Ex mensa exitium: morte e ignomínia nos alimentos ou na privação deles

This article focuses on the presence, and the function of this presence, of the reference to food or of the moment when food was consumed, in the work of Tacitus, especially the Annales. We observe circumstances such as: consequences of abundance or scarcity of food in urban and military contexts; food used for political propaganda and manipulation; the sacra mensae and the sacrilege or indignity of certain facts that occurred in conuiuia or simple meals; the poison (actual or alleged) administered with food or drink; the conuiuium as a favourable opportunity to delators and a place of perdition for the unwary; the meal as a last act of celebration of life; death, voluntary or forced, by starvation.