Rome Banquet Facts

Roman banquets would consist of food from across the empire.

Roman banquets have long been infamous in modern culture for their decadence, both in terms of the extravagant and exotic food and the entertainment, which would often include male and female dancers and musicians. By the height of the Roman Empire, banquets would be sumptuous affairs featuring food from all corners of the empire and beyond.

Origins

The Roman banquet originally began to accompany a religious or public event within the Roman Republic. As time passed, it was changed with the influence of Greek traditions into a symposium--a social dinner complete with wine, music and different forms of entertainment. From the austere meals of the Roman Republic, banquets became displays of luxury and wealth during the Roman Empire.

Setting

Roman banquets were served with guests reclining on couches often made of wood, bronze or bricks and covered with cushions and draperies. Three dining couches were arranged around a square table and the diners would recline on their sides, leaning on their left elbows, facing the table. They would eat with their fingers or sometimes use a small knife, as necessary. In Italy, the mild weather meant that some banquets were served outside in garden spaces complete with fountains and pools.

Timing

Banquets would often start at around 3 p.m. and would be completed around nightfall, although some could go on much longer into the night, sometimes finishing the next morning. A meal would consist of several different dishes in each course and would include the starter, or gustatio, usually consisting of eggs, shellfish or vegetables; the entree, or prima mensa, the main meal of meat, fish and vegetables; and the dessert, or mensa secunda, with fruit or sweet pastry dishes.

Types

In his novel Satyricon, the Roman Petronius mentioned some of the strange food eaten during Roman banquets. One banquet he described featured rooster's combs, flamingo tongues, ostrich brains, dormice served in honey and milk-fed snails. The main course consisted of live fish, which were killed on the table by pouring hot sauce over them, and a pastry made to look like an egg with a very small bird inside. Dessert was made up of cakes that fell from the ceiling and squirted juice in a diner's face when they were cut open.

Effects

The Roman senate disapproved of these extravagant banquets, viewing them as amoral, and in the first century B.C. hundreds of different dishes were banned. Guards were posted around the marketplaces to make sure that banned food did not end up in Roman hands.

References

• Pompeii Restaurant: The banquets in the ancient Pompeii
• Social Appetizers: Italian Food History