While I reading the Dinner of Trimalchio I felt that it was quite hard to follow at times. The way the chapters were worded could be difficult at times and I struggled. Although this is true, from what I did pick up from the story was that the feast that they all had encountered was awfully decadent. Its unlike anything that I've read before. I had taken a Western Civilization class in high school and we had covered the life styles of people during this time period of ancient Egypt and Nero but, we had never coved anything quite like this. It really opened my eyes about the just how HUGE of a gap there was with social classes. Way more than I had thought. The wealth of Trimalchio was quite outstanding and I am quite curious as to what had happened for him to acquire such wealth. Something that I had found pretty interesting was that there was a different meal almost with every chapter. From what I could take away from the text, they most likely very luxurious foods from all over. The themselves seemed like nothing really that we would see people eating today which I found interesting. Although, I guess food does change over time. One thing about the feast that I didn't understand really was when the meals were placed on the signs of the zodiac. I felt that that was pretty interesting.
I also wondered how he became so wealthy to afford all of the food!
ReplyDeleteYa the wealth seemed really great. There was a part in the story that someone was going over an update of Trimachio's property with him. Apparently one of his properties had caught on fire in a place he did not even know he owned. He was mad that no one had told him of the purchase. Now while I realize it is common practice for the super rich to have people buy stuff on there behalf, even today, I can't imagine being so rich that I am unaware of what I own.
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