ABSTRACT
Throughout the history of ancient civilization, material wealth served as a marker of status and success. Herodotus’ anecdote recounting Solon’s visit to the wealthy King Croesus illustrates a conscious distinction between material prosperity and a non-material value, in this case “happiness” or perhaps better translated as “good fortune.” Solon’s subsequent discourse acknowledges the value of material wealth, but also emphasizes its fleeting nature. In this same passage the wise Solon deems non-material assets such as good health and children as the most valuable forms of wealth. Visible manifestations of wealth were part of the Romans’ complex system of external evaluation, whereby even clothing distinguished status and economic affluence. Often such visual markers become textualized in Roman literature, giving rise to ecphrases or verbal descriptions of clothing, dinner parties, houses, and other material objects.
