For their feasts, Mithraic initiates reclined on stone benches arranged along the longer sides of the mithraeumtypically there might be room for 15 to 30 diners, but very rarely many more than 40 men. Counterpart dining rooms, or "triclinia", were to be found above ground in the precincts of almost any temple or religious sanctuary in the Roman empire, and such rooms were commonly used for their regular feasts by Roman 'clubs', or "collegia". Mithraic feasts probably performed a very similar function for Mithraists as the "collegia" did for those entitled to join them; indeed, since qualification for Roman "collegia" tended to be restricted to particular families, localities or traditional trades, Mithraism may have functioned in part as providing clubs for the unclubbed. However, the size of the mithraeum is not necessarily an indication of the size of the congregation.