by Horatius Piscinus on Tue Aug 24, 2004 3:27 pm
Salvete
Triclinia were used for more than just entertaining at dinner parties. It was a room used by a patron to meet in the morning with his clientelia. A triclinium did serve as a place to entertain, but it was more what we would today think as a study. That is, it was a place where a man might take his correspondences, conduct business, and on occaision it was also used as a place to sleep. It would not be unusual, and may have been more normal for a triclinium to hold only one lectus. But since Ariadne has brought up banquents held in triclinia ...
First though, family meals were held in or near the kitchen with family members seated around a table on benches. These were handled differently from entertaining in a triclinium. Family and servants would first gather at a shrine or hearth, standing to offer prayers. The family would be seated, the father last, after he removed his ring and left it with the Lares. Offerings to the Lares were made between the second and third course of a meal, and while servants would stand around the table to serve, children of the family would walk around the table at this time to receive the offerings in special bowls and platters. The father would be treated like a guest of honor, discussiong matters with the children and performing the religious rites. The mother, as domina of the household, acted as hostess overseeing the servants.
The banquent held in a triclinium was a formal affair. For all that has been said about Romans in the past, these did not usually involve wild entertainments. There simply wasn't much room in a triclinium. As always when Romans gathered, there was a religious element to the banquent, and in many cases such banquents were held because it was a religious affair. Seating arrangements was made according to status. Ericius would know more on the subject, but IIRC the person reclined at the center of the lectus would be the one with the highest status. The guest of honor was placed on the central lectus. Other guests would be placed on the lectus to his right where they would be in the best position to face one another in discussions. The host would then be placed on the lectus to the left of the guest of honor where he would oversee service to the guests. Such a banquent would include an invitation to a God or Goddess to attend. There was a formal exchange between the guest of honor and the host as to which would be given the honor of invoking the God and offering sacrifice, but that was one role of the guest of honor.
The presence of women, well, it does depend on the era, as Marius pointed out, and what phase of an evening's entertainment Wives are generally depicted as sitting at the front, towards the foot of a lectus on which their husband reclines. The Romans were rather puritanical in their attitude towards wives, and so mixing couples was probably not something they did. Wives and other women of status remained for only part of the banquent, for the religious portion and for dinning. During the Republic women were not allowed to drink wine, at least not without their husband's permission, and then only in limited quantity. They also would not be expected to participate in discussions of "men's affairs." And so at some point they would depart the triclinium. Other women might be brought in instead, as part of the entertainment. They may have been reclined, but they were more for serving guests and thus would also sit in the front and towards the foot of the lectus.
The above of course is for a formal dinner where men of status would be present. Women would entertain as well, and I am not sure we know what arrangements were made in that case. They could have had males present as part of their entertainment, seated in a subordinate position. I have seen a painting where roles were reversed. It is not very clear whether the painting was meant as a joke, or if it actually depicted a scene of a lady of status being entertained, uhm, well a little more than just entertained. From what Ovid relates, men courting a woman of wealth and higher status would have been placed in a subordinant position. Status, rather than gender, determined what role a person played in any given situation, and that would have been true at banquents as well. If a male guest of some status was tolerated at a women's banquent, he was likely of lower status. He would sit rather than recline, at the rear of the lectus and seated in the opposite direction, for the sake of propriety, so that he would have to turn to face the others. For example a woman of high status might bring along a poet to entertain the ladies by reciting his poetry while standing. He would also be fed and thus included in the seating arrangements, but treated almost like a pet. More normal, when matrons with their daughters would visit one another, they would sit on the lecti. If a number were present, two would sit side by side on a lectus as in sellisternia. Probably daughters sat next to their mothers and in a subordinate position. In less formal affairs, between friends, women probably did recline, and drank wine, and discussed "women's affairs" in the same way as men, but we don't hear about it, and I can't recall seeing any depictions of women gathered for a social banquent.
Valete optime
M Horatius Piscinus
Sapere aude!