Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction to the Cambridge Classical Classics edition
- Introduction
- Chapter One A moral revolution? The law against adultery
- Chapter Two Mollitia: Reading the body
- Chapter Three Playing Romans: Representations of actors and the theatre
- Chapter Four Structures of immorality: Rhetoric, building and social hierarchy
- Chapter Five Prodigal Pleasures
- Bibliography
- Index locorum
- Index of subjects and proper names
Chapter Five - Prodigal Pleasures
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2025
Foreword by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction to the Cambridge Classical Classics edition
- Introduction
- Chapter One A moral revolution? The law against adultery
- Chapter Two Mollitia: Reading the body
- Chapter Three Playing Romans: Representations of actors and the theatre
- Chapter Four Structures of immorality: Rhetoric, building and social hierarchy
- Chapter Five Prodigal Pleasures
- Bibliography
- Index locorum
- Index of subjects and proper names
Summary
Pleasure was a problem for members of the Roman elite – or so moralists felt. In his treatise on the good life, Seneca stresses the insidious threat posed by the attractions of sensual pleasure, while asserting that only the subhuman will want to surrender themselves completely ... Seneca’s language presents pleasure as fluid, both engulfing and invading its hapless victims. His insistence on its seductive dangers could be read as betraying a certain fascination with pleasure.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome , pp. 173 - 206Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025