BANQUETING ROOM OR HOUSE. See SALOON. The ancient Romans supped in the atrium, or vestibule, of their houses; but, in after times, magnificent saloons, or banqueting-rooms, were built, for the more commodious and splendid entertainment of their guests. Lucullus had several of these, each distinguished by the name of some god; and there was a particular rate of expence appropriated to each. Plutarch relates with what magnificence he entertained Cicero and Pompey, who went with a design to surprise him, by only telling a slave who waited, that the cloth should be laid in the Apollo. The emperor Claudius, among others, had a splendid banqueting-room named Mercury. But every thing of this kind was outdone by the lustre of that celebrated banqueting-house of Nero, called domus au-
rea; which, by the circular motion of its partitions and ceilings, imitated the revolution of the heavens, and represented the different seasons of the year, which changed at every service, and showered down flowers, essences, and perfumes, on the guests.