Virtue

Memorial to Tiberius Flavius Hilarion, freedman of Tiberius, decurion of the collegium of carpenters in the 15th lustrum inspector of the ballot box for the elections in the 16th lustrum, quinquennial officer of the collegium of woodworkers in the 17th lustrum, honored in the 18th, twice censor for appointing officials in the 19th and 20th, and judge among the chosen twelve from his rank in the 22nd. This monument was put up by Claudia Prisca to the best of husbands. –Roman Tomb Inscription

The philosopher Socrates taught that all work was good, and he was frequently seen chatting with the tradesmen of Athens. His successors, Plato and Aristotle, who were politically driven, had nothing but distain for the mechanical arts. Physical toil was seen to soften the body and thus the mind, making the worker unfit for public leadership, and doomed to obscurity and commonness. Furthermore, Aristotle condemned any occupation that was dependent on a customer or an employer. Such work was inherently degrading and servile. Such a character could not be trusted to give an honest opinion of any work.

As a counter to the Aristotelian view, the Roman stoic philosophers, which included the emperor Marcus Aurelius, regarded any skilled work as dignified, natural, and virtuous. Crafts had an internal system of ethics and morality that added to that of the state. Perfection of a trade maintained a strong natural moral order within civilization. From ancient Greece to the fall of the Roman Empire, there is a rise in the concept of each person having a calling, both technical and moral.

The professor of mathematics Serafina Cuomo remarks that, in the face of “selective blindness” on the part of some historians, “ancient technicians were not invisible to themselves, or to their peers”. Though mostly anonymous, some carpenters were proudly proclaimed by epitaphs inscribed on their tombs, showing that, whatever some people might say, they were not ashamed of their lot in life.