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

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.

About the Author

Ingo Gildenhard is Reader in Classics and the Classical Tradition at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of King's College. His publications include Paideia Romana (2007) and Creative Eloquence (2011) and, with M. Silk and R. Barrow, The Classical Tradition (2013).

Cristiano Viglietti is Associate Professor of Roman History at the University of Siena. He is the author of Il limite del bisogno. Antropologia economica di Roma arcaica (2011).