Popular Morality in the Early Roman Empire [Hardcover]

Explores how morality worked, for Roman society as a whole and for individuals.This study of Roman popular morality argues that we can recover much of the moral thinking of ordinary people in the early Empire. Drawing on proverbs, fables, exemplary stories and gnomic quotations, she explores how morality worked, for Roman society as a whole and for individuals.This study of Roman popular morality argues that we can recover much of the moral thinking of ordinary people in the early Empire. Drawing on proverbs, fables, exemplary stories and gnomic quotations, she explores how morality worked, for Roman society as a whole and for individuals.Morality is one of the fundamental structures of any society, enabling complex groups to form, negotiate their internal differences and persist through time. In the first book-length study of Roman popular morality, Dr Morgan argues that we can recover much of the moral thinking of people across the Empire. Her study draws on proverbs, fables, exemplary stories and gnomic quotations, to explore how morality worked as a system for Roman society as a whole and in individual lives. She examines the range of ideas and practices and their relative importance, as well as questions of authority and the relationship with high philosophy and the ethical vocabulary of documents and inscriptions. The Roman Empire incorporated numerous overlapping groups, whose ideas varied according to social status, geography, gender and many other factors. Nevertheless it could and did hold together as an ethical community, which was a significant factor in its socio-political success.1. Introduction; Part I: 2. Proverbs; 3. Fables; 4. Gnomai; 5. Exempla; 6. Patterns; Part II: 7. The language of morality; 8. Moral authorities; 9. Time and morality; Part III: 10. The importance of being miscellaneous; 11. Popular morality and high philosophy; 12. Morality inter alia; Conclusion; Appendices.Review of the hardback: 'This clear-headed, balanced and subtle analylC%