The meals were usually served in the _triclinium_, or dining-room. In this was a square dining-table, having on three sides one-armed couches, the remaining side being left open for serving. Each of these couches had room for three persons, who reclined upon the left arm, with the feet outward. About the end of the republic, round tables came into use, with semicircular couches. Some of these tables were quite valuable, being made of rare imported woods. The guests used napkins, which they might have brought themselves or were provided by the host. In later times table-cloths came into use. The principal ornament on the table was the _salinum_, or salt-cellar, as salt was used not only for seasoning, but also for sacrifices, and the salinum also held the sacrificial cakes. The chief implements for eating were two kinds of spoons, the _ligula_, shaped very much like the table spoon of the present, and the _cochlear_, which had a small circular bowl, flat or slightly hollowed, with a pointed handle. Knives and forks seem to have come into use during the later times of the empire. The chief dish of the poorer classes was porridge, made of a farinaceous substance and which served them as bread. They had such vegetables as the cabbage, turnip, radish, leek, garlic, onion, cucumber, and pumpkin. Meat was rarely eaten, perhaps only on festival occasions. The market afforded all kinds of foods. Among the animals were the rabbit, pheasant, guinea-fowl, common poultry, peacock, kid, pig, and boar; there were various kinds of fish and oysters and snails; beside the plants mentioned above were rue, lettuce, cress, mallow, and sorrell. It would seem that they had quite a number of different kinds of grain; among the fruits were the apple, pear, plum, cherry, quince, peach, pomegranate, fig, olive, and grape; there were lemons and oranges and nuts of various kinds. Wine was the only drink of an intoxicating nature that the Romans had. It was customary to mix the wine with water, and to drink the wine without putting water into it was considered a sign of intemperance. For a number of years the water-supply was such as could be obtained from the Tiber, wells, and natural springs, and it was not till the time of the republic that the water was brought from outside of Rome, for which means aqueducts were built and which continued to be built until there was an abundant supply of water.