The Roman banquet developed from a fusion of Etruscan, Greek and Eastern influences. However they took these influences, modified elements and incorporated their own existing institutions to reflect their own tastes and social requirements.

Commensality in the Roman world differed from that of the Greeks in that food and drink were not separate components but instead were enjoyed together in the company of both men and women. Not only did both sexes attend but there was also a wider social spectrum of participants. This did not mean that the Roman banquets displayed a greater degree of equality. The patron client relationship of Roman society was an integral part even when relaxing and enjoying food and drink. One could successfully utilise the banquet as an opportunity to climb the social ladder in Rome. Pomponius Flaccus and Lucius Piso achieved this after they spent "a whole night and two days together in feasting and drinking" with Tiberius who thereafter awarded them high office as they were "the most pleasant companions" (Suetonius: Tiberius: 42)

Roman banquets were renowned for their vulgarity and ostentation even at the time.
Petronius embellishes his description of Trimalchio's banquet with an account of the excesses he provides for his guests.

"A figure of Priapus, fashioned by the chef, occupied the centre, and in his expansive paunch he held fruit of every kind, and grapes in the conventional mode. With some eagerness we stretched out our hands towards this display…all the cakes and fruit…began to squirt out saffron" (Petronius: 60, p49).

This degree of ostentation within Roman banquets was not only confined to works of fiction but was based on reality as described by Suetonius, the imperial biographer. He refers to Caligula's "riotous and extraordinary expenditure" for his banquet (Suetonius: Caligula: 32, p194) and also reports that at Claudius' banquets "very often six hundred guests sat down together" (Suetonius: Claudius: 32, p232).

Sandy Blair, Dayna Froude and Emma Belton