Why Did Romans Serve Different Food to Different Guests at the Same Table?

Same room, same dinner, but the host gets the best wine and you get the cheap stuff. Why did Romans serve different food to different guests at the same table? Pliny the Younger once attended a dinner where the wine came in three grades: the best for the host and his friends, a second grade for lesser guests, and the cheapest for the freedmen. Everyone could see exactly where they stood. In this video we explain why this was normal in Rome: the seating plan of the triclinium, the patron and client system that made people accept humiliation for a dinner invitation, and the satire of Martial, Juvenal and Petronius. Then we look at what was actually on the menu, from fattened dormice to the street food of people who had no kitchen, and we finally put the vomitorium myth to rest. In this video: Pliny's story of the three grades of wine and his own house rule How the triclinium couches ranked every guest Patrons, clients, the morning salutation and the sportula handout Juvenal's humiliated client and Trimalchio's outrageous feast Sumptuary laws, dormice, Lucullus and Domitian's black dinner What a vomitorium really was Sources in this video: Pliny the Younger, Letters; Martial, Epigrams; Juvenal, Satire 5; Petronius, Satyricon; Tacitus; Seneca; Cicero; Plutarch; Varro; Aulus Gellius; Pliny the Elder; dining rooms excavated at Pompeii and Herculaneum Chapters: 0:00 Intro: The Movie Banquet vs the Real One 0:35 Three Grades of Wine at One Table 1:30 Why Accept the Invitation? 2:22 Pliny's Own Rule 3:32 Rome Graded Everything 4:17 The Triclinium 6:03 Who Sat Where 8:07 Patrons, Clients and the Sportula 10:21 Martial, Juvenal and the Humiliated Guest 13:49 Trimalchio's Feast 16:15 Laws Against Luxury 17:02 Dormice, Pork and the Kitchen 19:37 Lucullus and the Famous Feasts 22:15 How Ordinary Romans Ate 25:43 The Vomitorium Myth 29:17 We Still Rank People at the Table Where would you have been placed at a Roman dinner: the host's couch, the middle, or the bottom with the cheap wine? Tell us in the comments. If you enjoyed this look at real life in ancient Rome, please like the video, subscribe for more, and share it with someone who loves history. #RomanBanquet #RomanDinnerParty #RomanFood #Triclinium #Trimalchio #Juvenal #AncientRome #RomanHistory