Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Epulones

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

EPULO'NES. The members of one of the four great religious corporations at Rome, originally composed of three persons (triumviri epulones, Liv. xxxi. 4.), but afterwards increased to seven (septemviri epulones, Lucan. i. 602.); whose chief duty consisted in preparing a sumptuous banquet, termed LECTISTERNIUM, for Jupiter and the twelve gods, upon occasions of public rejoicing or calamity (Festus, s. v.), when the statues of the deities were placed upon couches in front of tables (Val. Max. ii. 1. 2.), spread with delicacies, which the Epulones afterwards consumed.