The Black Banquet

Night in Domitian’s palace: guests in a black room, slabs bearing their names, an emperor who talks only of death.

Transcript

Night in the emperor’s palace. Domitian invites the leading senators and equestrians.

They are to come alone. Their slaves are held back in the entrance hall.

The room is black. Black ceiling, black walls, black floor. On the bare floor, black couches.

Beside each guest stands a slab like a gravestone, carved with his name.

Next to it, a small lamp, the kind they light in tombs.

Servants in black come in. They circle the guests like ghosts and stand at their feet.

They serve black food in black dishes. The kind offered to the dead. No one says a word.

Only the emperor speaks. Of death and of killing.

Then he sends the guests home. Their own slaves are gone.

Strangers escort them. Each has just enough time to sit down and catch his breath.

And then someone knocks at the door.