Who invites whom to dinner? Where should each guest be seated? What does the spatial ambiance, the decor, and the tableware look like at a feast in Roman high society? What culinary delights, sensory pleasures, and other entertainments does the good host prepare for his guests? Elke Stein-Hölkeskamp answers all these and many more questions in her wonderful cultural history of the Roman banquet. With great expertise and a lot of attention to detail, the author takes her readers into the world of flamingo tongues and Falernian wine. It is the world of the Roman nobility, where everything, truly everything, had its significance when dining together. The self-understanding of the social elite manifested itself in every ritual of the banquet. Those who did not understand it became the subject of ridicule, and those who disregarded it marginalized themselves and delivered.