A wide-ranging study of Roman social life from the excesses of early imperial autocracy to the comparatively prosperous Antonine era, focusing on moral character, civic institutions, and spiritual change. It surveys aristocratic manners under imperial pressure, the relations between Senate, emperor, and municipal towns, and the influence of later Stoic and Neoplatonic thought on legislation and private conduct. Attention is given to popular religiosity, the spread of eastern mystery cults such as Isis and Mithra, and their inability to meet mass spiritual need before Christianity's ascendancy. Literary, epigraphic, and biographical evidence are used to reconstruct manners, charities, material comforts, and reforming impulses.