Cicero about luxury

The article is devoted to Cicero’s interpretation of luxury. The usage of the conception of ‘luxuries’ / ‘luxuria’ in Cicero’s writings is analyzed. It can be concluded that Cicero uses the conception in a negative way and pairs it with the terms ‘avaritia’, ‘libido’, ‘desidia’, ‘licentia’, ‘nequitia’, ‘vitium’ and some others. We noticed a discrepancy between Cicero’s negative attitude to luxury in theory and his positive one in practice (he had some luxurious villas). This can be explained in terms of the Roman mentality: a private individual was not allowed to ‘bathe’ in luxury whereas a state person (Cicero was such) could have representative housing for maintaining his social status.