The fashion for the couch, an element in the refined furniture of the Hellenistic Age, spread through the upper middle classes of Roman society starting in the early 2nd century B.C. with the conquest of Greece. The structure consisted of one or two spruce-wood headboards in the shape of a wavy cushion, and a rectangular ash-wood frame, with "bedsprings" made of wooden or leather staves, rope or wire, supporting the mattress. The structure was decorated, depending on the wealth of its owner, with bronze elements, silver and copper inserts, or ivory or tortoiseshell plates.

Participating in the banquet, held in the triclinium, were three to nine diners, who occupied three couches arranged in the form of a horseshoe: the summus, the medius and the imus. The highest-ranking guest was given the place at the lower end of the medius, called the locus praetorius, while the host occupied the first place on the imus. The arrangement of the tables depended on that of the couches; if they were pushed together, the table was in the middle; if separated, there was a larger central table and two smaller ones beside the couches.