I'm a Getty docent. This is my own photo of one of my favorite wall painting fragments from our galleries at the Getty Villa in Malibu. It's a Roman woman in her stola, most likely made of linen or wool, having her morning cuppa on the balcony. It's a scene that could be taken from our own lives today.
We've recently launched culinary tours at the Villa as the finale to a new food event, Tea by the Sea. Visitors can make reservations for a special tea service on Thursdays or Saturdays in the Founder's Room featuring foods that have been inspired by the Mediterranean world. Mind you, our idea of tea is a bit different than the Romans. I enjoy my organic green tea, but to them tea was some herbs seeped and left in hot water.
The Roman world was a sensuous place for the wealthy, in this case not in the hedonistic interpretation of the word, but in the way that patricians ensured that every sense was indulged for their dinner guests. Dining room floors would have fragrant herbs and flowers scattered on the surface so that scent was released every time a sandal crushed the plants. Rooms might also have bowls of fresh flowers and guests would be presented with wreaths of flowers and herbs to wear on their heads. Guests were also sometimes anointed with fragrant oils. Musicians might be playing in the room for dinner guests, and the sounds of fountains and wind chimes could be heard in the background. Upholstery textiles were luxurious, and rooms that guests were admitted to had elaborate decorative programs with the best of materials.
Romans absorbed the Greek custom of reclining while dining. In their minds, only barbarians ate in a seated position at home. The Roman dining room, the triclinium, held three long couches in a U-shaped arrangement, with three people on each couch. There were some accounts of nouveau riche families commissioning couches that accommodated six, so one would have either nine or eighteen for dinner. The guest of honor would be guided to the left rear corner of the center couch, and whatever was in their line of sight would have been the things that the host considered some of the most important decorations and landscaping of the home. Offering guests a beautiful view was the mark of an educated, sophisticated host.
Plutarch wrote, "why do we add aromatics to wine? Why spread the floor with aromatic foliage, bugloss, verbana, maindenhair fern? Why do we spray theaters with saffron?" The rhetorical answer by scholar Andrew Dalby(1) was to give a pleasurable feeling and enthusiasm to guests. People reclined on their left sides and would eat finger foods placed before them on small tables with their right hands. The only utensils at the time were knives; the best plates, drinking vessels, and serving dishes were made of precious metals and sometimes glass, a luxury item for Romans. Once the guest was done with his course, the remains would be tossed on the dining room floor for slaves to sweep up later.
Displays of wealth became important to Romans, arising with the expansion of empire. The old line Roman families descended from Etruscan origins were somewhat akin to New England Yankees. They were very proud of their ancestors, as well as the qualities of practicality, propriety, and thrift. Martial described his solo meal as being "ten olives, although I only need five, thick dregs of red Veientan [a wine], and hot chickpea soup"(2). Horace wrote about a meal for one of beans, cabbage, and bacon (3). Porridge was the simple economical meal, and Roman state welfare was the bread dole - half of the origin of the term "bread and circuses" - that consisted of ground wheat that would be used to make porridge. For the poor, the donated wheat might make the only meal of the day.
Roman food choices might seem puzzling or downright unappetizing to modern taste buds. When meals were meant to impress, Horace noted menus as offering ab ovo usque ad mala - from the hard boiled egg to the apples (4). Macrobius wrote of the menu at a banquet that Julius Ceasar hosted on the promotion of one of his officers: "for hors d'oeuves sea urchins, as many raw oysters as they wanted, palourdes, mussels, thrushes under a thatch of asparagus, a fattened chicken, a patina of oysters and palourdes, black piddocks. Then more mussels, clams, sea anemones, blackcaps, loin of roe deer and wild boar, fowls force fed on wheat meal. Murex trunculus and murex brandaris. The dinner was udder, the split head of a wild boar, patina of fish, patina of udder, ducks, roast teal, hares, roast fowl, frumenty and Picentine loaves"(5). The wealthy could also buy snow imported from a mountain region, insulated in straw during transit, and serve it up as a luxury dessert.
Add wine to the meals. As Americans appreciate French wines, the Romans most valued wines imported from Greece. After the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, a prime wine growing region was wiped out. Letters were written bemoaning the bad wine being bought in place of former favorites. There were also letters grousing about being invited to dinner for the purpose of making up numbers only to find that the guests of honor had been served the best wine, while the writer had been served lesser food and drink.
Examples of the Roman silversmiths work in luxurious tableware can be seen in the Hall of Colored Marbles on the ground floor of the Villa, as well as the recreation of a triclinium located between the Inner and Outer Peristyle Gardens. Tea by the Sea is not nearly as elaborate as Ceasar's banquet, but there are some wonderful treats to be savored. $36 per person; reservations can be made online at http//www.getty.edu or at (310) 440-7300.
(1,2,3,4,5) Dalby, Andrew. Empire of Pleasures: Luxury and Indulgence in the Roman World. New York: Routledge. 2002.
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