epulones

EPULO´NESwho were originally three in number (Tresviri Epulones), were first created in B.C. 196, to attend to the Epulum Jovis (Valer. Max. 2.1.2; Liv. 31.4; Gell. 12.8) and the banquets given in honour of the other gods; a duty which had originally belonged to the Pontifices. (Liv. 33.42; Cic. de Orat. 3.19, 73; de Harusp. Respons. 10, 21; Festus, s. v. Epolonos.) Their number was afterwards increased to seven (Gell. 1.12; Lucan (Luc. 1.602), and they were called Septemviri Epulones. We often find Septemvir Epulonum as an honorary title in inscriptions (Wilmanns, Inscript. 937, 1112, 1115, 1121, 1148, 1150, 1153, 1160, 1186, 1210, 1212). Once viiviri Epulonum occurs (Cal. Praen. Jan. 17). Julius Caesar added three more (Dio Cass.), but the title of the college seems always to have been Septemviri.

The Epulones formed a collegium, and were one of the four great religious corporations at Rome; the other three were those of the Pontifices, Augures, and Quindecemviri. But, unlike the others, this was from the first open to plebeians. (Dio Cass., 58.12; Plin. Ep. 10.3; Marquardt, Röm. Staatsverwaltung, 3.333.)

(Masters of the Feast). The office of epulo at Rome was created B.C. 196 to relieve the Pontifices. It was, from the first, open to plebeians, and could be held with the great offices of State. The first duty of the epulones was to provide the banquets (epulum) of the Capitoline deities. (See Lectisternium.) In later times they had also to provide for and superintend the public entertainment (epulae) of the people, when the Senate dined on the Capitol. Such entertainments were always provided at the games given by private individuals, or by the State, on occasions of religious festivals, dedications of temples, assumptions of office, triumphs, funerals, birthdays in the imperial household, and the like. The Collegium Epulonum consisted originally of three members (tres viri epulones) and afterwards of seven (septem viri epulones), a name which it retained even after Caesar had raised the number to ten. Its existence can be traced down to the end of the fourth century. In the illustration given above from a Roman denarius, an epulo is shown engaged in preparing the couch for the epulum Iovis.