Commensality in the Eateries of Roman Pompeii

Despite a nearly 300-year excavation history at Pompeii and many identified eating and drinking establishments, social behavior in these public or semi-public spaces has eluded significant research. Elite Roman literature is the traditional guideline for understanding Roman mealtimes and what they meant for social behavior. This literature, however, fails to accurately represent its sub-elite inhabitants. These sub-elites of Rome largely had their meals prepared outside of their homes. Pompeii is no exception and provides a massive boon for researchers willing to consider archaeological evidence. The buildings and evidence buried at Pompeii have ultimately shown a wide array of tabernae related to food and drink consumption, which are typically understood as cauponae, popinae, or thermopolia in the archaeological record. This thesis intends to explore the role that eateries played in the social landscape of Pompeii, particularly in consideration of how these spaces influenced or were influenced by social behavior. An understanding of human social behavior at an anthropological, biological, and historical level is integral to interpreting this research and as such a recent multi-disciplinary study in social commensality provides a sturdy foundation. Modern histories and ancient literature involving social commensality alike help to corroborate this study and provide necessary context. From all available eateries in Pompeii, ten were chosen as the basis of this study due to their diversity and usefulness of evidence they provide. These eateries are then analyzed in terms of the archaeological evidence available that points to consumption and social behavior. Ultimately, this thesis argues that many of the eateries of Pompeii were both social in nature and facilitated social behavior.