A triclinium (plural: triclinia) is a formal dining room in a Roman building. The word is adopted from the Greek τρικλίνιον, triklinion, from τρι-, tri-, "three", and κλίνη, klinē, a sort of "couch" or rather chaise longue. Each couch was wide enough to accommodate three diners who reclined on their left side on cushions while some household slaves served multiple courses rushed out of the culina, or kitchen, and others entertained guests with music, song, or dance.

The triclinium was characterized by three klinai on three sides of a low square table, those surfaces sloped away from the table at about 10 degrees. Diners would recline on these surfaces in a semi-recumbent position. The fourth side of the table was left free, presumably to allow service to the table. Usually the open side faced the entrance of the room. In Roman-era dwellings, particularly wealthy ones, triclinia were common.

Used to entertain company, the hosts and guest would recline on pillows while feasting. For an example of an accurately reconstructed triclinium, visit the Museum of Archeology in Arezzo, Italy, or the House of Caro in Pompeii. The custom of using klinai while taking a meal rather than sitting became popular among the Greeks in the early seventh century BC. From here it spread to their colonies in southern Italy (Magna Graecia) and was eventually adopted by the Etruscans.

Bruttia Crispina (164–191?) was the Empress of Rome and wife of Roman Emperor Commodus.

Crispina’s mother is unknown and her father was twice consul Gaius Bruttius Praesens. Crispina’s paternal grandparents were consul and senator Caius Bruttius Praesens and rich heiress Laberia Hostilia Crispina, daughter of another twice consul, Manius Laberius Maximus. Crispina's brother was future consul Lucius Bruttius Quintius Crispinus. Her father’s family originally came from Volceii, Lucania, Italy and were closely associated with the Roman Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. Crispina was born and raised in Rome or Volceii.

Crispina married Commodus in the summer of 178 (probably July). The actual ceremony was modest but was commemorated on coinage and largesse was distributed to the people. An epithalamium for the occasion was composed by the sophist Julius Pollux. Like most marriages of young members of the nobiles, it was arranged by paters: in Crispina's case by her father and Marcus Aurelius. Commodus disliked Crispina, possibly due to her character — she was a beautiful woman, but said to be vain and haughty — but possibly also because Commodus was known to prefer the company of men. Upon her marriage she received the title of Augusta.

Alan Ernest Sorrell (11 February 1904 – 21 December 1974) was an English artist and writer best remembered for his archaeological illustrations, particularly his detailed reconstructions of Roman Britain. He was a Senior Assistant Instructor of Drawing at The Royal College of Art, between 1931–39 and 1946–48. In 1937 he was elected a member of the Royal Watercolour Society.

He was born in Tooting, London and moved to Southend, Essex, at the age of two. The son and second child of Ernest Thomas Sorrell (1861–1910) a jeweller and watchmaker and his wife Edith Jane Sorrell née Doody (1867–1951), Alan Sorrell would often go, with his father on trips away drawing landscapes as a child. However, the most part of his childhood was spent confined to a bath chair due to a suspected heart condition. The early death of his father also resulted in Sorrell feeling shy and withdrawn.

He was trained at the Southend municipal school of art and, after a brief spell as a commercial artist in London, he attended The Royal College of Art between (1924–1927). Whilst there, he met William Rothenstein whom would act as a mentor for Sorrell and became a close friend. In 1928, Sorrell won The Prix de Rome in Mural painting and spent the next three years at the British School at Rome.