Roman Dinner
Feb. 19th, 2008 02:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenFor the Runnymede Dinner at Pennsic, we're talking about doing a Roman dinner. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gwynt_y_storm mentioned chair (curule sella )and couch (lectus)-making by a friend, so I asked after photos of some, which she kindly provided. After looking those over I did a bit further searching, and found some info on triclinium. Basically, three couches around three sides of an open area where the table would go. Each couch can hold up to three people, reclining to dine.
Photo of one type of triclinium.
Diagram and more info on how to eat in a triclinium
Wikipedia entry on Triclinium and dining
Realistically, setting up couches at a camp site, assuming we had that much open space, would be difficult, and also I can't really see asking ~30 people to recline on their left sides for hours while dining. I doubt anyone is accustomed to this, plus I don't think that's terribly good for one's shoulder (even if it would be my own left, not right...).
But I do like the idea of setting up benches/settees (sort of like the roman couches), in horseshoes around the main area. Possibly elongated horseshoes (longer on the middle section, short on the sides). I have to ask Eleanore, but I'm thinking that if the tops of the camp tables are separate from the legs, we could build shorter bases/legs for them and use the tops as part of the dinner setup.
The benches we'd still have to construct, and I don't know about the time and $$ for that -- plus I want to be able to take the legs off for transport. And maybe skip the arm supports on the ends... the cushions are easy. The early ones were stuffed with straw, so I figure I can make some long pillowcases and buy a few bales when we get down to PA. Fabric I have...
Who knows? If it's a comfortable enough setup, people might not want to take it down after the dinner ;)
gwynt_y_storm mentioned chair (curule sella )and couch (lectus)-making by a friend, so I asked after photos of some, which she kindly provided. After looking those over I did a bit further searching, and found some info on triclinium. Basically, three couches around three sides of an open area where the table would go. Each couch can hold up to three people, reclining to dine.Photo of one type of triclinium.
Diagram and more info on how to eat in a triclinium
Wikipedia entry on Triclinium and dining
Realistically, setting up couches at a camp site, assuming we had that much open space, would be difficult, and also I can't really see asking ~30 people to recline on their left sides for hours while dining. I doubt anyone is accustomed to this, plus I don't think that's terribly good for one's shoulder (even if it would be my own left, not right...).
But I do like the idea of setting up benches/settees (sort of like the roman couches), in horseshoes around the main area. Possibly elongated horseshoes (longer on the middle section, short on the sides). I have to ask Eleanore, but I'm thinking that if the tops of the camp tables are separate from the legs, we could build shorter bases/legs for them and use the tops as part of the dinner setup.
The benches we'd still have to construct, and I don't know about the time and $$ for that -- plus I want to be able to take the legs off for transport. And maybe skip the arm supports on the ends... the cushions are easy. The early ones were stuffed with straw, so I figure I can make some long pillowcases and buy a few bales when we get down to PA. Fabric I have...
Who knows? If it's a comfortable enough setup, people might not want to take it down after the dinner ;)
