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TRICLINIUM

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 267 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TRICLINIUM , in See also:

Roman antiquities, a set of three couches (lecti) arranged See also:round a four-sided dining table, one See also:side of which was See also:left open to provide See also:free See also:access for the attendant slaves. These couches were distinguished as the highest (A, lectus summus), the See also:middle (B, lectus medius) and the lowest (C, lectus imus); the guests who reclined on B had A on their left and See also:Con their right. Each See also:couch was usually occupied by three persons, whose left See also:arm rested on a See also:cushion, the right See also:hand being thus disengaged for purposes of eating. The nine places were allotted in accordance with strict See also:etiquette. A and B were reserved for the guests (B for the most distinguished), C for the See also:host and his See also:family. In A and C the See also:chief See also:place was 1; in B it was 3- which 3 2 1 imus 3 medius 2 summus 1 was consequently the place of See also:honour at the banquet. It was called See also:locus consularis (fnrarucbc), probably as being next to the host. Another explanation is that, since it was on the open and unsupported side of the couch, it was chosen in See also:order that, if a See also:consul happened to be See also:present among the guests, he might be able to receive communications, sign documents or transact business with the least inconvenience. It the locus classicus in See also:Horace (Satires, ii. 8, 20-23), which describes the banquet given by Nasidienus in honour of See also:Maecenas, the host appears I summus 2 medius 3 imus B C A to have resigned his place to Nomentanus, as being more capable of entertaining the See also:guest of the evening. In later republican times, after the introduction of round tables of citrus See also:wood, the three couches were replaced by one of See also:crescent shape (called sigma from the See also:form C of the See also:Greek See also:letter; also stibadium and accubitum), which as a See also:rule was only intended to hold five persons. The two corner seats (cornua) were the places of honour, that on the right being considered See also:superior.

The remaining seats were reckoned from left to right, so that the least important seat was on the left side of the most important. The use of the sigma continued till the middle ages. The dining-See also:

room itself was also called triclinium, and in the houses of wealthy See also:Romans there were several triclinia suited to the different seasons of the See also:year. See See also:Marquardt, Das Privatleben der Romer (1886), p. 302.

End of Article: TRICLINIUM

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TRICOUPIS (or TRICOuPI), CHARILAOS (1832—1896)

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