Classical scholars who researched the topic of the activities taking place at Graeco-Roman
banquets, extensively described the artistic presentations that accompanied eating and drinking.
They have paid much attention to the singing, dancing and dramatic performances given at
banquets. Less attention has been given to the subject of public reading in the context of the
after-dinner symposium. The custom of reading literary works at symposia is well attested in the
symposiastic literature of the first and the second centuries CE. Plutarch’s Moralia are one of the
more important sources that attest the reading of literature at the Graeco-Roman symposium.
In the late 90s it has been argued by several scholars that the early Christian communities during
their weekly gatherings followed the same pattern of Graeco-Roman dining. This paper seeks to
argue that the reading of texts in the early Christian gathering is the historical counterpart of
the reading of texts at the Graeco-Roman symposium.