Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Accubo

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

AC'CUBO (κατακλίνομαι). To recline at table, an attitude usually adopted by the ancients at their meals, instead of our habit of sitting. The posture of reclining, as clearly shown in the illustration (Accubo/1.1), from the Vatican Virgil, was one between lying and sitting, the legs and lower part of the body being stretched out at full length on a sofa, whilst the upper part was slightly raised and supported upon the left elbow, which rested on a pillow, the right arm and hand being left free to reach out and take the food.

The usual method of arranging the sofas, the etiquette of precedence, and position of the different places, is explained under the word LECTUS TRICLINIARIS.

During the later periods of Roman history, the men and women reclined together at their repasts; but the Greeks considered such a posture to be indecorous for females; their women, therefore, either sat at a separate table, or upon one end of the couch on which the men only reclined, as shown in the illustration (Accubo/1.2) copied from a Greek marble in the museum of Verona, representing a funeral repast (coena feralis). The same practice was also observed by the Romans, before the corruption of manners incident upon wealth and conquest had ensued.

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  Accubo/1.1
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  Accubo/1.2