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

Environmental conditions (season and climate) also affected the scheduling of meals:
when the dinner began and ended, how many people were invited, what sort of entertainment
was conducted, whether foods were in season locally or were imported, and where the people
ate. Because the Roman daily chronological system was solar, the length of each hour in the day
depended on the season and how many hours of daylight were available. 130 The Elder Pliny's
meals ended in summertime daylight , and at dusk during the shorter winter days. 131 Larger
houses with multiple dining areas had winter-dining indoors, where a smaller number of guests
could enjoy artificial heat and light sources. Summer-dining took place outside or in a room
opening wide onto an open garden, where temperate conditions permitted larger gatherings. 132
Where is cooking and eating done?
The locations where individuals of a society cook and eat depend upon the organization
of the society itself. How often does the community eat together in public? How common are
eating clubs for trade guilds and other groups? What eating establishments such as bakeries,
lunch counters, diners and inns sell cooked food outside the home? How often do people dine
out as opposed to eating in? Where are kitchens and dining rooms located in Roman homes?
These issues, which I will address with archaeological evidence in chapter three, are introduced
here in two parts: the options available to Romans for eating outside the home, and the places of
food preparation and consumption within the Roman house.
Cooking and eating outside the home
Public feasts
Feasts were convivial opportunities that brought the community together and reaffirmed
the working social hierarchy. Since the Republic, Romans had at certain times of the year the
opportunity to eat at a public banquet. The occasion might be a state holiday, the funeral of a
famous individual, a military victory or the initiative of a public official. 133 Senatorial families
were as much public figures as they were private individuals, and distributed largesse to the
130 See Laurence 1994, 122-132, Balsdon 1974, 16-26, 56-59 and Carcopino 1960, 143-150.
131 Plin. Ep. 3.5.13: Sugebat aestate a cena luce, hieme intra primam noctis et tamquam aliqua lege cogente.
132 For a detailed discussion of seasonal dining, see chapter two, pp. 101-105.
133 Public holidays: In 196 B.C. the Collegium Epulonum was created to oversee the epulum Iovis and other
public festivals that involved dining, including the Ludi Romani (Cic. de Orat. 3.73), and the Lectisternium,
at which images of the Roman gods were laid at couches in a public space, and a meal placed before them.
People in turn opened their own houses and provided food for any passers-by (Liv. 5.13.6-8, 22.10.9, 33.42.1;
see also Peck 1923, 615; Stambaugh 1988, 233 & n. 11; Gowers 1993, 26). Military victory: In honor of his
Gallic campaign, Julius Caesar's return to Italy reportedly sparked spontaneous public feasts that filled the
fora of the towns he passed through (Hirt. Gal. 8.51; see also Gowers 1993, 38-39, who describes private
banquets as 'triumphal processions' of food on a domestic scale).
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