The conferences will be held in Italian, French and English on Thursday 30.03.2023 at Istituto Svizzero, via Liguria 20, Rome.
Register to attend in Rome here.
Register to follow the event on Zoom here.

‚Luxuria‘: a Roman’s capital sin

In collaboration with Sapienza Università di Roma, Istituto Svizzero hosts the first day of the international congress devoted to a vice so pervasive and magmatic to constitute material for study and observation through different perspectives.

Luxuria, the love of excess, glitz, luxury: this is the vice most practised and most feared by the Romans. While in exemplary literature they like to portray themselves as frugal lovers of the country life, in moralistic literature they portray themselves as epulons in perpetual search of new pleasures. Philosophy tries to limit or extirpate this passion, but literature and material culture demonstrate its prevalence, vainly opposed by suntuary laws, while historiography identifies it as the root cause of social decadence.

During the three days of the congress, an international group of scholars from different disciplines – Latin literature, Roman history, papyrology, classical archaeology, ancient philosophy – will offer a picture as representative as possible of the complexity of this passion, responsible, according to the Romans, for civil discord and the decadence of civilisation, and therefore unforgivable.

The congress is funded by Ateneo Sapienza, in collaboration with Istituto Svizzero.

The event may be photographed and/or video recorded for archival, educational, and related promotional purposes. By attending this event, you are giving your consent to be photographed and/or video recorded.