Frugality, Building, and Heirlooms in an Age of Social Mobility

doi:10.1017/9781108879088.007

Chapter 6 - Frugality, Building, and Heirlooms in an Age of Social Mobility

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 June 2020

John R. Patterson

Edited by

Ingo Gildenhard and

Cristiano Viglietti

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Ingo Gildenhard: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Cristiano Viglietti: Affiliation:
Università degli Studi, Siena

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Summary

The chapter explores the styles of self-promotion available to elite Romans, ranging from frugal self-restraint and material sobriety to prodigial acts of civic generosity, and analyses the debates over and constraints on luxury and encouragement of frugality with respect to building projects and expensive heirlooms, not least those made of silver, from the late republic to the early imperial period. The chronologically and thematically wide-ranging investigation foregrounds in particular the enhanced social mobility that civil war and autocracy introduced into Roman society, including a discussion of why provincial newcomers such as Tacitus and Pliny the Younger affected particular enthusiasm for frugality and disapproved of luxury, as a way of positioning themselves as new arrivals within the ruling class of Rome.

Keywords

buildings civil war heirlooms newcomers luxury Pliny the Younger silverware social mobility Tacitus

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Roman Frugality
Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond
, pp. 347 - 371

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108879088.007 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2020

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