TICKLER: More on the Discourse of Blaming "Luxus" on the Transformation of the Roman Empire from the Optimate to the Principate...

Roman "Republic" seems to me to be not quite right--it does not fit what we think of when we think of a republic. Perhaps "Optimate"--that is, rule by the Optimates, in the same way that we call the regime established by Augustus the Princeps the Principate?

The idea that the collapse of the aristocratic Roman Free State into the Roman Empire was due to wild dissipative partying���luxus, a vice caught from the Greeks and "Asiatics", giving rise to avaritia, which then leads to ambitio and cupido imperii���was originally a meme put forward by those I regard as the true villains���plutocrats and political norm breakers���to avoid responsibility. A.W. Lintott here seems wise to me: A.W. Lintott (1972): Imperial Expansion and Moral Decline in the Roman Republic: "Imperial expansion in general did of course have divisive economic and political effects...

...This discord should not necessarily be interpreted as moral decline. In particular, radical politicians, who wished to be patrons of the plebs tried to use the profits of empire to satisfy plebeian grievances. By ancient standards there was nothing either new or wrong in this distribution of praeda, though the actual measures clashed with senatorial tradition. What was new was the determination with which politicians pursued their aims, which in turn reflected the strength of socio-economic pressures and greater competition in the Roman governing class. Affluence, new social customs and intenser political strife in the second century were all changes brought about at least in part by empire, but are not sufficient explanations of each other. They should not be wrapped up together and labelled 'moral decline'.

In my view the tradition which ascribed the political failure of the Republic to moral corruption derived from wealth and foreign conquest, developed from the propaganda of the Gracchan period. Faced with the catstrophe of 133, some people claimed that Scipio Nasica Corculum was vindicated, the elimination of Carthage had brought ambitious demagogues and would-be tyrants. The destroyer of Carthage, Aemilianus, had to find another scapegoat. Disliking Greek luxury and effeminacy, he put the blame on Gracchus' association with Pergamum and Manlius Vulso's triumph. This view was reproduced by his contemporary Piso in his annales, while Nasica's view was eventually incorporated in Poseidonius' work. The views have become intermingled and confused in Sallust and later historians. They should not distract us now when we try to understand what changes, if any, in political mores were involved in the Republic's collapse...

Here we have Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius (Praetorian Prefect of Italy, 430??) trying to make sense of the tradition as it was handed down to him:

That the nobility had caught the disease of shameful decadent luxury late in the first century BC...
But maybe it was earlier--Cato the Elder, at least, was condemning bawdy idlers who declaimed Greek poetry, told jokes, and struck poses at least a generation earlier...
But nobody seems to have objected to the fact that L. Cornelius Sulla had a very good singing voice, and liked to use it...

Of course, if one did object to anything L. Cornelius Sulla--whom we mention with great respect--did, his bully-boys might well have cut your throat in the dark one day...

Macrobius: Saturnalia: However, we certainly know the the sons and--although it is a dreadful thing to say--the virgin daughters of noble families regarded dancing as one of their accomplishments...

...Our witness here is Scipio Africanus Aemilianus, who states in his speech against the judiciary law proposed by Tiberius Gracchus:

Men are taught dishonorable tricks: with catamites and accompanied by the zither and the lute they go to drama schools. They learn to sing songs which our ancestors considered disgraceful for the free-born to sing--free-born boys, and girls too, go, I say, to dancing schools and mix with male dancers.

When someone told me this I could not bring myself to believe that men of noble birth would have their children taught such things in a school. Among them--and this more than anything else made me pity the Republic--was a boy wearing the amulet of the free-born, the son of a candidate for office, a boy not less than twelve. He was dancing with castanets, and dancing a dance indecent for even a shameless little slave...

You see how it grieved Africanus to have seen the son of an office-seeker dancing with castanets���a candidate for election, that is, whose hopes and plans for winning a magistracy could not restrain him from doing something that evidently was not considered disgraceful, even at a time when he was obliged to keep himself and his family clear of reproach.

There are complaints still earlier that most of the nobility were behaving in these shameful ways. Thus Marcus Cato calls the noble senator Caelius an ���idler��� and ���bawdy���. Cato says Caelius is a poseur: ���He dismounts from his nag, strikes poses, spouts jokes...��� He elsewhere attacks the same man in these terms: ���Furthermore, he sings when it strikes his fancy, now and then declaims Greek poetry, tells jokes, talks in different voices, strikes poses...���

So says Cato, who (as you see) thought even singing was not the mark of a serious person. Others, however, were far from judging it disgraceful. For example, Lucius Sulla, a man of very great reputation, is said to have been an excellent singer...

On Twitter:

Tom Holland: "I enjoyed this article by @nfergus on Trump���s America as late Republican Rome very, very, very much indeed."

@de1ong: ???? Do you see the origins of Trump in the luxury of Los Angeles, or the fall of Roman republican liberty in the orgies of Baiae? If so, why, and how? ????

@holland_tom: I think that the Roman republic provides a mirror into which the American republic cannot help but look.

@de1ong: & apropos Polybius XXXI.25.: "Cato... said once in a public speech that 'it was the surest sign of deterioration in the republic when pretty boys fetch more than fields, and jars of caviar more than ploughmen'." "Caviar" cannot be right, can it? Is Paton translating "garum" as "caviar" here, or is it something else?

@holland_tom: The Greek word means 'salted fish', and it's specified as coming from Pontus, ie the Black Sea region. Caviar perhaps a bit of a leap!

@de1ong: ah! Thanks very much... A jar of salted fish from the north coast of the Black Sea costing more than an agricultural slave? Perhaps Cato the Elder had a point...

#shouldread
#liberty
#falloftheromanrepublic