BMCR 2009.03.54, Teresa Morgan, Popular Morality in the Early Roman

Teresa Morgan, Popular Morality in the Early Roman Empire.  Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2007.  Pp. xiv, 380; ills. 5, table 1.
ISBN 978-0-521-87553-0.  $105.00.

Reviewed by Cheryl L. Golden, Newman University ([email protected])
Word count:  1248 words
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Teresa Morgan's Popular Morality in the Early Roman Empire aims to
examine popular attitudes toward right and wrong, virtue and injustice
in the first and second centuries AD in an effort to discern the
"degree of common moral ground" held by the people of both higher and
lower status in the Roman Empire during the pax romana (2).  Morgan
begins with the assumption that morality and ethics, namely a shared
understanding of what people can and cannot do if they want a
predictable and secure existence in society (as regards land use,
marriage, what constitutes murder, etc.),  is essential to any group's
success.  Morgan places morality alongside political, economic and
social behavior for analysis of the nature of a culture.  That noted,
Morgan then approaches her evidence with the tools of historical,
literary, anthropological and philosophical inquiry.  Her evidence for
this study is both Latin and Greek proverbs, fables, gnomai and
exempla.  Morgan's use of this particular pool of evidence in a
systematic way for historical and philosophical inquiry represents a
breakthrough in social history and may serve as a model for others.

Getting at popularly held concepts in a society where possibly 80
percent of the male population was illiterate is daunting from the
outset.  Furthermore, the social, ethnic and geographic diversity of
the Roman Empire presents an enormous obstacle.  Morgan confronts these
concerns by recognizing the limitations of written evidence for the
examination of popular attitudes, but reminds us that Homer and others
had a mass audience of listeners across the Mediterranean and that the
tradition of oratory in the ancient world insured that large audiences
heard speeches invoking such concepts.  Aristotle maintained that
fables were the poetry of the poor.  Thus Morgan allows that proverbs,
fables, gnomai and exempla may have worked both upwards and downwards
socially, "percolating" as she has it, throughout society, thus helping
us begin to understand how the elite of society influenced the common
element, and how the reverse could also occur (324).

So how might one use "sayings" to study the problem at hand?  Morgan
outlines her method in the introduction.  First, she claims that in
this evidence that even though there are inherent ambiguities in the
study of ancient language and religion, one can still identify a
coherent systematic thought process behind them.  Second, one might
need to determine whether the evidence from sayings relates to
widespread issues (concerns for all), or if they merely focus on
marginal and/or disputed topics.  Ultimately, Morgan contends that most
proverbs, fables, etc. deal with topics that are "ethically ponderable"
(18).  Such "ponderables" speak directly to her aim to discern a
commonly held attitude to the right and wrong ways of dealing with
ethical issues.  Finally, Morgan acknowledges the great efforts of
literary criticism to analyze the various meanings, ambiguities and
intentions associated with ancient texts as well as proverbs, fables,
etc.  The author then notes, however, that people in antiquity who used
such sayings did not "live in a perpetual consciousness of ambiguity
and refuse to come to conclusions; if they did they would hardly be
able to act at all.  Historians, therefore, do not need to focus on the
infinite potential of the text, but on what it is reasonable to believe
it may have meant in context" (22).  Thus Morgan's method of research
relies upon identifying the systemic nature of "ethical ponderables"
found in the evidence to discern popular morality of the Roman Empire
in its historical context.

Morgan has organized her presentation into three parts.  Part one
defines, presents and analyzes four categories of evidence: proverbs,
fables, gnomai and exempla.  Chapter six of part one then presents
patterns found in the evidence.  Morgan defines each category of
evidence:

Proverbs: popular and anonymous sayings (23-31; 84)

Fables: stories providing a "useful source of wisdom and morality in
general, teaching great moral lessons from small things" (59)

Gnomai:  "moralizing quotations from a known author" (31; 84)

Exempla: "the sayings and doings of famous men and women of the past as
examples to be imitated or avoided" (122)

For each category, Morgan proceeds to offer what she terms "a map of
the ethical landscape," in which she orders the evidence into themes.
Under the category of exempla, Morgan finds exempla commonly used in
the areas of religion, such as courage, friendship, mercy and self
control, and shows how these examples provide a general picture of
Roman expectations regarding relationships between family members, law
and its enforcement, and the relationship between gods and humans.  At
times the reader would like to see Morgan stretch a bit in her
analysis.  She seems to have anticipated the readers' frustration,
writing at the beginning of her presentation on fables: "I shall try
both to do justice to the multiplicity of possible readings of the
fables, and to draw out what can defensibly be seen as their major
concerns.  It should be emphasized, however, that the nature of fables
means that two listeners or readers will never see or hear them in
quite the same way.  As a result, no one analysis is definitive (and it
is hard for anyone to be absolutely wrong)" (63).  Thus, Morgan, while
offering an analysis of the evidence, leaves room for the reader to
take the evidence where it may or may not go for his own purposes.  At
the conclusion of each chapter, Morgan presents a graphic distribution
of the main topics represented by each category, allowing another form
of comparison across all categories of evidence. Again, this is a
useful tool for the researcher hoping to develop his own conclusions
about the evidence.

Part two offers more analysis as to the language of morality, focusing
on the verbs and adjectives represented in this evidence, and noting
what is "approved or disapproved of" in the sayings (191). This part
also investigates the roles of authority and time represented in the
evidence.

Part three looks at specific works that help to understand the
connection between popular morality, ethics and high philosophy.
Morgan intentionally saves this topic for last, hoping to have
established the systematic thinking of popular morality before
comparing it to the systematic thinking of high philosophy of the
schools then active in the empire.  Her appendices offer support for
the validity of such a comparison.  I will leave it to others better
schooled in philosophy to judge Morgan's success.

Overall Morgan's work is an exhaustive study, helpful and entertaining.
Her writing style is easily accessible.  Her method, employing the
work of history, classics, anthropology and philosophy should serve as
an example for others hoping to delve deeper into the social history of
Rome or any other past culture displaying similar evidence.  Such an
approach provides a pathway to understanding not only the early Roman
Empire but other societies and times as well.

By systematically ordering and presenting bons mots preserved by Greek
and Roman fabulists, biographers and poets of the Roman Empire, she has
presented a method for historical inquiry into the largest part of
Roman society.  Ancient historians always bemoan the lack of literary
evidence for the vast majority of Roman society and have turned rightly
to economic theory, archaeological and epigraphic  evidence, as well as
demographic approaches to ascertain the typical Roman citizen's
lifestyle, diet, and level of involvement in military, political and
social organizations.  Morgan's efforts to analyze this collection of
literary evidence stand alongside such attempts, offering yet another
tool to help us to "get at" the vast majority of people living under
the Roman Empire.