Cena
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© The Classical Couple.
The table is set; the lamps are lit. Caecilius has invited friends to a cena, a Roman dinner party, and the whole household is busy: the cook works, the slaves carry in dish after dish, and the family waits to give thanks before the first course.
Seven puzzles stand between you and the feast itself. Solve one, and the table fills a little more — until, at the end, one final word reveals what the family says before they eat.
Crossword — the vocabulary of a Roman family dinner.
Anagrams — unscramble seven words for the feast and the harvest behind it.
Cipher — decode a message, then answer the riddle it asks.
Matching — two verbs, parō and portō ("to prepare," "to carry"), in every tense you know.
Picture Count — reassemble a scattered scene, then count what you see.
Odd One Out — find the mismatched word in each row to reveal what the family says, then answer questions about it.
Final Rebus — one clue from every lock. Their first letters, rearranged, spell the final word.
Every answer box checks itself instantly. Spelling and capitalization are forgiving — macrons are never required.
Fifteen words from a Roman family dinner. Every clue gives the English meaning; you supply the Latin. Fill the grid — every crossing letter must agree both ways. Six cells are marked in red: once the grid is solved, their letters unscramble into one more word.
The grid is correct. Unscramble the six red letters:
Seven characters and words from the world of a Roman dinner party. Unscramble each one.
A message has been shifted 3 letters forward through the alphabet. Shift each letter back 3 to decode it — the message speaks for itself. Answer the question it asks, in Latin.
Decode the message — it already asks its own question at the end.
Two verbs, parō, parāre ("to prepare") and portō, portāre ("to carry") — everything it takes to get a dinner to the table — in every tense you know. Drag each English meaning onto its matching Latin form.
The picture below has been scattered into 24 pieces — click two to swap them. Each piece locks in place once it's correct. When the whole picture is assembled, five counting questions will appear — in Latin, they ask quot ("how many") of each thing you can find.
Click two pieces to swap them. Correct pieces lock in place — keep going until the whole picture is assembled.
In each row, three tiles belong together and one doesn't. Drag out the odd tile. Find all 15 to learn what the family says.
Now that the story is whole, answer these in Latin:
One clue from every lock you solved. Answer each in Latin — the first letter of each answer will reveal itself, in the order the locks appeared.
You're almost there! Arrange these letters to make a word.
The password was:
placet — "it is pleasing." The feast is good; the family is grateful; all is well.