The Dinner of Trimachio

I just finished reading The Dinner of Trimalchio which is just a portion of the Satyricon. This was probably one of the most emotion filled, chaotic dinners I think I have ever read about. Everything was extravagant the whole time, too; the house, the food (the amount of food), the slaves, the guests, and the host... especially the host.

In the beginning, I had the impression that the narrator was going into Trimalchio's house as a sort of spy, per se, who had heard of his extreme excess and luxury and was going to report disgust at what he found.

I was pretty off.

The narrator seems to be a guest invited along with many other guests, most of whom apparently are scholarly and even free-men. We learn that Trimalchio is a fellow free-man. This means that he used to be poor and in service, but through different circumstances eventually rose to his current position in society.

There are moments when Trimalchio seems almost likeable. I respected his leniency with his slaves and also his proclamation that he would make all his slaves free-men, even though that would not happen until he died (In those days I'm sure this was a big deal).Trimalchio even went so far as to, to the dismay of the narrator, allow his slaves to sit with his guests during the feast. Something else that he did that I enjoyed was having all of his food made or grown from his own supply instead of shipping things in. I thought this really tied into what our class has been discussing lately. Trimalchio had all of his food made fresh which is, I believe, how we all think our food should be served. However, there did seem to be an over-excess of food, which was actually normal for the wealthy in that time period, but that led to a lot of waste of food. Wasting food is a modern problem as well though. 

My original idea that the narrator was going to be a sensible individual and very unlike the rest of the characters, though, was quickly dashed as I read more through the story. While the whole dinner was odd, things did not really start getting weird until Trimalchio decided to move the dinner party into the bath area.

The narrator initially tries to get out of this by sneaking away but is stopped by the labyrinth that is Trimalchio's doors.

Taking part in the bath festivities meant that he was also privy to Trimalchio's moment of rage toward Fortunata, his wife. She had yelled at him for kissing one of the slave boys for too long and that made him very upset and defensive. He went into a fit of anger towards her, and at one point said he had done nothing wrong because he had kissed the boy because he was smart and not because he was attractive... I don't know. I think if I was her, even though that excuse made so much sense (can you feel the
sarcasm?), I still would have been a bit upset.

The dinner is later broken up when Trimalchio, completely drunk at this point, decides to stage his own funeral and sets one of his slaves into a loud fit of mourning which eventually brings the police and fire men barging in. The narrator finally sees his chance to escape and takes it with his friend Ascyltos and Giton. After that, my understanding of the book's events kind of dwindles. The focus of the story goes from the narrator basically documenting the events of Trimalchio's feast, to, out of nowhere, his strong emotions towards Giton (his 'brother' - *wink wink*) and his own life.