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A triclinium is a formal dining room of ancient Rome with a dining table and 'couches' (lectus) along three sides (adopted from the ancient Greeks). Roman diners would eat lying down on their side or belly on these dinner couches. The horizontal position was believed to aid digestion – and it was the utmost expression of an elite standing. Surviving triclinia with built-in cement dinner couches (the elegant mattresses long since destroyed by time) show that the beds were strongly angled upward to elevate the diner above the tabletop. In contrast, portable beds used cushions like those on Greek beds to elevate the diners.