Here's a room full of ravin revelers, looking remarkably a lot of people in the pub next door.
Roman wine was deadly stuff when the party really got going, the slaves, who I'm calling Puke Collectors, had to run around clearing up. Other than that, it was pretty much like our Christmas lunch right down to the party hats.
"Fiona, what is that hat?"
"It's a Fringing cap."
"Fringing cap? Do women wear them too?"
"Oh, yes."
"What do they signify?"
"They signify liberty. They are the caps given to slaves when they are freed. But at the Saturnalia everybody wears them since the idea that this is the time when the poor and the rich and even the slaves would sit down with their masters. So everybody is equal for this about a week of the year."
"So, Eric doesn't have to be serving all night?"
"Well, this household obviously aren't playing the egalitarian game, because not every Roman household does that, so, at the Saturnalia, so, he's having to stand up, he's still having to work."
"Eric, this is an egalitarian household, you can sit down, well, I'll do your job."
"Thank you very much."
"John, have you got one of those caps?"
"Sure."
"You'll hold the wine."
"...."
There is a common belief that Romans had a room called vomitorium where they used to throw up. Sadly for me, it's not quite true.
"Hang on, hang on! Davis, chucked up. Er, that's disgusting."
"You are the slave, so, you are gonna clear it up, he is not going to do it."
"Of course I'll have to clear it up. This is the worst job, isn't it?"
"Ur, do we actually know that slaves had to clear up the sick at parties?"
"We...we know this quite clearly from literary writers. Sanic's letters are particularly rich on, so condemning the excess of drinking and eating, and also the excess of having your slaves do everything for you even clearing up puke."
Puke collectors had to be prepared to do anything. To their masters, they were human tools who had to be invisible.
There's something you can't do:
You can't laugh at their jokes, you can't hiccup, you can't sneeze, you can't cough or they're gonna beat you. And in the evening some households such as the Fredman Trumalkio's house, he goes for pee, he washes his hands and he might dry his hands on your hair.
(name) you are not gonna throw up, are you?.
No,I hope not. Because a woman who throws up is considered loose woman, possibly adulterous .
Can you hold on to it for a moment?
How many days of the year do they have to do this?
It's a 365-day-of-the-year job because you are the slave and they don’t have dinner without you. So you have to do it at the Saturnalia or our Christmas, you might get extra food even the meanest master will give you extra wine. So you do get something
This's quite fair one. Just spread the mop on that, do you think? .....
But you get free food which cannot be too bad and these oyster are actually rather nice.
But, however bad this job might have been, at least it was indoors. During the festive season, some jobs were much worse.
Freshly declare, you do look a bit green.
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ravinn. Voracity; rapaciousness. 貪婪;貪吃
reveler n.擺設(shè)酒宴者, 飲酒狂歡者
egalitarianadj. Affirming, promoting, or characterized by belief in equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people. 平等主義堅信、促進或以如下信仰為特征的,即相信人門在政治、經(jīng)濟、社會和公民權(quán)利方面是平等的
vomitorium n.(尤指古羅馬競技場的)大通道,出入通道
oyster n.(動) 牡蠣, 蠔