Book contents
- Roman Frugality
- Cambridge Classical Studies
- Roman Frugality
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Translations
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 ‘Frugality’, Economy and Society in Archaic Rome (Late Seventh to Early Fourth Century BCE)
- Chapter 2 From Licinius Stolo to Tiberius Gracchus: Roman Frugality and the Limitation of Landholding
- Chapter 3 Frugality as a Political Language in the Second Century BCE: The Strategies of Cato the Elder and Scipio Aemilianus
- Chapter 4 Smallholding, Frugality and Market Economy in the Gracchan age
- Chapter 5 Frugalitas, or: The Invention of a Roman Virtue
- Chapter 6 Frugality, Building, and Heirlooms in an Age of Social Mobility
- Chapter 7 From Poverty to Prosperity: The Recalibration of Frugality
- Index Locorum
- General Index
- References
Chapter 7 - From Poverty to Prosperity: The Recalibration of Frugality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 June 2020
Book contents
- Roman Frugality
- Cambridge Classical Studies
- Roman Frugality
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Translations
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 ‘Frugality’, Economy and Society in Archaic Rome (Late Seventh to Early Fourth Century BCE)
- Chapter 2 From Licinius Stolo to Tiberius Gracchus: Roman Frugality and the Limitation of Landholding
- Chapter 3 Frugality as a Political Language in the Second Century BCE: The Strategies of Cato the Elder and Scipio Aemilianus
- Chapter 4 Smallholding, Frugality and Market Economy in the Gracchan age
- Chapter 5 Frugalitas, or: The Invention of a Roman Virtue
- Chapter 6 Frugality, Building, and Heirlooms in an Age of Social Mobility
- Chapter 7 From Poverty to Prosperity: The Recalibration of Frugality
- Index Locorum
- General Index
- References
Summary
The chapter traces the incorporation of the ideal of frugality in its sense of material sobriety, as devised especially by Cicero drawing upon the middle Stoa, into Christian thought and its subsequent ‘demoralisation’ by David Hume and Adam Smith on the grounds that luxury or opulence would enhance the overall material well-being of society. It argues that the two Scottish philosophers nevertheless partially re-incorporated ‘frugality’ in their system of thought as economic prudence directed to the acquisition of fortune as a way of sacrificing present advantage for greater return in future.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Roman FrugalityModes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, pp. 372 - 399Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
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