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

Wallace-Hadrill argues that the 'Egyptian' oecus (5) in the Casa dell'Atrio a Mosaico (IV.2) at
Herculaneum was used primarily for quasi-public business such as public receptions. 203 He
unsuccessfully claims, however, that dining would not often have taken place there because the
room is too large for a set of triclinia. Especially large oeci could have served admirably as both
small basilicas and large dining rooms with a simple change of furniture.
The largest of all the special oeci which Vitruvius mentions is the oecus Cyzicenus. 204 This
dining room is outfitted with folding windows and doors, that offer framed vistas out on to the
house gardens. 205 Its aspect should be northerly, suitable for summertime use, and the many
windows and doors should allow cooling breezes as well as light and a pleasant view. Vitruvius
describes the oecus Cyzicenus as spacious enough in length and breath to be able to hold two sets
of triclinia couches facing each other (a banquet of ca. eighteen people), with room yet to pass
around the couches. 206 Large banquets are not unattested in the literature, so large dining rooms
should not be a surprising find in large houses. 207 No archaeological examples of the Cyzicene
hall have been positively identified, despite the suggestions of several scholars. 208 Regardless,
dining rooms of extraordinary size must have been common enough to merit a distinct
architectural 'type'. There are halls in Pompeian houses large enough to hold two sets of dining-
couches with room left over; they are the basilicae described above.
In some cases, large dinner-parties were held in multiple dining rooms at the same time,
as Cicero reports for a visit of Julius Caesar in 45 B.C.:
But when he [Caesar] arrived at Phillipus' place on the evening of the Saturnalia
[18 December], there was hardly a dining room vacant for Caesar himself to dine
in. Two thousand men, no less...his entourage moreover were lavishly
entertained in three other dining rooms. The humbler freedmen and slaves had
203 Wallace-Hadrill 1988, 59-64, where he demolishes Maiuri's argument that oecus (5) in (IV.2) was the
'family' dining room.
204 Vitr. 6.3.10; see text and translation above, p. 94, n. 188.
205 Plin. Ep. 2.17.5, 5.6.29. See Förtsch 1993, 103-104.
206 In Vitruvius' discussion of the Greek house, he mentions a Cyzicene triclinium as part of an ensemble of
rooms around a peristyle court which combined can fit four sets of dining-couches (6.7.3). The Cyzicene
dining room would probably have contained two by itself. The other rooms around the court are a library, a
picture-gallery, exedrae, a square oecus, and a large entranceway. Of these, certainly the oecus, probably the
picture-gallery, and perhaps an exedra could have supplied the space necessary for the other two sets of
dining-couches. There is no reason to believe that any single room held four triclinia by itself, contra
Dunbabin 1991, 124.
207 Dunbabin 1991, 124 & n.21: Suet. Aug. 70.1 (twelve guests); Petr. 31 (fourteen guests).
208 De Albentiis 1990, 154. Maiuri 1952, 5-8 suggests room (91) in the Praedia di Julia Felix (II.4) at Pompeii
(disputed by Parslow 1989, who identifies the room as a biclinium); Richardson 1955, 63-65 prefers room (46)
in the Casa dei Dioscuri (VI.9.6) at Pompeii. Förtsch 1993, 104 lists other candidates.
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