum fuerit, tantum altitudini detur. Sin autem exhedrae aut oeci quadrati
fuerint, latitudinis dimidia addita altintudines educantur. Pinacothecae uti exhedrae amplis magnitudinibus sunt
constituendae. Oeci corinthii tetrastylique quique aegyptii vocantur latitudinis et longitudinis, uti supra tricliniorum
symmetriae scriptae sunt, ita habent rationem, sed propter columnarum interpositiones spatiosiores constituantur.
(Loeb text, author's translation).
188 Vitr. 6.3.10: Fiunt autem etiam non italicae consuetudinis oeci, quos Graeci cyzicenos appellant. hi conlocantur
spectantes ad septentrionem et maxime viridia prospicientes, valvasque habent in medio. Ipsi autem sunt ita longi et
lati, uti duo triclinia cum circumitionibus inter se spectantia possint esse conlocata, habentque dextra ac sinistra
lumina fenestrarum valvata, uti de lectis per spatia fenestrarum viridia prospiciantur. Altitudines eorum dimidia
latitudinis addita constituuntur (Loeb text and translation).
189 Mau 1908, 262-263, and confirmed by the sample in this study; only five dining rooms (I.6.2 (22); I.10.4
(12); I.7.10-12 (4); I.7.10-12 (10); VII.1.40 (20)) were longer than the prescribed 2:1 ratio, and none fit the ratio
exactly (see Fig. 2.45).
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