In recent decades the subject of paupertas in the classical Greek and Roman world has produced a flowering of historiographical works, of different scientific depth, aimed at clarifying the complexity of the ‘poverty’ phenomenon through a wide use of the various available sources. The present book is a significant expression of this renewed interest. It is divided into three sections: Greece (15–114), Rome (115–208), and Late Antiquity (209–94), preceded by an Introduction (1–13) written by the editors. This Introduction is not a mere preface, but a real essay, that outlines the epistemological coordinates of the work, making explicit the common and innovative cultural references. The text adopts a productive approach to the study of poverty as ‘a dynamic and variegated process that defined the societies of Graeco-Roman Antiquity’ (6), overcoming the critical issues inherent in the ‘substantially static and homogenizing’ traditional view (2). The aim is to examine ‘Realities and Discourses’ (as the title of the volume suggests), considering ‘the actual economic conditions of the poor and the ways in which poverty is perceived and represented as complementary and self-reinforcing, even if not necessarily coincident’ (3).

Part I on Greece comprises five essays. Lucia Cecchet (17–38), considering ancient Megara and classical Athens, examines the different ways that ruling classes, i.e. most ancient literary authors, represented poverty. She points out that, despite the conservative ideological framework adopted by the elite to represent the phenomenon of poverty, ‘the Greek discourse on poverty was neither monolithic nor static’ (17). Claire Taylor (39–58) addresses gender, dealing with ‘women’s poverty’ and the risk, always high, of uncritically and prejudicially using data provided by archaeological sources. To neutralise this risk, she proposes a stimulating overall reassessment of the functions of Building Z in the Athenian agora. Gabriel Bernardo (59–76) aims to analyse Spartan social reality and, in particular, the relationship between poverty and honour in classical and Hellenistic Sparta. Irene Berti (77–97) is interested in Greek religion and the role played by sacrificial offerings, which were a useful means to satisfy, even if minimally, the hunger of the poor and needy. Etienne Helmer (98–114) adopts a philosophical perspective to grasp the profound meaning of poverty in relation to truth, considering poverty an indispensable condition for the attainment of truth.

The four essays in Part II consider poverty in republican and imperial Rome. Lewis Webb (117–43) reflects on the existential conditions of women in the mid-republican period, belonging to senatorial families but affected by processes of ‘impoverishment’. He points out that economic impoverishment affecting these women often does not negatively impact their relational sphere, as they continue to receive assistance from the senate. Christian Rollinger (144–65) focuses on the late republican and imperial age, analysing again the relationship between the processes of impoverishment that often affected individuals of senatorial rank and the possible impact on their social status. He emphasises the radical change occurring in the imperial age when senatorial finances become the object of investigation by the emperor, and senators are then obliged to justify the movements of money and the consequent processes of impoverishment. Filippo Carlà-Uhink (166–83) analyses the theme of impoverishment in Cicero’s speeches, which formulate a complex and non-univocal judgement on poverty. In fact Cicero’s negative judgement on poverty is directly proportional to the negative influence of poverty itself (economic capital) on the acquisition and use of other forms of capital, social and cultural (relationships, knowledge and skills). Erica Rowan (184–208) raises the question of ‘food poverty’, in its material and cultural aspects, as a context for considering the so-called ‘voluntary poor’. These ‘were individuals who practiced austerity, frugality, and parsimony, usually in an attempt to display or uphold a reputation for moral superiority or authority’ (191).

Finally, Part III addresses Late Antiquity, when care for the poor and Christian charity constitute the central elements that legitimise episcopal authority, reinforcing the consideration of the church as the dominant institution in the West. Daniel F. Caner (211–31) shows, through extensive documentation, how during this period poverty was a status to be merited, encompassing not only the physically and materially needy, but also the so-called ‘poor in spirit’. Carlos Machado (232–57) affirms that the recognition of the status of poverty was a vital objective in Late Antiquity, as a generator of rights, linked to the hope of social justice. In any case, the same ecclesiastical institutions, deputed to the recognition of poverty in its ethical valence, also perform a function of social control, increasing the power of the church. Christel Freu (258–76) explores the position of the poor facing justice in late antique Egypt by examining judicial documents on papyrus containing mainly petitions. Julio Cesar Magalhães de Oliveira (277–94) deals with the social strategies adopted by the poor in the urban North African context through the study of Augustine’s sermons and letters, with the aim ‘to show how the vulnerable and impoverished individuals and groups … actively appropriated and used the discourse on charity and poverty for their own ends’ (278).

In conclusion, it is notable that the authors of these essays adopt a holistic and interdisciplinary approach and elaborate a new way of understanding poverty and its dynamics, nourished by the most recent findings of social science. In particular, Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological reflections on the different forms of ‘capital’ appear productive from a hermeneutic point of view. While the classical economic conception considered the term ‘capital’ only referred to resources of an economic nature, the French sociologist elaborates a more flexible theory of capital, capable of explaining social reality in its multiformity and, specifically, of grasping the complexity of the dynamics linked to the phenomenon of poverty in the ancient world. Social hierarchies depend on the different degrees of access to the various forms of capital and not only on economic capital, as has been simplistically assumed in the past: ‘These forms can interact with each other, but they also exist independently from one another. In other words, a lack of economic capital does not prevent individuals from holding social capital, as in the case of impoverished Roman senators living in the Julio-Claudian period’ (3).

The essays collected in this coherent and persuasive volume follow these methodological indications, opening up new paths of research in a field that has been extensively explored. A field which can still reserve, for scholars and readers alike, pleasant surprises, in the awareness that a deep understanding of the past is essential in our present time to make choices that serve the common good.