The DinnerTypically, Romans ate three meals a day with the late dinner, or cena, being the biggest and most important. While the other meals were held privately with family members or no one at all, the late dinner functioned as a social gathering, with guests present and food being the best the house could afford. The triclinium was set up for the guest of honor to be the focus of the dinner, establishing distinct hierarchy with the place settings. hen a Roman was in town, it is safe to say that, he was every evening a host or guest at a diner as elaborate as his means or those of his friends.
Originally the cena was held in the late afternoon. Having the dinner in the late evening was a tradition created to cope with the hectic schedule of city life. The city fashion soon spread o the towns and was carried by city people to their country estates. The late dinner became the regular practice for all persons of any social standing. |
The BanquetBanquet’s hosted by the great noble families were semi-public events, characterized by the display of wealth, and offered opportunities for forging contacts. These banquets were called convivium, chosen by the early Romans to describe the reclining of friends at a banquet, because it implies the conjunction of life, or “life-sharing”.
For the Banquet, the triclinium maintained its general shape and style but was put on a much grander scale, as Romans wished to expand their hospitality. For the host at such events, the banquet is an opportunity for the exhibition of status and the display of luxury and wealth. It was a combines ostentatious display of furniture, plates, and food--couches made of silver and wine to wash the hands to name a few. The whole affair comes to be treated as itself a spectacle, staged in a splendid setting, with the host as its focus. |
Courses:
Even the simplest dinner was comprised of three courses. The first was the Gustus, or the appetizer. The second was the Cena, or the dinner proper, and the third was the secunda mensa, or the dessert.
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Augustus was simultaneously wealthy as well as the pinnacle of honor and frugality. He was known for following the traditional customs of the cena by limiting his meals to three courses. The typical banquet took the opposite trajectory by attempting to test the limits of ostentatiousness. Often enough there were twenty-two course to a single cent.
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Style of Dress:
Guests attended everyday cenas dressed in simple and relaxed dress paired with sandals.
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At banquets, the style of dress was still loos and relaxed, however, unbridled freedom was the order of the day. There were as many types of clothing as there were types food for the banquet was the place for fantasy and exoticism. The Romans like to wear strange and foreign clothing and had a taste for fancy dress. Transparent dresses, damask jackets, embroider scarves imported from Asia minor, Egypt, and Libya.
The only considered uniform transgression was to wear any form of official dress, to mix business and pleasure so obviously. Cicero once wrote that Verres, the praetor of Sicily, once wore his toga pretext, his official garb, with a long tunic and sandal, apparently and inappropriate attire. |