i. Tables (De mensis) 1. Daedalus was the first to make a table and a chair. The first to devise the equipment for cooking was a certain Apicius, who died by his own choice, after stuffing himself with dainties – and deservedly so, because he who is slave to his maw and to gluttony kills both the soul and the body. The word ‘table’ (mensa) was made from ‘eating’ (esus) and ‘consuming’ (comesus), for a table has no other use. 2. A couch (torus) is so called from the twisted (tortus) grasses that are placed under the shoulders of those reclining on it. The ‘semicircular couch’ (stibadium) is named from log (stipes), as if it were stipadium, because it began as such. The ‘large dining couch’ (accubitum) is so called from food (cibus), as if it were ‘for the food’ (ad cibatum) of a banquet.

3. Among the Greeks a banquet (convivium) derives from the idea of ‘drinking together’ (compotatio), from their word ποτός, “drink.” But in Latin it is more correctly derived from ‘living in company’ (convictus), or because there one has conversation about life (vita). Again, convivium from a multitude of ‘people eating together’ (convescentes), for a private table is for sustenance, but it is not a banquet. A banquet has three elements: reclining, eating, and drinking. Reclining, as (Vergil, Aen. 1.708):

Eating and drinking, as (cf. Vergil, Aen. 1.723)