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

A full, elite dinner traditionally consisted of three phases, between each of which the
hands were washed and dried with the aid of finger bowls and towels. First was the gustus or
gustatio, a series of appetizers such as vegetables, eggs, shell-fish, and olives, and a sweetened
wine (mulsum) to drink. 117 Next came the cena proper, itself divided into prima, secunda, and
tertia courses, during which main meat courses of fish, goat, or pig would be served, along with
other side dishes of seafood, fowl, and vegetables, all washed down with cut wine. 118 Last was
the secundae mensae, or dessert, at which point pastries and fruit were served, and after which the
dinner party sometimes turned into a drinking party, or commissatio. 119
A dinner might last anywhere from a few hours to well into the night. The richer the
banquet, the earlier it might begin, and presumably the longer it would last. 120 The success of a
formal dinner depended in some degree upon how well the host had planned the event, and
upon the promptness of the service. The temporal burden of a meal thus fell largely upon the
household staff; it was their task to bring out food promptly so it was neither too hot to pick up
nor too cold to eat. They were required to keep wine goblets filled, periodically clean the table
and floor of debris, and sometimes offer timely entertainment. Guests and masters no doubt had
speedy expectations of the slave staff that were either confirmed or frustrated during the course
of the meal. A Plautine dinner cooked up in 'no time' humorously plays on those expectations in
the Pseudolus:
BALLIO (to the cook): Don't be so annoying; you clatter too much already; shut
up. Okay, that there is where I live. Get inside and cook up dinner -- fast!
PUER (cook's helper): But come, you, recline at table and admit the guests, the
dinner is already spoiling! 121
needs to survive and not to suffer." (translation Fuchs 1977). The meal in Hor. Ep. 1.5.6 is modest, and Mart.
10.48 modestly describes his numerous and varied dishes as a cenula. Hor. S. 2.8 depicts a reasonably rich
meal, and the Cena Trimalchionis of Petr. 26-78 is an affair of sublime and silly extravagance.
117 Also called the promulsis or frigida mensa; see Peck 1923, 313, with refs.
118 Juv. 1.94-95 jokes about seven-course meals.
119 Balsdon 1974, 32-55, Peck 1923, 313-314; Paoli 1958, 95-96; Jashemski 1979, 92; Salza Prina Ricotti 1987,
124; Gozzini Giacosa 1992, 3; Dupont 1992, 275-277.
120 Plin. Ep. 3.5.12-13 reports that his uncle, tanta erat parsimonia temporis, would rise from dinner at dusk in
wintertime, and while it was still light in the summer. Trimalchio's dinner, on the other hand, seems to go
on endlessly into the night; there the author uses time as well as sheer cost to describe the shameful lengths
to which his ex-slave character will go. Catul. 47.5 villifies two individuals in part by emphasizing how
early in the day their sumptuous dinners began. Cic. Pis. 67 accuses L. Calpurnius Piso of all-night dining
and drinking.
121 Pl. Ps. 889-892: BA. Molestus ne sis; nimium iam tinnis; tace. Em illic ego habito. Intro abi et et cenam coque.
Propera. PV. Quin tu is accubitum et convivas cedo, corrumpitur iam cena (OCT text, author's translation).
Gowers 1993, 105-106 reads this passage too deeply, seeing the dinner as a metaphor for the central intrigue
in the play and missing the plain joke on the surface.
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