The best place of all was reckoned to be the third position on the middle couch “The Consul’s Post,”[52] and here, of course, Manlius was consigned. Calvus by custom took the host’s place, on the third couch, but nearest the guest of honor. The distribution of the other places was a matter for great discrimination, but peace was kept by placing the two African gentlemen whom Manlius brought, upon the middle couch beside him, and setting the young eques Nepos (the junior of the company) at the outer end of the third couch. All nine, therefore, spread themselves out unconventionally and chattered about the newest jockeys in the circus, while a troupe of slave-boys, half-stripped but pomaded and curled, passed around silver bowls of water and fine towels for washing and wiping the hands.[53] This ceremony happily accomplished, a tall upper slave magnificently arrayed nodded from the doorway to Calvus that the cook had declared himself ready, and Calvus nodded back his approval. The dinner could begin. [Illustration: NINE GUESTS IN A TRICLINIUM.] =97. Serving the Dinner.=--The giver of this feast only desired a grave and conventional dinner for sedate people, and a strictly normal order was followed without epicurean niceties or a low revel as a climax. No tablecloths; the serving boys running to and from the kitchen set on the beautiful polished surface of the table before the guests first a preliminary course, the _gustatio_, supposed to stimulate the appetite. On silver dishes were served some choice crabs, salads, mushrooms, and also eggs. The guests ate these without forks, dexterously picking up the food in their fingers. The handsomely embossed silver cups were handed about filled with sweet mulsum properly diluted in order not to befuddle the intellect; after that followed the formal dinner itself. [Illustration: ROMAN SERVING FORKS.] At really elaborate feasts there would be six or even seven courses, but Calvus had merely ordered the orthodox number of three--a succession of daintily cooked meats and fish tastily garnished with vegetables, but with no rarities such as heathcock from Phrygia or sturgeon from Rhodes. The honor of the house, however, required that every viand should be arranged carefully on its dish, and every dish upon its tray by a special slave, the _structor_, a true artist, who also acted as master carver, cutting up a roast of boar with his knife keeping time to a flute-player. The mere fact, however, that one man was allowed both to arrange the dishes and then to do the carving was a sign that Calvus was among the less ostentatious senators.