Writing Morality in Law: Roman Sumptuary Legislation as Political Discourse

• In Event: Law, Power, and the Imagination: Reframing Authority and Ethics in the Ancient and Premodern World

Brief Overview

This paper reinterprets Roman sumptuary laws as political discourse that expressed elite ideals and managed social tension, showing them as symbolic tools of republican identity rather than failed moral regulation.

Author

• Emily "Sal" Salamanca, Stanford University