Useless Beauty: Luxury and Rome

“Nothing can please luxury unless it is expensive.” Seneca Natural Questions, 4b.13.4 Luxuria (extravagance, luxury, excess) was a problematic concept for the Romans; it undermined ancestral customs and encouraged ‘un-Roman’ practices. In Roman moral discourse, luxuria destabilised the social order by encouraging behaviour that directed attention away from civic and familial duties. Roman men, through their actions and attire, were supposed to strive for virtus (moral excellence), gravitas (seriousness conveying dignity), continentia (self-control) and frugalitas (frugality). Roman women were expected to demonstrate munditia (elegance of appearance) by wearing respectable clothing and modest amounts of jewellery and make up. Their pudicitia (modesty and chastity) and fides (trustworthiness and honesty) was linked to their domestic roles within the household. Extravagant lifestyles built around foreign imports, Roman moralists claimed, provided only fleeting pleasures. Those who indulged themselves were likely to suffer personal demise, and at the same time destabilise the Roman state. The Exhibition ‘Useless Beauty’ explores the tension which arose between individuals and groups who helped to develop a culture of consumption for pleasure in Rome and Italy, and Roman authorities who attempted to curb this culture because they believed it threatened the established political and social order. Moralising Roman authors sought to reflect many of the anxieties felt by members of the Roman upper class, by parodying extravagance. However, it is clear that many Romans of different social classes had no desire to curb their perceived excesses and return to the frugal lifestyle once advocated by Cato the Elder