Extravagance
Tryphé (Greek: τρυφἠ) -- variously glossed as "softness", "voluptuousness", "magnificence" and "extravagance", none fully adequate—is a concept that drew attention (and severe criticism) in Roman antiquity when it became a significant factor in the reign of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Classical authors such as Aeschines and Plutarch condemned the tryphé of Romans such as Crassus and Lucullus, which included lavish dinner parties and ostentatious buildings. But there was more to Ptolemaic tryphé than dissipative excess, which after all can be pursued in residential or geographical seclusion, and for purely private purposes. It was a component of a calculated political strategy, in that it deployed not just conspicuous consumption but also conspicuous magnificence, beneficence and feminine delicacy, as a self-reinforcing cluster of signal propaganda concepts in the Ptolemaic dynasty.
Read more about Extravagance.
Famous quotes containing the word extravagance:
“It seems as if an age of genius must be succeeded by an age of endeavour; riot and extravagance by cleanliness and hard work.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“The extravagance of intellect outstrips the extravagance of desire.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Test every work of intellect or faith
And everything that your own hands have wrought,
And call those works extravagance of breath
That are not suited for such men as come
Proud, open-eyed and laughing to the tomb.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)