Although most portions of the Colloquia contain coherent narratives or dialogues, some consist of collections of phrases, like a modern phrasebook. These phrasebook sections are probably the original format for the Eastern half of the Colloquia; most of them were gradually turned into coherent vignettes because coherent text is easier to memorise than disconnected phrases, but a few remain. Sometimes we can even find a scene in transition, one that has been partially converted to a coherent dialogue but still retains some disconnected phrases.

The portions of the Colloquia that remain as disconnected phrases are, interestingly, overwhelmingly concerned with unpleasant situations; perhaps ancient teachers were less keen to produce coherent scenes involving such situations than to describe more positive interactions.

Preface To The Phrasebook

The main surviving phrasebook is preceded by a short preface (Colloquium Harleianum 11a–b), which separates it from the school scenes that precede and alerts the reader not to try to make coherent sense out of the disconnected phrases.

A Selection Of Excuses

This passage (Colloquium Harleianum 15e–g) shows a phrasebook section in the process of transition to a coherent scene. Its main feature is a list of excuses for not doing something immediately; some of these excuses look a bit feeble today, but they were probably more convincing in antiquity. The list of excuses is preceded by a short dialogue introducing the type of situation in which one might want to use them. This dialogue may not be an original feature of the passage, as not every section of the phrasebook has one. It would have been easier to memorise than the list of excuses that followed, and therefore successive users of this book would have been tempted to extend the dialogue at the expense of the list; that type of expansion and contraction probably explains the creation of many of the coherent scenes in the Eastern portions of the Colloquia.

The Colloquia end with the end of the day: the main character returns home, if he has been out for the evening, and orders the slaves to prepare the house for the night.

The Aftermath Of An Orgy

Romans who had gone out to dinner did not always return in good condition. This passage (Colloquium Celtis 66a–68b) describes the heated reception that someone at home (probably a wife, but perhaps a male friend or relative) gives to a man very much the worse for wear. The public shame and humiliation attached to the man's behaviour are ruthlessly pointed out; unfortunately for the modern reader, who might like to know what type of drunken antics would lead to this kind of censure, we are not told exactly what the behaviour was. The drunk, who is not feeling well, does not even try to defend himself.

It is uncertain whether this passage is intended as a moral example, a warning to readers about what would happen if they overindulged, or whether the writer simply offered it as a useful set of expressions that one might need in such a situation.

Rebuking The Servants

Drunken husbands were not the only people who might need to be chastised in the evening. If the slaves had done poorly during the day, a careful master would be sure to point this out before going to bed.

A scene from a Pompeiian wall painting, commonly reproduced in works on ancient education, is usually thought to represent an outdoor school, with three pupils reading on the left and a fourth being whipped on the right (e.g. Bonner 1977: 117–18). Recently, however, it has been suggested that this identification is incorrect and that the person being whipped is an adult slave, not a schoolboy (Selinger 2001: 350–4); because of these doubts I have not included the image in chapter 2.

There are two points in favour of the new interpretation. First, the person being whipped does not look like a child: he has the size and proportions of an adult. Of course some boys continued to study once they were the size of an adult, but these advanced students were not whipped freely like younger pupils: Quintilian, whose writings are roughly contemporary with this painting, takes for granted that teachers could beat only little boys and would have to stop when the children grew bigger (Institutio Oratoria 1.3.15; cf. Cribiore 1996: 24). Second, school punishments were private chastisements designed to help boys of good family turn into respected citizens, not public humiliations that would continue to embarrass them in adulthood: the mortification entailed by stripping someone almost completely naked and beating him severely in the forum is out of keeping with the way the dignity of Roman citizens was normally protected (Selinger 2001: 351–2).

The fact that the whipping takes place next to people who are apparently reading does not, in itself, show that the two activities are connected, for the painting in question was not originally a selfstanding picture but part of a long frieze showing activities in a forum. This frieze decorated the atrium of the estate of Julia Felix at Pompeii; seventeen other fragments of it can be identified today (see Olivito 2013). The forum frieze is strikingly different from most Pompeiian wall painting, not only because of its non-mythological subject matter but also because of its ‘popular’ style, i.e. rough, impressionistic painting, unnatural proportions, and distinctive colour scheme (Ling 1991: 163–5; Maiuri 1953: 139–48). It immediately attracted the attention of the early excavators, with the result that in 1755 most of the frieze was removed from the wall and cut into pieces, not all of which have survived.

What did Roman children do first when they arrived at school in the morning? What did they bring with them? What excuse for missing school could be counted on to stave off a whipping from the teacher? What did a Roman banker do when someone came to borrow money? What did a grateful client say to his lawyer after winning a lawsuit? What did a Roman say if he needed to use the toilet? What had to be done before going to bed in a Roman household? These are not the types of questions for which the answers can be easily found in mainstream ancient literature, for Latin literature generally had its mind on higher things.

In the modern world, this kind of information about foreign cultures is often conveyed by language textbooks. A French textbook provides vignettes involving French people engaged in everyday activities in France, while a German textbook depicts German people in typical situations in Germany. Both alert foreign learners to cultural differences that may arouse interest, or that may cause foreigners difficulty if they are not forewarned. The same was true in antiquity, when Latin textbooks used little dialogues and narratives about Roman people engaged in everyday Roman activities both to teach useful Latin expressions and to inform Greek-speaking readers about Roman culture.

These dialogues and narratives, known as ‘Colloquia’, are the focus of this book: descriptions of the Roman world composed by people who knew it first-hand in order to help foreigners understand it. The Roman world was of course a large and varied one, both in time and in space, and the Colloquia range across it rather than focussing on a single period, since they were not written all at once by a single individual. Instead, they are a set of works adapted and expanded by teachers working at different times and places. Their oldest portions, the school scenes, go back at least to the first century ad and probably well into the Republic. The original version of these scenes was composed in a Latin-speaking area, probably Rome itself, to help Roman children learn Greek; it may have been used by Republican figures such as Julius Caesar, Cicero, or even earlier Romans when they were at school. The versions we have, however, are imperial-period adaptations and reworkings of that original.

Having guests to dinner was an important part of Roman social life and is described in detail in several of the Colloquia. Dining is also extensively depicted in mainstream literature (e.g. Petronius), so to a certain extent the Colloquia are less important here than in other areas. Nevertheless they offer important insights by considering dinner parties from angles not normally seen elsewhere, such as the preparation involved in giving a party. The Colloquia also remind us that not every Roman dinner was a party; sometimes a Roman came home by himself, ate a simple meal, and went to bed.

Further Reading

For further information on Roman dining see Dunbabin (2003, an excellent collection and discussion of ancient depictions of dinners), Grocock and Grainger (2006, an accessible translation of the Roman cookbook bearing the name of Apicius), Salza Prina Ricotti (1995, a collection of Roman recipes adapted for modern use), Thurmond (2006, an interesting explanation of Roman food production and preservation processes), Dalby (2003, providing brief explanations of nearly all Roman foods and drinks), Cool (2006, a comprehensive study of food and drink in Roman Britain, based primarily on archaeological evidence), Roller (2006, an examination of the convention of reclining for meals), and Slater (1991, a collection of studies of various aspects of dining culture in both Greece and Rome).

Preparations For A Big Dinner

Roman hosts made an effort to provide food that was not only tasty but also interesting and varied, served in a pleasant environment; by modern standards some ancient dinner parties went over the top in pursuing these aims. An elaborate dinner required extensive preparation, and although the actual work of preparation would be done by slaves, a good host took an active part in directing it.

The passage below (Colloquium Celtis 47a–54b) is slightly garbled as a result of conflation of what must originally have been several different dinner preparation scenes. Nevertheless one can see the general outlines of the process clearly. The dining room has to be got ready by cleaning it, making a fire to warm it, setting up couches for diners to recline on and covering them with cloths and cushions, laying out the tableware and candlesticks, and spreading flowers.