The Destructive Power of Material Wealth in Rome: Luxury and Avarice as Negative Values in Sallust and Livy

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

7 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

08/19/2009

Category :

History & geography

Sub category :

Ancient history

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Summary :

Introduction
The discussion presented by Sallust
1. The decline of Roman morals
2. The greed for praise
The Conspiracy of Cataline and the Roman victory at Carthage
1. The price of the victory
2. The return of Sulla's army from Asia
Sallust's The Jugurthine War
1. Elaborating on the types of luxury that had infected the city
2. The desirability of employments involving the application of one's mind
3. Jugurtha and his cause against his brother
4. The speech by Caius Memmius
The writings of Livy
1. Cchos of Sallust's ideas
2. The condemnation of luxury and its degenerative effect on morality
The similarities between the works of Sallust and Livy
Sources

Abstract

The Roman conquest of foreign nations in the East resulted in a dramatic increase of material wealth in rome, brought back as the spoils of war from the conquered nations. This increase in wealth had a corruptive influence on Roman society, as it signified the advent of luxury, or extravagance, and of avarice into that society. The emergence of these negative values or vices in Roman society played a major causative role in the disintegration and decay of Roman society that eventuated in its decline and destruction. rome was able to prosper only so long as it embodied the virtues and positive values that characterized its earlier history, and the introduction of luxury into rome overwhelmed and eventually precluded Roman virtue as it seeped into all aspects of Roman life. sallust addresses this topic in his works, The Conspiracy of Catiline and The Jugurthine War. livy also treats the corruptive influence of wealth on morality and the resultant decline of rome in his History of rome.