XXXI.
THE DINING-ROOM.
The cœnaculum (dining-room), properly so called, was the place in the upper part of the house where they eat.[XXXI_1] It was reached by a staircase,[XXXI_2] and thither persons repaired during the summer, particularly in the country. The Roman villas terminated by a platform, on which the Romans often collected at meal-time; the air was not so hot, and the panorama of the neighbouring country-seats was presented without obstruction, to the gaze of the guests.[XXXI_3]
The dining-room was commonly decorated with fasces of arms and trophies,[XXXI_4] which served as a momento of the warlike virtues of the ancestors of the master of the house. Enchanting frescoes stood out marvellously from the obscure shading of the wall, round which were twined fresh garlands of flowers; and a mosaic floor—master-piece of art and patience—harmonised with the fascinating landscape of the ceiling, the site of which varied with every course.[XXXI_5]
The Emperor Nero, who carried this taste for the beautiful rather too far, devised a sort of vault, in the most elegant style, and entirely composed of movable leaves of ivory, which exhaled sweet
DESCRIPTION OF [PLATE No. XXV.]
No. 1. Large vase, or cratère; a vessel which was placed in the banqueting-room, and also on the empty space left on the tables. In it was put wine and water, which was taken out with a simpulum, a kind of small cup, fixed to a very long handle, bent at the extremity as a hook, to fill the cups of the guests. When the cratères were not fixed on tripods (engytheca, or angotheca), which supported them, they only differed from the cups by their size. Some were of such dimensions that Herodotus speaks of two cratères, one containing 300 amphoræ, and the other 600; there vases commonly exceeded ten-fold the size of the cups, to which they were very similar in shape and handles.
No. 2. A glass vase, with two handles, for iced water.