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Overweight and its representations have often been studied with regard to the exempla constituted around the non-control of emotions so characteristic of bad emperors. However, such an approach tends to omit the historical transformations of these representations. If the nature of the sources invites caution, this study nevertheless aims to show that overweight is not a historical invariant in the Roman world, insofar as its definition corresponds to the political and social changes of the city. From an analysis of terminology, two trends can be observed during the last two centuries of the Republic: at first, overweight was considered exclusively in terms of military practices, which then tended to be replaced by moral considerations. From then on, the purely physiological elements became less perceptible as invective became part of the long list of means of attacking and wounding the aristocrat’s honour.