The TRICLINIUM was indeed the Roman dining room, or more precisely dining
furniture (sometimes set up in the "patio" or "peristyle" at the back of
the house. It is so-called because three couches, each normally of a size
to accommodate three diners reclining diagonally in such a fashion that all
are facing each other and have access to a serving table placed in the
space between them. One really needs to be aware of this and of the
language of dining which regularly usess the Greek for "recline"
(KATAKEIMAI, ANAKEIMAI) which, for some reason that utterly escapes me, is
glossed in some dictionaries as "sit at table" and usually so translated in
the versions.
About a year ago Jonathan found some interesting diagrams of a triclinium
at Pompeii at this web-site,if anyone is interested in following it up:
http://www.visionmm.com/stills/characterstill.html
http://www.visionmm.com/stills/tricstill.html
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/