Storing Produce and Staging Dinner Parties: Fruit-Galleries and Genre in Varro’s De re rustica 1

Abstract

This article explores the genre and ideological agenda of Varro’s De re rustica by examining the textual representation of oporothecae (“fruit-galleries”). As structures in which fruit could be stored and dinner parties held, the oporothecae not only serve to evaluate and satirize the rural practices of contemporary Roman elites but also programmatically epitomize the tension generated by De re rustica’s synthesis of the technical treatise, philosophical dialogue, and satire.

The spectacle of production: a Roman imperial winery at the Villa of the Quintilii, Rome

“…This villa, situated on the Via Appia, directly south of Rome, was more visible, convenient and accessible for a more mobile emperor with his large armed retinue (Hedlund 2008: 133). Equally, however, with no direct evidence it is possible that the theatrical setting held no ritual or religious connection and was simply designed to emphasise the spectacle of agricultural production for an aristocratic audience as part of the construction of elite identity (Nelsestuen 2015(Nelsestuen , 2016.…”