Pass the Pomegranates: Roman Banquet Helps Students Understand Ancient Class Differences     by Sue Angell December 18, 2003 Mary Collins '04, Sarah Jones '05, and Krishni Burns '06 display fruit that typically would have been offered to guests during the course of a Roman banquet. Guest Carter Love '05 selects a loaf of spelt bread presented by slave Elissa Papendick '04. Assistant Professor of Classics Benjamin Lee entertains host Jeremy Hartnett and his banquet guests with a selection of Latin poetry. (photographs by Rebecca Lammons '06) Related Link: Department of Classics web site   Michael Block '04 is offered a piece of suckling pig by Mendon Kelrick '05 and Alex Gluck '07. The tables scattered around the room were heaped with platters of hard-boiled eggs, cheeses shaped into goat heads, spelt bread, and olives. Tunic-clad slaves scurried among the guests, spraying them with rose water and refilling their wineglasses. A common sight in first-century Rome, but not in 21st-century Oberlin, where students in the course Oikos and Domus: Houses and Families in the Ancient World recently recreated a festive Roman dinner party for their classmates. "By reenacting the role of either slave or banquet guest, each student was able to experience, and not just read about, life in the ancient world," says Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics and Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow Jeremy Hartnett. "This activity provided them with a unique perspective that they won't get from a book." Hartnett's experiential teaching methods have brought antiquity to life for his students, who are hoping to bridge the gap between their world and the daily experiences of common people in ancient Rome and Greece. "This class is different from other classes that I've taken within the department because it doesn't focus on great historical events, like war or political upheaval, as a way to understand history," says Elan Love '05. "Instead, it focuses on women, children, and slaves, and how they lived out their lives within Greek and Roman society." Earlier in the semester, Hartnett's students could be seen outside Hall Auditorium walking through and analyzing the floor plan of a Greek house that had been sketched in chalk. In November, the class visited the University of Michigan to examine artifacts and papyri found at Karanis, an Egyptian city unearthed by archaeological excavation. "This class has really helped me develop a feel for antiquity," Love says. "We've explored primary documents, handled finds, and recreated a Roman banquet. Our proximity to the people we've been studying is tangible—spooky at times, but definitely tangible." Originally proposed as an alternative to a writing assignment, the banquet quickly became a group project. Students transformed Wilder 112 into a triclinium, or Roman dining room, and created a decorative mosaic for the floor. Others drove to Cleveland's West Side Market to purchase the ingredients (including a whole suckling pig, pomegranates, and quinces) for their authentic Mediterranean feast, and then spent the better part of a Sunday afternoon cooking and baking. Still another group designed the participants' costumes and showed each student how to wear them. On the evening of the banquet, the students slipped into their costumes and took their assigned roles—some were elite Roman citizens and others miserable slaves. "Roman society was very much a performance society," Hartnett says. "You either acted according to your position within society or you lost that position. For some students, experiencing what it was like to be servile created a visible tension during the banquet. Likewise, the students playing the roles of the guests were uncomfortable treating their fellow students like slaves." Hartnett's colleague Benjamin Lee also attended the banquet. A proper "Roman" guest, Lee added to the evening's festivities by bringing along several Latin poems to recite. "The banquet raised some substantial intellectual and theoretical concerns," says Lee, an assistant professor of classics. "I had never quite understood the degree to which a Roman banquet was a performance, a dramatic enactment of social roles. As the guest of honor, however, it became very clear to me that I was playing the role of a social superior. The extent to which a banquet could reinforce, and even create, social standing was something of a revelation to me." Hartnett is confident that the banquet, which his students judged a success, achieved its main goal—demonstrating to students how distinct the Roman world is from our own modern one. "Projects like these can instill a sense of camaraderie in a shared undertaking," Hartnett says. "They also can help students build up the social-historical tool kit they'll need to think critically about life in different cultures."