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Social Reality and the Tasks of the Roman Farmer. Agriculture as a Frame of Morality
Abstract
Farming activities defined the Roman cultural matrix and played a crucial role in the construction of the empire. Aware of this, Roman patricians associated the rural world with the values of the Republic itself, promoting depictions of farmers as ideal citizens based on the imagery of agricultural labour. This paper aims to describe and analyse the symbolic language of morality through the image of the farmer in Latin literature, using the actual dimensions of the described activities as reference. We will address the practical aspects of farming and assess how they contribute to the construction of abstract symbolism. Our exploratory approach combines semiotics with knowledge of ancient agricultural practices to decode and describe symbolic constructs. Through the application of semiotic principles and the identification of ‘signs of meaning’, we intend to present the sources of these symbols before their appropriation by Roman propaganda in Latin literature. Furthermore, we seek to explore and understand how the ‘symbols of morality’ were recognised in Roman popular culture.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/rh.2025.60.61-92
Date of publication: 2025-11-28 08:31:36
Date of submission: 2024-07-01 19:00:22
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