Francesca Romana Berno’s new book is a neat historical analysis of the concept of luxuria in Roman antiquity. Through a series of close readings of various Latin texts in which the term plays a central role, her study seeks to find answers to the questions of what was generally understood as luxuria, in which ways it could manifest itself, and how it was perceived and judged. While Berno is not the first scholar to tackle the topic of luxury and excess in ancient Rome (for a short bibliography, see p. 2 n.4), her comprehensive chronological approach nonetheless enables her to build on previous research by highlighting the gradual semantic change of luxuria from a predominantly economic notion to an almost entirely erotic one.
In view of the practical impossibility of scrutinising in detail each and every passage dedicated to the topic of luxuria, Berno’s decision to limit her analysis to ‘the most relevant authors in this regard’ (p. vii) appears reasonable, even if the inevitable consequence of this selection is that almost all of the texts examined by her belong to the traditional canon of Latin literature (the sumptuary laws discussed in chapter 2.9 being a welcome exception). One issue of her approach to the study of ‘Roman luxuria’, however, is that the choice to focus exclusively on passages in which the term luxuria ‘explicitly recurs’ (p. vii) also means that Berno deprives herself of the option to incorporate some of the imperial Greek sources that may have added another perspective to the discussion.
This issue aside, Berno’s study begins with a very useful introductory discussion of the Latin term luxuria itself (‘What Does Luxuria Mean?’). Highlighting the extraordinarily nuanced meaning of the word (and its immediate derivates), Berno explores its etymological and semantic origins (including the language of uncontrolled growth in nature) and suggests the rather basic but entirely sensible English translation ‘desire for excess’ as a general starting point (p. 2). She also stresses that, in the eyes of the Romans, the term luxuria usually had a negative connotation. Unsurprisingly, ‘we find it in reference to love for luxury, gluttony, drunkenness, leisure, and lust, often connected with the lexicon of tenderness and effeminacy’ (p. 6). In other words, luxuria, the passionate longing for essentially superfluous and often short-lived pleasures, represented the absolute opposite of the traditional Roman value system and was, therefore, portrayed as one of the main causes of moral decline.
The first main part of the study (‘Luxuria: A Short History’) examines the varied treatment of the concept of luxuria in Latin literature from Plautus (in whose Trinummus a personified Luxuria encourages her daughter Inopia (‘Poverty’) to enter a young man’s house) to the end of the first century CE. Here Berno proceeds mainly chronologically, working her way through different historical periods and literary genres. As a result, the subchapters in this section provide a clearly laid-out and very useful survey of the various (and often unique) ways in which multiple generations of Latin authors utilised the concept of luxuria for their own literary purposes, each, in turn, contributing to as well as (re-)shaping the moral discourse around this perceived vice in republican and early imperial Rome. Berno’s analysis leads to a number of thought-provoking observations on individual authors and works, emphasising distinctive perspectives and themes. Only on a very small number of occasions does Berno’s study give the impression of being too superficial, so that one would have wished for further scrutiny and closer attention to the ancient author’s specific literary approach (see, e.g., her discussion of the treatment of luxuria in Valerius Maximus’ Facta et dicta memorabilia, which might also have profited from a slightly more extensive engagement with the secondary literature available). Even in these instances, however, Berno’s work is likely to serve as the starting point for further research.
Despite the obvious differences between individual Latin authors and genres, Berno’s survey also highlights the fact that some of the defining features of luxuria as well as some of its moral implications appear to have remained largely the same over the years, at least until the end of the first century CE. Thus Berno is able to identify a number of recurring topoi which seem to have formed the basis of the Roman understanding and evaluation of luxuria. While many of these notions may not be entirely new or surprising, it certainly is helpful to see them being assembled and put in relation to each other.
In the literature of the Roman Republic and the first century CE, luxuria is generally portrayed as a vice of Eastern (i.e. Asian or Greek) origin which found its way into Roman society (either through military conquest or commercial exchange) and started to undermine Rome’s traditional frugality, eventually causing social inequality. Once present within a society, luxuria tended to spread like an uncontrollable and fatal disease, infecting others and leading to moral weakness and an effeminate attitude. The culmination of this development can, of course, best be observed in the works of Sallust, where Rome is depicted as the pinnacle of moral degradation. For most republican and early imperial writers, Berno emphasises, luxuria appears to have had a clear material or economic connotation, finding its clearest expression in lush architecture, expensive furniture and clothing, as well as luxurious banquets. Nonetheless, the erotic undertone of luxuria, which gradually developed into the predominant notion during the second century CE, is already present. Of particular interest is also the deliberately fashioned contrast between private luxuria (a deplorable vice) and public magnificentia (a commendable quality), an issue which is first discussed by Cicero and develops even greater significance during the Principate.
While the first part of Berno’s book offers a broad chronological sweep of the development of the Roman concept of luxuria well into the early Empire, arguably the most comprehensive and thorough part of her study is the two very substantial chapters which focus entirely on the younger Seneca’s extraordinarily complex relationship with luxuria, both as a super-rich landowner (‘Seneca’s Luxuria’) and as a moralist writer (‘Seneca against Luxuria’). Given Berno’s expertise as a scholar of Seneca’s writings, it does not come as much of a surprise that this particular author is given special treatment in her work. Her decision to dedicate almost as many pages to one individual writer as to the multiple generations of authors before him combined does, of course, leave her study slightly imbalanced. However, this imbalance is offset by the acumen of Berno’s research, which offers a fascinating insight into Seneca’s handling of the topic of luxuria within his works.
Using his De vita beata as evidence, Berno begins by examining Seneca’s defence strategy against any accusations of moral inconsistency. She demonstrates how, in an attempt to divert the allegations of luxuria levelled against him, Seneca seeks to shift the focus from the moral to a purely material level, redefining his own wealth as divitiae or pecunia, possessions which, according to Stoic philosophy, belonged to the ‘indifferents’ and, since they were neither inherently good nor bad, did not affect a person’s state of mind. Regarding Seneca’s philosophical stance on the moral issue of luxuria, Berno identifies a number of central ideas. In Seneca’s eyes, luxuria is the restless desire for novelty – a vice which perverts nature, turning the world upside down (e.g. through inappropriate clothing, flowers in winter, turning night into day). Due to its inventiveness, it is extraordinarily difficult to fight and always in search of a new stage to present itself and to be admired. Berno therefore rightly observes that ‘luxuria has all the characteristics of the “ideal” vice for Seneca’ (p. 149).
The final chapter of the book (‘From Luxuria to Lust’) focusses on the semantic change of luxuria from ‘luxury’ to ‘lust’. Towards the end of the first century CE, Berno observes ‘a process of legitimization of luxury, banquets, and the expensive pleasures of life’, to the extent that ‘the negative label luxuria in this regard disappears’ (p. 200). At the same time, the term luxuria appears to become increasingly used in reference to sexual desire, a development which, according to Berno, begins with Apuleius’ novels, before this strictly erotic sense becomes a constant feature in the works of the Latin Church Fathers. As examples of the latter, Berno names Tertullian and Augustine, by whom luxuria is conjoined with such vices as libido and fornicatio and opposed to the virtues of castitas and pudicitia. Why others, such as Ambrose (cf., e.g., Epist. 14.26: luxuria igitur mater libidinis est), deserve no mention here remains unclear. The study closes with a delightful examination of Prudentius’ allegorical portrayal of Luxuria in the Psychomachia, where the ‘debauched mistress’ (p. 231), armed with perfumed flowers to seduce her enemies, is defeated by Sobrietas.
One marginal point to be made is that, although the copyediting is generally of a high standard, the book contains a couple of rather unfortunate and irritating typos, particularly in some of the Latin quotes. On page 38, for instance, in a passage where Berno seeks to highlight the contrast between Pompey’s luxuria and Caesar’s luxuries within the narrative of Caes. BCiv. 3.96.1-2, she mistakenly prints luxuriem for luxuriam, thereby contradicting her own intriguing observation. On page 50, the Latin text in question (Liv. 7.25.9: divitias luxuriamque) is quoted correctly, but then ‘the couple divitias luxuriaeque’ (sic!) is discussed further. Some readers may also feel an aversion towards the use of the Latin ablative in such English phrases as ‘devoted to Luxuria et libidine’ (p. 67).
These minor quibbles aside, Berno’s new book is a very useful point of reference for scholars interested in the history of the concept of luxuria in Roman antiquity. Full of stimulating interpretations of different authors and texts dating from the early second century BCE to the end of the fourth century CE, it offers the reader a substantial and well-structured study of the gradual semantic development of luxuria from ‘material luxury’ to ‘sexual desire’. By compiling this convenient handbook, Berno has done all students of Roman virtue ethics a great service.