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A triclinium (plural: triclinia) is a formal dining room in a Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 building. The word is adopted from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 t?????????, triklinion, from t??-, tri- and ?????, kline, a couch
Couch

A couch is an upholstery item of furniture for the comfortable seating of more than one person and typically has an armrest on either side. Couches are usually to be found in the family room, living room, den or the lounge room....
. It was characterized by three couches, the klinai
Klinai

Klinai were the couches used by the Ancient Romans in their Convivia. Three Klinai were arranged in a 'U' shape, which together with the adjoining 'T' formed the Triclinium, which was where the dinner guests reclined during the meal....
, on three sides of a low square table, those surfaces sloped away from the table at about 10 degrees. Diners would recline on these surfaces in a semi-recumbent position.






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A triclinium (plural: triclinia) is a formal dining room in a Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 building. The word is adopted from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 t?????????, triklinion, from t??-, tri- and ?????, kline, a couch
Couch

A couch is an upholstery item of furniture for the comfortable seating of more than one person and typically has an armrest on either side. Couches are usually to be found in the family room, living room, den or the lounge room....
. It was characterized by three couches, the klinai
Klinai

Klinai were the couches used by the Ancient Romans in their Convivia. Three Klinai were arranged in a 'U' shape, which together with the adjoining 'T' formed the Triclinium, which was where the dinner guests reclined during the meal....
, on three sides of a low square table, those surfaces sloped away from the table at about 10 degrees. Diners would recline on these surfaces in a semi-recumbent position. The fourth side of the table was left free, presumably to allow service to the table. In Roman Era dwellings, particularly wealthy ones, triclinia were common. Used to entertain company, the hosts and guest would recline on pillows while feast
EAT

EAT or eat may refer to:* Eating, the process of consuming food, for the purpose of providing for the nutritional needs of an animal* EAT., a UK sandwich shop chain...
ing on the flesh of lesser beasts and other refreshments. For an example of an accurately reconstructed triclinium, visit the Museum of Archeology in Arezzo, Italy, or the House of Caro in Pompeii
Pompeii

Pompeii is a ruined and partially buried Ancient Rome town-city near modern Naples in the Italy region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei....
.

Dining was the defining ritual in Roman domestic life, lasting from late afternoon through late at night. Typically, 9-20 guests were invited, arranged in a prescribed seating order to emphasize divisions in status and relative closeness to the dominus. As static, privileged space, dining rooms received extremely elaborate decoration, with complex perspective scenes and central paintings (or, here, mosaics). Dionysus, Venus, and still lifes of food were popular, for obvious reasons. Middle class and elite Roman houses usually had at least two triclinia; it's not unusual to find four or more. Here, the triclinium maius (big dining room) would be used for larger dinner parties, which would typically include many clients of the owner.

Smaller triclinia would be used for smaller dinner parties, with a more exclusive set of guests. Hence their decoration was often at least as elaborate as that found in larger triclinia. As in the larger triclinia, wine, food, and love were always popular themes. However, because of their association with patronage and because dining entertainment often including recitation of high-brow literature like epic, dining rooms could also feature more "serious" themes, as in this instance the wounding of Aeneas from the Aeneid. As in many houses in Pompeii
Pompeii

Pompeii is a ruined and partially buried Ancient Rome town-city near modern Naples in the Italy region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei....
, here the smaller dining room (triclinium minus) forms a suite with the adjoining cubiculum and bath. The triclinium, or dining room, took its name from the three couches called klinai
Klinai

Klinai were the couches used by the Ancient Romans in their Convivia. Three Klinai were arranged in a 'U' shape, which together with the adjoining 'T' formed the Triclinium, which was where the dinner guests reclined during the meal....
, on which family members and their guests lounged to take their meals. Each couch was wide enough to accommodate three diners who reclined on their left side on cushions while some household slaves served multiple courses rushed out of the culina, or kitchen and others entertained guests with music, song or dance.

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See also

  • Accubita
    Accubita

    Of Ancient Roman furniture, accubita was the name of couches used in the time of the Roman emperors, instead of the triclinium, for reclining upon at meals....


  • Stibadium
    Stibadium

    The stibadium is a later form of the Roman Triclinium. Different because of its slightly more semi-circular shape. Often in movies about Ancient Roman Convivia, they actually feature a stibadium rather than a triclinium....