rooms: R, S; with symmetrical reconstructions beside P, leading into Q1
and Q2; mirrored in N5; with twin rooms (N1) and the north wing (N3)
either side of N2 on the north wing). The largest set of dining rooms
identified is the pair on the west wing (M1, M3), either side of M2.^6 The
design of rooms in triplets is repeated using three different dimensions,
with the smallest sets (A, A2, A3; P, Q1, Q2) occupying the same
footprint as the middle-sized rooms (N1–3; R, S), exceeded only by the
largest set of all (M1–M3). Each of these last rooms occupies a surface
area ofc.267 m^2 , which could in principle accommodate 30 couches.
Should we imagine the palace at Aigeai acting as a‘giantandron’?^7
The identification of dining rooms seems relatively secure on the
southern and eastern wings (R, S); less so on the northern and western
sides. Accommodation is one thing; the provision of actual meals for
large numbers is something quite different. The accounts of Alexander’s
banquets on campaign may refer to hundreds of guests in a common
hall, but these descriptions also refer to the supporting environment—
ante-chambers, bathrooms, bedrooms.^8 Athenaeus predictably includes
memorable anecdotes about dinners hosted by Alexander the Great soon
after the acquisition of the Persian royal household. He cites Ephippus of
Olynthos, who wrote a book entitledOn the Death of Hephaistion and
Alexander, in which there was a description of the park in which
banquets took place, with a gold throne for Alexander and couches
with silver legs for distinguished guests, but more striking are the
references to Alexander declaiming from memory a scene from Euripi-
des’Andromeda, and his adoption of sacred vestments (12.537d–e).
Elsewhere Athenaeus cites a scene from Chares’Histories of Alexander,
in which a banquet was held for a hundred guests with ninety-two bridal
chambers nearby for his friends (FGrH125 F4 = Athen. 12.538c).
Whatever the packaging that Athenaeus intended to give his anec-
dotes, the impression gained from these near-legendary royal stories is
the interconnection between dining and other activities, and other pur-
poses. Athenaeus underscores the connection between pleasurable activ-
ity and the modelling of style and behaviour. He cites Herakleides of
Pontus:‘Tyrants and kings, being in control of the good things of life,
and having had experience of them all, put pleasure in thefirst place,
since pleasure makes men’s natures more lordly’(12.512a). Athenaeus
includes a number of references to Thracian kings and princes that
(^6) Kottaridi 2011a, 322–8.
(^7) Étienne 2006, 109, with a perceptive discussion on the basis of publications prior to the
restudy of the site in 2009.
(^8) Curt. 6.10.21; 6.9.9; Étienne 2006, 109–10 with discussion.
Dining cultures 273