Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

308 COENA. COENA.
ivory or tortoiseshell, and covered vwith cloth'of Roman ladies continued the practice of sitting
gold. Next they laid down to eat'(FHor. Sat. at table, -even after the recumbent position had
i. 4. 39), the head resting on the left elbow -and become common with rtle other sex. (Varnro, up.
supported by cushions. (Mart. iii. 8.) There isid. Orig. xx. 11;'Via.'fax. ii. 1. ~ 3.) It apwere usnually, but not always, three on the same pears to have been'considered more decent, and
couch (Hor. Sat. i. 4. 86), the middle place being more agreeable to theseverity: and purity of ancient
esteemed the most honourable. Around the tables manners,'for women to sit, more especially if many
stood the servants (ministri) clothed in a tunic persons were present.:But, on -the other hand, we
(Hor. Sat. ii. 6. 107), and girt with napkins (Suet. find cases of women reclining, where there was
Cal. 21,): some removed the dishes and wiped the conceived to be nothing bold or indelicate in their
tables with a rough cloth (gausape, Hor. Sat. ii. posture. In some of the bas-reliefs, representing
8. 11), others gave the guests water for their the visit of Bacchus to Icar us, Erigone, instead of
hands, or cooled the room with'fans. (Mart. iii. sitting on the couch,ireclil es upon it in the bosom
82.) Here stood an Eastern'youth (Juv. Sat. v. of her father.'In 3Juvenal (Sat. ii. 12'0) a bride
55) behind his master's couch,'ready to answer reclines at the nmarriage supper on the bosom of
the noise of the fingers (digiti crepitus, Mart. vi. her husband; which is illustrated by the following
89), while others bore a large platter (mnazonom7um) woodcut, taken from Montfaucon (Ant. Exp. SuppI.
of different kinds of meat to the guests. (Hor. Sat. iii. 66).
ii. 8. 86.)
Whatever changes of fashion had taken place
since primitive times, the coena in'Cicero's day
(cd Att. ix. 7) was at all events an evening meal.: i
It was usual to bathe about two o'Clock aild dine. /,'
at three, hours which seem to have been observed,
at Jeast:by the higher classes, long after the Au-
gustan age. (Mart. iv. 8.'6, xi. 53. 3';'Cic. ad
Fam. ix. 26; Plin. Ep. iii. 1.)'When Juvenal
mentions two o'clock as a dinner'hour, he evidently means a censure on the luxury of the person
named (Sat. i. 49, 50),
"Exul ab octava Marius'bibit."
In the banquet of Nasidienus, about the same hour
is intended when Horace says to Fundanius,
" Nam mihi quaerenti convivam dictus here illic
De medio potare die." It seems intended to represerit'a scene'of perfect
matrimonial felicity. The husband and wife reHorace and Maecenas used'to dine at a late dine on a sofa of'rich materials. A three-legged
hour about sunset. ('Hor. Sat. ii. 7. 33, Ep. i. table is spread with viands before them.'Their
5, 3.) Perhaps the various statements of classical two sons are in front of the sofa, one'of'them sitauthors upon this subject can only be reconciled by ting, in the manner above -described, on:a low
supposing that with the Romans, as with ourselves, stool, and playing with the dog. Several females
there was a great variety of hours in the different and a boy are performing a piece of music for the
ranks of society. entertainment of the married pair.
Dinner was set out in a room called coenaio or It has been already remarked that, before lying
diaeta (which two words perhaps conveyed to a down, the shoes or sandals were taken off. In all
Roman ear.nearly the same distinction as our the ancient paintings and bas-reliefs illustrative of
dining-room and paflour). The coenctio, in rich this subject, we see the guests reclining wit'h naked
men's houses, was fitted up with great magnificence. feet; and in those of them which'contain the
(Sen. h4p.'90.) Suetonius (Nero, 31) mentions a
supper-room'in the golden palace of Nero, constructed like a theatre, with shifting scenes to I 9 V 9 9J l
change with every course. In the midst of the
coenatio were set three couches (triclinia), answering in shape to the square, as the long semicircular' " -=
couches (sigmata) did to the oval tables. An' G -
account' f'the disposition of the couches, and of --
the place which each guest occupied, is given in
the {article TRICLeNlIJ..
T'he Greeks and Roma.ns were accustomed, in!,
later times, to recline ait their meals; though this' | ( C
practice could not have been of great antiquity in
Greece, since Homer never describes persons as
reclining, but alwaays as sitting, at their meals.
Isidore of Seville (Orig. xx. 11) also attributes
the same practice to the ancient Romans. Even
in the time tof the early Roman emperors, children
in families of the highest rank used to sit togeth':r
at an inferior table, while their fathers and elders;e.clied oin couches at the'upper part of the room. )
Tacit. Ann. xiii 16; Suet. Aug. 65, Claud. 32.)