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.
Author(s): Ingo Gildenhard, Cristiano Viglietti
Series: Cambridge Classical Studies
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 429
City: Cambridge
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
