This is the recession, so we must spend our way out of it! So speaks Old Labour. No, no. ‘Thrift’ must be the watchword, insists New Tory. Talk about missing the point.
Aristocratic Romans knew all about the pleasures of spending vast sums of money. Lucullus (1st C bc) was a byword for it (hence our ‘Lucullan’). From a rich family anyway, he made a gigantic fortune during his campaigns in the East (Turkey, Syria, Armenia), duly rewarded his troops and made copious, magnificent benefactions in Rome (the manubiae discussed a few weeks ago), but then found political life did not suit him. So he retired, dedicating himself to a life of cultured excess.
Fishponds were the order of the day among the rich. Expensive to build, maintain and supply with water, they were spare change for Lucullus, who drove a canal from one of his villas directly into the bay of Naples in order to keep saltwater stocks.
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