Speaker: Dr. George Kazantzidis, Associate Professor of Latin, University of Patras
This lunch talk is presented by Princeton University’s Program in the Ancient World. It will be held on Wednesday, December 3rd 2025 from 12pm to 1:20pm in 209 Scheide Caldwell House. RSVP to this event: (Link Here).
Abstract:
“This paper explores the intersections between madness and economy in Greek and Roman antiquity, arguing that mental illness was conceptualized not only as a medical or moral condition but also as a financial and social phenomenon. Drawing on literary, legal, medical, and philosophical sources, the paper investigates how metaphors of currency and ownership shaped ancient understandings of mental disorder. Terms such as parakopê (“cutting a false coin”) and alienatio (“transfer of property”) reveal how financial language was used to describe the loss of rational control and personal coherence. The paper further examines legal procedures, including the graphê paranoias and the Roman cura furiosi et prodigi, alongside discussions in Plato’s Laws and in Roman jurisprudence on the sale of slaves with mental defects. By integrating insights from disability studies and ancient economic history, the paper demonstrates how madness was regulated, commodified, and moralized through economic logic. In doing so, it reframes ancient narratives of unreason within the dynamics of property, debt, and social order, revealing money as a structuring principle even in the realm of irrationality.”