A banquet in Ancient Rome. Roman banquets were generally very long and full of indigestible dishes
“Vomunt ut edant, edunt ut vomant” , or “They vomit to eat, they eat to vomit” is a sentence from Seneca which in an extremely effective way enlightens us on a characteristic, certainly not very fine, of banquets which took place in Ancient Rome .
In fact, just this happened:the diners spent hours and hours gorging themselves on heavy and indigestible food (here you can have some examples:https://www.pilloledistoria.it/1793/storia-antica/cucina-dellantica-roma-ricette) , Then threw up and started over .
And who had the thankless task of picking up the vomit?
To the slaves, of course.
Treated as objects (and even worse), devoid of any right and forced to suffer abuse and oppression of any kind without any possibility of rebelling except risking being killed instantly, during these lavish and coarse meals, the servants were forced to wander between guests and tricliniums with a vase hanging from the neck or behind , ready to offer it to anyone who requests it with a nod, to welcome the contents of their stomachs.
This was the custom and none of those present were scandalized, not to mention the convenience of not even having to get up from their seat to "free themselves" and make room for other food.