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

daybreak; for why should the fifth hour keep you waiting? For a breakfast you
come late, Caecilianus. 110
Martial writes in an annoyed tone; with clipped phrasing he orders the slaves to outfit the dining
room and fire up the kitchen on short notice. Upon the arrival, Martial's household is pictured as
cold, closed and dormant. Caecilianus is a serious disruption; he has reversed the day's
traditional order of business, replacing the work (negotium) of morning-time with the leisure
(otium) of the afternoon. 111 Nevertheless, the presence of a guest requires that the warmth and
life of a physically and socially active house be engineered immediately.
Warm water for washing the host, guests, and servants was a necessary prerequisite to
the cena. Guests made a trip to the baths in the early to mid afternoon before the start of a proper
meal. 112 Bath suites in the wealthiest houses were usually placed adjacent to the kitchens
themselves, efficiently juxtaposing facilities requiring heat and water. 113 A whiff of the meal
being prepared in the kitchen may have whet the appetites of guests as they went in to bathe.
Dinner itself began after the bath towards the end of the eighth hour in winter or ninth
hour in summer (i.e. about 1:30-3:30 p.m.). 114 At a formal affair, properly attired diners, after
being greeted, removed their shoes, took their places on the couches, and washed their hands. 115
The number, order and makeup of the courses that followed varied immensely depending on the
season, occasion, company, and wealth of the owner. There is no unbiased evidence for a
'typical' or 'normal' Roman cena: "Instead, there is usually a split between disgusting or
extravagant meals described from a hostile point of view, and innocent meals where food is at its
least gross, or is omitted altogether." 116 Nevertheless, food depicted in written sources is not
completely symbolic; if it were, it would have lost all relevance to the reader.
110 Mart. 8.67: Horas quinque puer nondum tibi nuntiat et tu iam convivia mihi, Caeciliane, venis, cum modo
distulerint raucae vadimonia quartae et Floralicias lasset harena feras. Curre, age, et inlotos revoca, Calliste,
ministros; sternantur lecti: Caeciliane, sede. Caldam poscis aquam: nondum mihi frigida venit; alget adhuc nudo
clusa culina foco. Mane veni potius; nam cur te quinta moretur? ut iantes, sero, Caeciliane, venis (OCT text, Loeb
translation).
111 See Wallace-Hadrill 1988, 84-86 for the temporal and spatial distinction of negotium and otium within the
Roman house.
112 Salza Prina Ricotti 1987, 124; Balsdon 1974, 26-32. Ancient sources: Apul. Met. 5.15; Petr. 26-28; Mart.
10.14, 10.48; Juv. 11.204-205; Plin. Ep. 3.1.8, 9.36.3-4; Suet. Ves. 21.1.
113 Vitr. 6.6.2 advises placing baths next to kitchens for this very reason. See chapter three, p. 139.
114 Cic. Fam. 9.26; Plin. Ep. 3.1.9; Mart. 10.48, 11.52. To demonstrate the gluttony of Nero and Vitellius,
Suetonius depicts them as starting their dinners already at noon (Suet. Ner. 27; Vit. 13). Mart. 3.36 in turn
complains about having to follow his patron to the baths at the tenth hour (as early as two p.m. in winter
and late as five p.m. in summer) or later, after which presumably he would finally receive the reward of
dinner.
115 Carcopino 1960, 266-267, Peck 1923, 313 and Daremberg & Saglio, s.v. "Coena" provide numerous ancient
references.
116 Gowers 1993, 7, 170. Meals are depicted along a moral, social and economic scale: a poor, plain meal in
Ov. Met. 8.620-720, or Horace summing up poor fare with a note in S. 1.1.73-75: "Don't you know the value
of money, what it's used for? It buys bread, vegetables, a pint of wine and whatever else a human being
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