Tryphé (Greek: ) -- variously glossed as "softness", "voluptuousness", "magnificence" and "extravagance", none fully adequate—is a concept that drew attention (and severe criticism) in Roman antiquity when it became a significant factor in the reign of the
Ptolemaic dynasty. Classical authors such as
Aeschines and
Plutarch condemned the
tryphé of Romans such as
Crassus and
Lucullus, which included lavish dinner parties and ostentatious buildings. But there was more to Ptolemaic
tryphé than dissipative excess, which after all can be pursued in residential or geographical seclusion, and for purely private purposes. It was a component of a calculated political strategy, in that it deployed not just
conspicuous consumption but also conspicuous magnificence, beneficence and feminine delicacy, as a self-reinforcing cluster of signal propaganda concepts in the Ptolemaic dynasty.