Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond

Description

Roman Frugality offers the first-ever systematic analysis of the variants of individual and collective self-restraint that shaped ancient Rome throughout its history and had significant repercussions in post-classical times. In particular, it tries to do the complexity of a phenomenon justice that is situated at the interface of ethics and economics, self and society, the real and the imaginary, and touches upon thrift and sobriety in the material sphere, but also modes of moderation more generally, not least in the spheres of food and drink, sex and power. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach drawing on ancient history, philology, archaeology and the history of thought, the volume traces the role of frugal thought and practice within the evolving political culture and political economy of ancient Rome from the archaic age to the imperial period and concludes with a chapter that explores the reception of ancient ideas of self-restraint in early modern times. Cover Half-title Series information Title page Copyright information Contents List of Figures List of Contributors Acknowledgements Note on Translations List of Abbreviations Introduction: Frugality in Theory and History Roman Frugality: Stories of Decline and Fall Roman Frugality Rethought Husbandry The Frugal Subaltern: Slaves, Freedmen, Wives Political Culture and Political Economy Frugality as Personal Style and Literary Theme Towards a History of/Case Studies in Roman Frugality (and its Reception) The Archaic Period The Rome of the Nobility (I) The Rome of the Nobility (II) The Rome of the Nobility (III) Early Empire Outlook Bibliography Chapter 1 'Frugality', Economy and Society in Archaic Rome (Late Seventh to Early Fourth Century BCE) Were the Archaic Romans Frugal? Two-Odd Centuries of Debate (in a Nutshell) Hoc Plus ne Facito. Archaic Rome's Elites from Conspicuous Consumption to the Sumptuary Laws Houses, Census, Res Mancipi and The Boundaries of the Desirable Frugality of the Have-Nots: A Remedy Against Poverty Conclusion: Rethinking the Boundaries of Frugality in Archaic Rome Bibliography Chapter 2 From Licinius Stolo to Tiberius Gracchus: Roman Frugality and the Limitation of Landholding The Controversy The Sources The Licinian Law From Licinius Stolo to Tiberius Gracchus Bibliography Chapter 3 Frugality as a Political Language in the Second Century BCE: The Strategies of Cato the Elder and Scipio Aemilianus Bibliography Chapter 4 Smallholding, Frugality and Market Economy in the Gracchan age Introduction Gracchan Ideology Frugality and Sumptus Modus and Confiscation Frugality and Land Allotments Bibliography Chapter 5 Frugalitas, or: The Invention of a Roman Virtue Introduction The Slaves and the Nobilis: From the Homines Frugi of New Comedy to L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi The Homines Frugi of New Comedy Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Cicero Cicero's Homines Frugi Piso Frugi and the Verrines Tusculan Disputations (and Pro Rege Deiotaro) Further Developments: The Early Principate Horace Valerius Maximus Seneca the Elder Petronius Seneca the Younger Quintilian Pliny the Younger Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 6 Frugality, Building, and Heirlooms in an Age of Social Mobility Two Electoral Surprises Houses and Heirlooms Social Mobility and Frugality in the Civil Wars and Under the Principate Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 7 From Poverty to Prosperity: The Recalibration of Frugality I II III IV V VI Bibliography Index Locorum General Index