Feast or Famine

IN ancient Rome, it was parrot tongues. In medieval England, it was peacocks. At one peace-treaty banquet, there was a four-foot-tall mosque made of marzipan. While the cuisine at royal parties down through the ages was always a showstopper — like at Achashveirosh’s six-month-long banquet — the excess often heralded a monarchy’s undoing

Replete with fetes and bursting with banquets, Megillas Esther opens with an account of King Achashveirosh’s gluttonous bacchanalia, followed by smaller affairs that feature both Queen Esther’s cunning and Haman’s downfall, all of which play a key role in the story’s plotline. The Gemara tells us that Esther was aware that feasts could entrap the wicked, one reason given for her motivation to extend a personal invitation to Haman. Indeed, royal tables throughout the ages have shone a spotlight on some of the worst sides of those in power. In some cases, as in the Megillah, the excesses herald their undoing.

Here, in honor of the prominence of royal feasts in Megillas Esther, a glimpse at some of the most (in)famous historic banquets

Party Hearty

Host: Roman Emperor Nero
Year: 64 CE
Occasion: Nero wanted to have a good time

You had to be there:
For powerful Romans, excessive, hedonistic feasts were a regular part of life, and Nero (d. 68 CE), who earned himself a name in history as a particularly wicked and debased emperor, was no exception. The best known of the emperor’s feasts is recorded by Tacitus, a Roman chronicler.