How to Make Money: An Ancient Guide to Wealth Management (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers)

Pliny The Elder

ISBN 10: 0691239126 / ISBN 13: 9780691239125

Published by Princeton University Press, 2024

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 9780691239125

Bibliographic Details

• Title: How to Make Money: An Ancient Guide to Wealth Management (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers)
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691239126
• ISBN 13: 9780691239125
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

An enriching collection of classical writings about how ancient Romans made—and thought about—money

Ancient Romans liked money. But how did they make a living and sometimes even become rich? The Roman economy was dominated by agriculture, but it was surprisingly modern in many ways: the Romans had companies with CEOs, shareholders, and detailed contracts regulated by meticulous laws; systems of banking and taxation; and a wide range of occupations, from merchant and doctor to architect and teacher. The Romans also enjoyed a relatively open society, where some could start from the bottom, work, invest, and grow rich. How to Make Money gathers a wide variety of ancient writings that show how Romans thought about, made, invested, spent, lost, and gave away money.

The Roman elite idealized farming and service to the state but treated many other occupations with suspicion or contempt, from money lending to wage labor. But whatever their attitudes, pecunia made the Roman world go round. In the Satyricon, Trimalchio brags about his wealth. Seneca accumulated a fortune—but taught that money can’t buy happiness. Eumachia inherited a brick factory from her father, married well, and turned to philanthropy after she was widowed. How to Make Money also takes up some of the most troubling aspects of the Roman economy, slavery and prostitution, which the elite deemed unrespectable but often profited from.

Featuring lively new translations, an illuminating introduction, and the original Latin and Greek texts on facing pages, How to Make Money offers a revealing look at the Roman worlds of work and money.

About the Author

Luca Grillo is the Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Collegiate Professor of Classics at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of several books, including The Art of Caesar’s “Bellum Civile,” and the coeditor of The Cambridge Companion to the Writings of Julius Caesar.