Suetonius, Caligula 26,2: Senators Serving as Slaves at the Imperial Banquets

Abstract

According to Sueton (Cal. 26,2) Caligula allowed to be served once or several times by senators at a banquet treating them like slaves. They either stood behind the lounge where Caligula used to take his meal (ad pedes, i.e. like a slave who was owned by the guest and had to be at his master’s beck and call) or beside the lectus (ad pluteum, i. e. in order to act as a cupbearer). The pluteus is the rest at the narrow side of the lectus, the direction in which the heads of the guests were pointing. This allocation of tasks and the positioning of the servants – which was dependened on whether the slave belonged to the familia of the guest or the host – was not only a common habit at the emperors banquets but at every roman feast which was characterised, among other things, by the stantium servorum turba (Sen. epist. 47,2). Caligula’s conduct was solely exceptional in that he was deliberately treating the senator’s rank with contempt.