Etiquette and Leftovers in Ancient Rome

“Up to a certain point the remnants were fairly divided, but unfortunately one chicken, more plump than the rest, attracted the attention of one of the party who had no just claim to it. The proper owner would not let it go, so they both tugged at it; a general tumult ensued, and the guests grasped the birds by the legs and hit each other in the face…”— Above, a depiction of ancient Roman dining.

DIVIDING FOOD LEFT OVER

A very strange custom prevailed with both the Greeks and the Romans of the guests carrying away with them the viands that remained uneaten. Martial has an extremely witty epigram on this; but the drollest account of it is in the “Symposium” of Lucian. The party consisted of learned and dignified philosophers, whom, of course, the author intends to satirize. Up to a certain point the remnants were fairly divided, but unfortunately one chicken, more plump than the rest, attracted the attention of one of the party who had no just claim to it. The proper owner would not let it go, so they both tugged at it; a general tumult ensued, and the guests grasped the birds by the legs and hit each other in the face with them, pulled beards, shouted, and pelted with cups. 

That such scenes really took place at the dinners given to Roman clients is seriously affirmed by Juvenal (v, 26,) and in one of the satyric plays of Eschylus, (“The Ostologi,”) a guest complains that a certain vessel was broken over his head, “by no means so fragrant as a pot of spikenard.” Indeed, it would be a rather curious inquiry how far drunkenness was sottishness or mere excitement, for it is obvious that such a term is but relative, and it is likely enough that the Greek temperament was easily roused to fury by a very small amount of alcohol. 

Certainly, no rigid etiquette prevented practical jokes of a serious kind. We read in Plautus of an unfortunate parasite having a pot full of ashes flung at his head at dinner for no other purpose than to raise a general laugh against him. Some an ecdotes are told which confirm this view. One Philoxenus, a poet of Cythera, was dining with Dionysius. Observing a small mullet served on his plate, but a large one on that of the host, he took the cooked fish in his hands and applied it to his ear. “What are you doing?” asked the host. “I am writing poem entitled 'Galatea,' and a I want to learn from this fish something about Nereus! But it says it was caught too young, whereas the big fish on your plate followed in Nereus’s train, and knows all about him.” The host laughed, and ordered the fishes to be exchanged. 

A certain Spartan was dining at a table on which sea-urchins were served. He took one, and not knowing how to manipulate it, put it into his mouth, and crunched it shell and all. After making wry faces over it be exclaimed, with true Spartan bravery, “Filthy eating! I am not going to turn a coward and give you up now, but I shan't take you any more.” Rather a neat repartee is recorded of one Philoxenus, a parasite. Observing that the host supplied black bread, he quietly said, “Don't put any more of that or you will make the room dark.” Another, seeing an entrée that was being carried round stop at the host, inquired, “Am I tipsy, or is it a fancy of mine that these things are going round?”—Fraser's Magazine, 1881

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia