Before the Drinking Party

[Faustus]

Roman Banquet

 

Before the Comissatio (the drinking party) was the cena (banquet). While reclining on the necessary couch, the guests had to have a way of disposing of their food scraps; a way which wouldn

Edited July 24, 2008 by Faustus

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, Amici.

 

A previous related Faustus thread

 

Here comes Caius Suetonius Tranquillus, Vitae XII Caesarum, Divus Augustus, cp. LXXVIII, sec. I:

 

Post cibum meridianum, ita ut vestitus calciatusque erat, retectis pedibus paulisper conquiescebat opposita ad oculos manu. A cena in lecticulam se lucubratoriam recipiebat; ibi, donec residua diurni actus aut omnia aut ex maxima parte conficeret, ad multam noctem permanebat.

 

"After his midday meal he used to rest for a while just as he was, without taking off his clothes or his shoes, with his feet uncovered and his hand to his eyes. After dinner he went to a couch in his study for working by lamp-light, where he remained to late at night, until he had attended to what was left of the day's business, either wholly or in great part".

 

... and also ibid, Vita Cai (Caligula), cp.XXXVI, sec II:

 

Quas plerumque cum maritis ad cenam uocatas praeterque pedes suos transeuntis diligenter ac lente mercantium more considerabat, etiam faciem manu adleuans, si quae pudore submitterent; quotiens deinde libuisset egressus triclinio, cum maxime placitam seuocasset.

 

"These as a rule he invited to dinner with their husbands, and as they passed by the foot of his couch, he would inspect them critically and deliberately, as if buying slaves, even putting out his hand and lifting up the face of anyone who looked down in modesty"

Edited July 24, 2008 by ASCLEPIADES

[Faustus]

"After his midday meal he used to rest for a while just as he was, without taking off his clothes or his shoes, with his feet uncovered and his hand to his eyes. After dinner he went to a couch in his study for working by lamp-light, where he remained to late at night, until he had attended to what was left of the day's business, either wholly or in great part".

"Banquets were occasions for the private man to savor his accomplishments and show off to his peers. The banquet was as important to the Romans as the salon to the eighteenth-century French aristocracy, as important even as the court of Versailles to the seventeenth-century nobility.

 

The emperors kept no court. They lived in their "palace," on the Palatine Hill, much as the nobles of Rome lived in their private villas, with only slaves and freedmen for company (which of course meant that the palace housed the various ministries of government). When night came, however, the emperor dined with his guests, senators and others whose company he relished. The time of public "honors" and "government" of the Patrimony was over.

 

The moment Horace arrived at his country retreat he invited a woman friend to join him for dinner, most likely a freedwoman, a well-known singer or actress.

 

The banquet was more than just a meal. Guests were expected to express their views on general topics and noble subjects or to give summaries of their lives. If the host had a domestic philosopher or tutor on his staff, he would be asked to speak. Between dishes there might be music (with dancing and singing), by professional musicians hired for the occasion. At least as much a social manifestation as an occasion for eating and drinking, the classical banquet gave rise to a literary genre, the "symposium," in which men of culture, philosophers, and scholars (grammatid) held elevated discussions.

 

Now the private man could relax at table. Even the poor people (hoi penetes), nine-tenths of the population, had their nights of revelry. During a banquet the private man forgot everything but his "profession," if he had one. Those who had vowed to devote their lives to the pursuit of wisdom celebrated not as the profane did but as philosophers.

 

Ideally the banquet hall was supposed to resemble not a dining room but a literary salon; when this happened, confusion with popular merrymaking was no longer possible. [A banquet] then, meant the pleasures of good company, culture, and in some cases the charms of friendship. Thinkers and poets found it perfectly possible to philosophize about wine.

 

The trickiest part of the evening, and the longest, was that set aside for drinking.

Early in the dinner people ate without drinking.

Later they drank without eating: this was the banquet in the strict sense of the word.....More than a feast, the banquet was a festival, and each man was expected to hold his own. As a token of festivity guests wore hats with flowers, or "wreaths," and were perfumed, that is, anointed with fragrant oil (alcohol was unknown, so oil was used as a solvent for perfumes). Banquets were unctuous and brilliant, as were nights of love."

 

A History of Private Life - Paul Veyne

[ASCLEPIADES]

The moment Horace arrived at his country retreat he invited a woman friend to join him for dinner, most likely a freedwoman, a well-known singer or actress.

 

The banquet was more than just a meal. Guests were expected to express their views on general topics and noble subjects or to give summaries of their lives. If the host had a domestic philosopher or tutor on his staff, he would be asked to speak. Between dishes there might be music (with dancing and singing), by professional musicians hired for the occasion. At least as much a social manifestation as an occasion for eating and drinking, the classical banquet gave rise to a literary genre, the "symposium," in which men of culture, philosophers, and scholars (grammatid) held elevated discussions.

 

Now the private man could relax at table. Even the poor people (hoi penetes), nine-tenths of the population, had their nights of revelry. During a banquet the private man forgot everything but his "profession," if he had one. Those who had vowed to devote their lives to the pursuit of wisdom celebrated not as the profane did but as philosophers.

 

Ideally the banquet hall was supposed to resemble not a dining room but a literary salon; when this happened, confusion with popular merrymaking was no longer possible. [A banquet] then, meant the pleasures of good company, culture, and in some cases the charms of friendship. Thinkers and poets found it perfectly possible to philosophize about wine.

 

On a middle stage of his pleasant trip from Rome to Beneventum, here comes Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Sermonum, Liber II, cp. V, lines XXXIX to LIV and LXX:

 

postera lux oritur multo gratissima; namque Plotius et Varius Sinuessae Vergiliusque occurrunt, animae, qualis neque candidiores terra tulit neque quis me sit devinctior alter.

o qui conplexus et gaudia quanta fuerunt. nil ego contulerim iucundo sanus amico.

proxima Campano ponti quae villula, tectum praebuit et parochi, quae debent, ligna salemque.

hinc muli Capuae clitellas tempore ponunt.

lusum it Maecenas, dormitum ego Vergiliusque;namque pila lippis inimicum et ludere crudis.

hinc nos Coccei recipit plenissima villa, quae super est Caudi cauponas. nunc mihi paucis Sarmenti scurrae pugnam Messique Cicirri, Musa, velim memores et quo patre natus uterque contulerit litis.

...prorsus iucunde cenam producimus illam.

 

"The next day arises, by much the most agreeable to all: for Plotius, and Varius, and Virgil met us at Sinuessa; souls more candid ones than which the world never produced, nor is there a person in/the world more bound to them than myself. Oh what embraces, and what transports were there! While I am in my senses, nothing can I prefer to a pleasant friend. The village, which is next adjoining to the bridge of Campania, accommodated us with lodging [at night]; and the public officers with such a quantity of fuel and salt as they are obliged to [by law]. From this place the mules deposited their pack-saddles at Capua betimes [in the morning]. Maecenas goes to play [at tennis]; but I and Virgil to our repose: for to play at tennis is hurtful to weak eyes and feeble constitutions.

From this place the villa of Cocceius, situated above the Caudian inns, which abounds with plenty, receives us. Now, my muse, I beg of you briefly to relate the engagement between the buffoon Sarmentus and Messius Cicirrus; and from what ancestry descended each began the contest.

... We were so diverted, that we continued that supper to an unusual length".