The Lavish Roman Banquet: A Calculated Display Of Debauchery And Power

Even before there were emperors, members of the Roman elite held private banquets as a way to show off, network, reward friends and diss enemies.” The Roman banquet evokes voluptuary images of men in togas reclining on couches and glutting themselves on wild sow’s udders and stuffed snails, while servants stream in bearing platters heaped with heavily sauced and delicately spiced foods from all over the world: ostrich from Africa, pepper and sugar cane from India, cumin from Ethiopia, sumac from Syria, olives from Greece, and that perennial Roman favorite, the fleshy homegrown fig. The most legendary Roman banquet, says Strauss, is the fictional Cena Trimalchionis (Dinner of Trimalchio) in Petronius’ satirical novel, Satyricon.

Source: www.npr.org