Banqueting Values in the Associations: Rhetoric and Reality

Abstract

When it comes to assessing what was acceptable conduct at banquets in the Greco-Roman world, the ideal elite perspective seems to have emphasized the need for equal treatment, friendly relations, and pleasant interactions among guests.¹ Yet, as Michael Peachin, Willi Braun, and others point out, in reality, there was some leeway or deliberate play on such convivial conventions that ultimately allowed for what we might call mildly transgressive behavior (in the eyes of the participants) in relation to the ideal.² Thus, it may have been a common feature at some commensal gatherings for persons to engage in verbal, jocular, or other forms of abuse in relation to the guests for entertainment and other purposes. Suetonius, for instance, relates how Claudius often dozed off at banquets and (before he was princeps, at least) would be rudely awoken by being pelted by olives. On one occasion, other guests put shoes on Claudius’s hands so that when he awoke from a nap he would be rubbing his eyes with his feet, so to speak (Suetonius, Claud. 8). In a similar vein, several regulations of associations suggest a concern among such groups to set limits on appropriate relations within the banqueting context and to establish rules to prevent jocular or other activities escalating to the point of brawls.