It is deserving of praise when a man is more frugal in what he spends on his own household than in what he pays out for the common good

It is deserving of praise when a man is more frugal in what he spends on his own household than in what he pays out for the common good. Isocrates. Antidosis. Speech 15. Section 158.

Image: The Arch of Constantine, an example of senatorial frugality. Detail of a relief on the south side, right panel of the left arch depicting a scene from Trajan's Dacian Wars. Image courtesy of Wilson Delgado with perspective adjusted.

Though dedicated to Constantine, much of the decorative material incorporated earlier work from the time of the emperors Trajan (98–117), Hadrian (117–138) and Marcus Aurelius (161–180), and is thus a collage. The last of the existing triumphal arches in Rome, it is also the only one to make extensive use of spolia, reusing several major reliefs from 2nd century imperial monuments, which give a striking and famous stylistic contrast to the sculpture newly created for the arch. This earned it the derisive nickname of Cornacchia di Esopo, Aesop's Crow.