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

When is cooking and eating done?
The daily routine
Meals in Roman society were important temporal markers that helped to define the
passage of a day. Three meals were normal, although the poor and medically advised might be
limited to two. 104 Breakfast (ientaculum) was taken anywhere from daybreak to the third or
fourth hour (i.e. generally not later than 10 a.m.). It consisted basically of bread and cheese, or
perhaps some leftovers (olives, fruit or meats) brought home from a dinner the previous night. 105
Lunch (prandium) was taken about noon, and was generally no heavier than breakfast. 106 The
menu varied from simple bread to meats, vegetables and fruit served cold or warmed up from
the night before. Lunch is usually described as being consumed quickly and without
ceremony. 107
Meals early in the day were not generally taken in company, although lunch bought at a
street-side lunch counter or diner would have offered the opportunity of social interaction. 108 At
one of his lunches, Seneca did not even see the need for washing his hands. 109 Interacting with
other people over a meal was primarily reserved for the cena, the main meal of the day, where the
setting and the mixing of the guests could be managed by the host. Individuals who disregarded
the customary schedule for meals inconvenienced the host and upset the normal working order
of the household. Martial sarcastically recalls an early arrival:
The boy does not yet announce to you the fifth hour, and yet you, Caecilianus,
come already as my guest, although the fourth hour, hoarse with pleading, has
only just enlarged the bail-bonds, and the arena still wearies the wild beasts at
Flora's games. Come, run, Callistus, and call back the unwashed servants; let the
couches be spread: Caecilianus, sit down. You ask for warm water: my cold has
not yet arrived; my kitchen is closed and chill, its fire unlaid. Come rather at
104 Balsdon 1974, 17-55, Carcopino 1960, 263; Gowers 1993, 17.
105 Gozzini Giacosa 1992, 2; Salza Prina Ricotti 1987, 123-124; Salza Prina Ricotti 1983, 20-21; Carcopino 1960,
263-264; Johnston 1932, 223-224; Marquardt I, 310-316. Ancient sources: Apul. Met. 1.18; Gal. San. Tuend.
5.332, 6.412; Mart. 13.31, 14.223. Festus reports two other words for breakfast: prandiculum (Fest. p.250M),
and silatum (Fest. p. 346M), but the latter passage is corrupt.
106 Originally the noon meal was called the cena, and the evening meal was called the vesperna (Fest. 54;
Isid. Orig. 20.2.11-14). A late lunch served in the afternoon was sometimes called a merenda (Non. p. 59;
Calp. Ecl. 5.60).
107 See Peck 1923, 312. Ancient sources on lunch: Corp. Gloss. Lat. III, pp. 645-647; Hor. S. 1.6.127-128; Plin.
Ep. 3.5.10-11; Plaut. Pers. 104-105; Suet. Aug. 76.
108 Referring to Republican period practice, Plu. Moralia 726E says: "The ancient Romans generally took
their early meal alone, but had dinner along with their friends." (καθ᾿ ἑαυτοὺς γὰρ ἠρίστων ἐπειεκῶς ὁι
πάλαι Ῥωμαῖοι συνδειπνοῦντες τοῖς φίλοις, Loeb text and translation). For lunch counters (popinae) and
diners (cauponae), see below, pp. 34-37.
109 Sen. Ep. 83.6.
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