Wealthy Roman town houses and large, sprawling countryside villas were not only designed to impress, but to win friends and influence people. Entertainment – especially in the form of lavish multi-course banquets – played a significant role in this process.
[i] images #1 and #2: trīclīnium, -ī [2/n]: dining room
As the noun itself suggests: “a triclinium generally
contained three couches, and as the usual number of persons occupying each
couch was three, the triclinium afforded accommodation for a party of nine.”
(Thurston Peck)
The quotation below indicates that the term was not confined
to a location within a house, nor was the number necessarily restricted to nine
diners:
pūblicē sibi convīvia parārī1, sternī trīclīnia, et in
forō sternī iubēbat (Cicero) ⃒ he ordered banquets to be
prepared and couches to be spread for him at the public expense, and to
be spread for him in the forum
Professor Mary Beard considers it doubtful that this part of
the house was in regular use. Its function was more likely as a place targeted
at the “great and the good”, wealthy friends and acquaintances, as well as business
associates. To put it in contemporary terms: you would not invite your boss and
his wife to dinner in the kitchen – it would be in the dining room.
It was not a place for a “quick snack”: most Roman dwellings
had no kitchen, and the kitchens in the wealthy properties are small. Most working
class citizens of Pompeii, for example, would have eaten at the thermopōlia,
the fast-food outlets of which there were over 80 in the town.
Where the wealthy ate, when they were not in the trīclīnium,
is uncertain since there is no other designated eating area. Maybe the Master
of the House took breakfast in his office, or sitting by the impluvium
or, if the weather was nice, in the peristȳlium – and is
that any different from us when we “grab” a bite to eat sitting at the kitchen
table, or in front of the TV, or while we’re working on our laptops?
[ii] exedra, -ae [1/f] < Anc. Gk. ἐξ (ex,
“out of”) + ἕδρα (hédra, “seat”): a recessed space or
alcove, often semicircular, furnished with seating and commonly opening off a
larger room or courtyard; it was a place for conversations, discussions etc. in
other words a place where the Master may go with a client for a “private chat”.
Image #3 shows an example from a late Roman villa, the floored
section being the exedra. The rest of the floor is missing and reveals
the hypocaustum i.e. the underfloor heating system.
[iii] cubiculum, -ī [2/n]: bedroom
Image #4: Archaeologists at Pompeii discovered the skeleton of
a man and a woman in a small bedroom of a house where they may have been hiding
from the eruption.
[iv] andrōn, -is [3/m]: passage between two walls of a
house; hallway; passageway
[v] posticum, -ī [2/n]: back door
[vi] (a) balneum, -ī [2/n]; (b) latrīna, -ae
[1/f]
The terms are not interchangeable:
(a) balneum: bath; place for bathing; bathroom
(b) latrīna: toilet; Engl. deriv. latrine
Image #5: latrine with reconstructed wooden seat (Pompeii)
Images #6 and #7: most of the second storeys of the houses in
Pompeii were destroyed, but the terracotta downpipe suggests that a toilet was
upstairs.
Pompeii had public bathing facilities and public toilets which
were accessible to everybody although some facilities would have required a
small entrance fee.
[vii] culīna, -ae [1/f]: kitchen
Image #8: kitchen in the house of the Vettii in Pompeii, which
leads us back to the beginning of this post. Could a kitchen that size have
produced the amount of food required for the lavish banquets held in the
triclinium?
It is likely that much of the food was prepared in advance or
obtained from outside sources such as vendors, with the domestic kitchen used
mainly for finishing and serving dishes. In addition, large households would
have had slaves working intensively in confined spaces, and cooking may at
times have been supplemented by using portable braziers, temporary outdoor
hearths in the courtyard or peristyle, or by preparing dishes in stages rather
than all at once.
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