The belief is widespread that the Roman aristocrat during a meal could move into a special room, “cleanse” his stomach in a very simple way and return to continue the feast. We checked how reliable this presentation is.

Some believe that in the Roman halls, there were special small rooms - vomitariums to hold solemn tricks. The guests of the guests could at any time go into such a room, squeeze food and return to a luxurious meal. A less exotic version is also widespread: the guests were “devastated” right in the hall - in set Under the table or Bidden Slaves of a bowl.

Let's start with the version of a special room. The confusion occurred due to the peculiar "false friend of the translator." In English, "vomiting"-vomit. This is a word is happening From the Latin root with a slightly wider meaning - “erupt”, “drain”. Substructures are not at all rooms for vomiting, but passages Under or behind the tiers of seats in the Roman theater or at the stadium. They were built in order for the audience to go as quickly as possible or leave the arena - the stream of people as if erupted, hence the name.

The word vomitorium appeared later than such passages - it for the first time Fix Only at the end of the 4th century. Apparently, the name of the Macrobia writer “invented”-in his “Saturnals” he used neologism by combining the adjective Vomitus and the letter-combination of Orium, used to designate any places. The resulting beautiful image took root, and after many centuries began to mislead people.

Vomitored in the amphitheater (Suas archaeological park)

Historian Sarah Bond from the University of Ayov suggeststhat the false interpretation of the word could appear at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries. At that time, everyone who received classical education was well acquainted with ancient literature, including descriptions of Roman aristocrats, whose life was full of excesses. At the same time, as Bond notes, these ancient texts hypertrophilize reality - either for edifying purposes or in satirical ones.

Often, one of the first mentions of the vomitor as a place for vomiting called A fragment from the story of Oldos Huxley "Shutovskaya Round dance" (1923). Researchers from the University of Queensland discovered earlier evidence. In 1871, the French politician and journalist Felix Pia described the British Christmas meal as “a rough, pagan, monstrous orgy - a Roman feast that does not have a shortage of Vomitorium.” In the same year, August Heir in Rome walks Described A room adjacent to the dining room in the palace of Flavians. He suggested that it was vomitorium (it was in the wrong meaning of the “place for vomiting”), and called it a “disgusting monument of Roman life”.

Sometimes the term vomitorium was applied not to the building - in 1916 in The Washington Post so called The “disgusting tradition”, when, after the feast, guests were brought for vomiting. When the procedure was completed, new dishes were covered on the table.

Stories about incessant flows vomiting on Roman feasts, according to researchers, at least greatly exaggerated. Food historian Patrick Faas He emphasizes: "There is no reason to believe that the Romans did it much more often than modern people." He draws attention to the fact that fragments from Seneca, Suetonius and other authors are dedicated to emperors who behaved inadequate, but extrapolating their actions for the whole Roman nobility is not entirely justified. FAAS calls not to forget that vomiting often did not cause it on purpose - the cause of alcohol was the reason, as often and today, and today. Similar opinion adhere to and other specialists.