a solemn ceremony observed by the Romans in times of public danger, wherein an entertainment was prepared with great magnificence, and served up in the temples. The gods were invited to partake of the good cheer, and their statues placed upon couches round the table in the same manner as men used to sit at meat. The first lectisternium held at Rome was in honour of Apollo, Latona, Diana, Hercules, Mercury, and Neptune, to put a stop to a contagious distemper which raged amongst the cattle, in the year of Rome 354. At these feasts the Epulones presided, and the sacred banquet was called epulum. See Epulo, Epulum, &c.

Something like the lectisternium was occasionally observed among the Greeks, according to Cato.