| The Roman dining-table of four sides, with three low couches (lecti) placed round it so as to leave the fourth side free for the servants (see plan). The lecti, arranged for three persons each, were broad, cushioned places, lower towards the outside and sloping upwards with a side support; on each of the three places was a pillow, on which the diners, as they lay at table, supported themselves with their left arm, their feet being towards the outside. The allotment of the nine places was made in accordance with strict rules of etiquette. The middle couch, lectus medius, and the one on its left, lectus summus (the highest), were appointed for the guests, the former for the most distinguished guests; that on its right, lectus imus (the lowest), was for the host, his wife, and a child or a freedman. On the lectus summus and imus, the place of honour (locus summus) was on the left side, on which was the support of the couch, and consequently the most convenient seat. The place appointed for the chief person of the company, the locus consularis, was, however, on the lectus medius, and not on the left, but on the right and unsupported side, next that of the host, who took the first place of the lectus imus. For the tables of costly citrus-wood with round tops, and similar tables, which were introduced towards the end of the Republic, a peculiar crescent-sbaped couch was used. This was called sigma from its shape C, one of the forms of the Greek letter bearing that name. It was also called stibadium, and as a rule was suitable only for five persons. On the sigma the places of honour were the corner-seats, the first place being that on the "right wing" (in dextro cornu), the second that on the left (in sinistro cornu); the remaining seats were named from this onward, so that the last was on the left side of the first. The dining-room itself was also called triclinium, even when it contained several dining-tables. Romans of distinction in later times had several such rooms for different times of the year; in the winter they dined in the interior of the house by lamp-light, in summer in an arbour attached to the house or in the upper story. |
