The Perception of Baiae and Luxuria in the Fourth Century C.E.:

The Evidence from the Letters of Q. Aurelius Symmachus

Tim Watson, UCR

According to the educated elite of the Roman world, the phenomenon of luxuria began in the second century B.C.E. in the luxury villas constructed around the Bay of Naples, cratera illum delicatum (Cic., Att. 2.8.2). Of particular notoriety was the town of Baiae, Rome's first resort. L. Annaeus Seneca offers the strongest condemnation of this community in his Epistulae Morales 51. Juxtaposing the behavior at Baiae to traditional virtue, he writes, "...I have had to be satisfied with Baiae; and I left it the day after I reached it; for Baiae is a place to be avoided, because, though it has certain natural advantages, luxury has claimed it for her own exclusive resort (illum sibi celebrandum luxuria desumpsit)." Baiae, then, came to epitomize the corruption of the Roman virtue of otium, its infection by luxuria, among many of the social and political elite of the Roman world. Utilizing this aristocratic archetype of Baiae as a thematic focal point, this essay examines the omnipresent anxieties of the Roman elite over the proper role of otium in one's private life and the threat posed by luxury to one's reputation. Specifically, it treats the persistence of these anxieties into the late fourth-century C.E., the Rome of the renowned senatorial orator, Q. Aurelius Symmachus. Although long thought of little use to historians, the collection of Symmachus' letters offers a unique view into the cares and concerns of the late fourth-century senatorial aristocracy. What will become apparent is the dependence of this late-Roman senator on more traditional views of Baiae and condemnations of luxury. Thus, the Baiae of the fourth century C.E. looks much like the resort town of the first centuries B.C.E. and C.E.

Return to Conference Homepage