Once again about the category of «luxury» in the economy and law of ancient Rome

In recent decades, Roman sumptuary laws have been actively studied in classical studies, which are traditionally associated with the theory of “decline of morals”: according to this theory, the crisis of the Roman state was caused by the process of decomposition of traditional norms and values under the influence of foreign morals, luxury and wealth. In this context, the relevance of the undertaken research is obvious. The author sets himself the goal of studying in detail the internally contradictory essence of such a phenomenon as Roman sumptuary laws. In particular, he draws attention to the conventional nature of the term “sumptuary laws” used in Russian-language literature, which does not accurately convey the meaning of the Latin phrase leges sumptuariae. The study draws on a range of Latin texts and other sources, as well as an extensive research literature. As a result, the author comes to the following conclusions: firstly, if the word luxus was associated with phenomena introduced into the life of the Roman civil community by the Hellenistic civilization and resulting from the military activity of Rome in the south of Italy and beyond, then the term sumptus was associated with the original Roman ideas about moderation and frugality, which must be considered, first of all, in the context of the life of the familia and its economic activities. Secondly, if the term luxus reflected the concept of luxury as such, then the use of the word sumptus was associated with housekeeping in general and with the concept of expenses in particular.