law
Lex Iulia sumptuaria
sumptuary law
also: sumptuariae legis, Caesar's sumptuary law
Caesar's sumptuary law of 46 BC restricting expenditure on banquets and luxury foods, enforced as part of his censorial praefectura morum; allowed larger outlays on festival days. The butt of Cicero's dining jokes in Fam. 9.15 and 9.16.
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 13.7 §1 just as the sumptuary law had been
Caesar's Lex Iulia sumptuaria, a statute capping private expenditure on luxury and dining; its open neglect is Caesar's example of how his laws lapse in his absence.
- Ad Familiares 7.26 §2 the sumptuary law
Caesar's sumptuary law of 46 BC capped spending on luxury foods (oysters, lampreys, imported delicacies) but exempted produce of the soil. Cicero's joke is that the law backfired: cooks lavished their art on the permitted vegetables, and the rich greens at the dinner gave him worse trouble than any banned dish.
- Ad Familiares 9.15 §5 I shall reduce the sumptuary-law allowance to one day in ten
Caesar's lex Iulia sumptuaria (46 BC) capped permitted spending on banquets, with higher limits on festival days. Cicero's joke is that if he has his own house he will spread the allowance for one feast across ten ordinary days' rations, dining lean to comply with the new austerity.