In the dado, beneath the figures just described, are large square stalls or recesses. In the centre one is an elegant figure of a girl holding a lyre, she seems to be sitting on the sill or edge of the opening. This figure is engraved in the Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 12., and in Raoul Rochette, Choix de Peintures, pl. 4; Zahn, vol. ii., pl. 77. Gell gives it in his second series of Pompeiana, vol. i., pl. 14, but surrounded by different groups to the original, although all are to be found within the same building. The group beyond forms a graceful heading to the view from the atrium looking through the right hand fauces, [No. 11]. It consists of two figures, a Victory with expanded wings holding an incense-burner in her right hand, and a patera in the left. She is crowned with laurel, the leaves of which stand like rays about the head. Behind and above her appears a goddess with a sceptre and tiara, either Venus or Juno, more probably the former; she is in the act of putting some incense into the burner held by the other figure. The patera with offerings like purple fruit on it, has been converted by Gell and Zahn into a painter’s palette and brushes; in the Mus. Bor. the Victory wears sandals; but in Zahn and Gell more correctly only ankle rings. The play of line in this group is very pleasing. This group is taken from the portico of the same building as the other figures, viz., the House of the Augustals, commonly called the Pantheon. The ground of the original is black, here it is rich red. Engraved in Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 19; Gell, vol. i., vignette heading to preface; Zahn, vol. i., pl. 2.
24. Culina. The apartment forming an angle of the peristyle was the kitchen, which is copied from the House of Sallust, excepting that the stove in this has only one arch instead of two. The painting of an altar, with eggs between two serpents, is of frequent occurrence. Serpents were cherished in ancient dwellings as creatures of good omen, and became domesticated, as quadrupeds are with us. A similar painting of serpents engraved in Pittore Ercolano, vol. iv., p. 65.
25. Side entrance into the street, immediately facing the bath.
26. Triclinium, opposite the Œcus. Large panels, blue, black, and yellow. Black dado, ceiling white, corresponding to that of the œcus opposite. The walls are also decorated in the same manner, with the exception of a frieze of boys carrying large garlands composed of fruits and flowers entwined with a pink and green ribband. The small central picture on a blue ground, represents a dish of fruit—grapes, pomegranates, green fig, dates, apricots, apple, and fircone.
The triclinium was the dining-room of an ancient Roman house. The guests did not sit at table, they reclined on couches arranged round three sides of a space for the table, leaving the rest open for the servants to arrange the dishes and move the trays. The word triclinium is derived from the three couches occupying the apartment which surrounded the mensa or table in the manner just described. Much importance was attached, in ancient times, to the disposal of the guests. The right hand couch was the most honourable; the person reclining upon it, with his left elbow nearest the railing, was the chief person in the assembly. The Romans were accustomed to rest with the left arm upon cushions during their meals, and after dinner to lie upon their backs and take their repose. In some Pompeian houses, the three couches forming the triclinium, were permanently fixed. The accompanying woodcut shows the arrangement of the places for a party of nine, the favourite number for a dinner among the Romans.
The guests, preparatory to reclining on the couches, took off their shoes, and were then provided with napkins, generally fringed, and often richly embroidered. Water was poured over their hands into basins of precious metal, a process repeated many times during an entertainment, and doubtless very necessary, as the fingers were much used in the course of eating. They had knives and spoons, but forks are entirely a modern invention and their mode of eating was very similar to that practised in oriental countries, where the right hand alone is made use of. Women, when admitted to the entertainment, always sat upon the couches. The same custom may be observed on the painted vases and bas-reliefs of the Greeks down to a late time.
The dinner consisted of three courses; first, the promulsis, or gustatio, chiefly stimulants to the appetite; the second contained an immense variety of dishes; the principal dish was called cœnæ caput or pompa. Among them chief delicacies were the pheasant, thrush, liver of a capon steeped in milk, and fig-eaters dressed with pepper. Hortensius the orator first introduced the peacock. The favourite fish were the turbot and mullet: eels, also, stewed with prawns. Pork, boar’s-flesh, and venison, were the most highly esteemed meats. The carving was performed to the sound of music, by an especial servant called the scissor, or carptor. The third course was the bellaria, or dessert, which consisted of uncooked fruits, such as occupy the centre of the wall before us. In addition to the fruits of the dessert great varieties of pastry were introduced, modelled in imitation of other articles of food; showers of perfume and occasional jets d’eau contributed to the luxury of the scene, but these were extravagancies, probably confined to the most wealthy citizens of Rome. The pages of Horace, Juvenal, Petronius, Martial, Athenæus, Suetonius, Aulus Gellius, and Macrobius, afford curious detail of these entertainments, from which we may easily comprehend the enormous sums they are said to have cost. An extraordinary feast is represented, in a painting, at Pompeii, described by Mr. Donaldson. The table is set out with every requisite for a grand dinner. In the centre is a large dish containing four peacocks, their tails forming a magnificent dome. Around are lobsters, one of which holds in his claws a blue egg, a second an oyster, and another a little basket full of grasshoppers. Four dishes of fish decorate the bottom, above which are several partridges, hares, and squirrels, each holding its head between its paws. These are surrounded by something resembling a German sausage, then a row of yolks of eggs, then a row of peaches, small melons and cherries; lastly, a row of different vegetables, and the whole seems to be covered by a green coloured sauce.
Mulsum, wine made into a syrup by the addition of honey, was handed round to the guests at the commencement of the feast. Wine was kept in large earthenware jars, called Amphoræ, stopped with a cork or wooden plug, covered with resin, or gypsum. These amphoræ were sometimes made of glass. On the outside, the jars were marked with the names of the consuls in office at the time of the vintage from which the wine was made, to indicate its age. Sometimes little tickets to this effect were suspended from the necks. They generally had two ears, and were stored up in repositories such as were found in the suburban villa ([p. 19]). It was customary at great feasts according to Petronius (chap. xxxiv.) for the amphoræ to be shown to the guests for them to read the labels before they were opened. Many of these vessels are represented in the paintings of Pompeii, and several originals from Rome and Alexandria are to be seen in the British Museum. Some of the glass cups and bowls filled with water are admirably represented. In one picture a decanter with the glass for drinking turned down over it, is in exact accordance with our modern custom. Elegant glass vases filled with fruit occur also among the paintings of the House of the Augustals, together with small earthen jars, having labels affixed.
In great houses it was not unusual for the guests after dinner to enjoy their wine in another room. After-dinner drinking, comissatio, or convivium, was equivalent to the symposium of the Greeks.