This interdisciplinary conference is being held in conjunction with the international loan exhibition, Leisure and Luxury in the Age of Nero: The Villas of Oplontis near Pompeii at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology (February 19–May 15, 2016).

The conference will expand and complicate our perception of Roman luxury (luxuria) associated in the ancient literary record with the moral decline of elite Romans who lived lives of leisure in their lavishly adorned houses and villas. Recent research at Oplontis and other sites indicates that this reductive view is ripe for reassessment.

See conference program for details.