Source: The scorched-earth iconoclasm of the historian Paul Veyne
of the social scale, patrons would sponsor public entertainment, games and banquets, all with the aim of securing popularity and prestige among their fellow citizens.Summary
The proposition that people did things differently in the past requires a leap of historical imagination. French historian Paul Veyne’s lesson is important for everyone interested in the long ago. The practice of public expenditure and civic benefaction in the ancient Mediterranean world has come to be known as ‘euergetism’, which was the transfer of wealth from the private to the public sphere in the Roman Empire.
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