Patronage in ancient Rome

Benefits a client may be granted include legal representation in court, loans of money, influencing business deals or marriages, and supporting a client's candidacy for political office or a priesthood. Arranging marriages for their daughters, clients were often able to secure new patrons and extend their influence in the political arena. In return for these services, the clients were expected to offer their services to their patron as needed. A client's service to the patron included accompanying the patron in Rome or when he went to war, ransoming him if he was captured, and supporting him during political campaigns. Requests were usually made by clientela at a daily morning reception at the patron's home, known as the salutatio. The patron would receive his clients at dawn in the atrium and tablinum, after which the clients would escort the patron to the forum. The number of clients who accompanied their patron was seen as a symbol of the patron's prestige. One of the major spheres of activity within patron–client relations was the law courts, but clientela was not itself a legal contract, although it was supported by law from earliest Roman times. The pressures to uphold one's obligations were primarily moral, founded on ancestral custom, and on qualities of good faith on the part of the patron and loyalty on the part of the client. The patronage relationship was not a discrete one, but a network, since a patronus might himself be obligated to someone of higher status or greater power. A client might have more than one patron, whose interests could come into conflict. While the Roman familia ('family', but more broadly the "household") was the building block of society, interlocking networks of patronage created highly complex social bonds. Reciprocity ethics played a major role in the patron-client system. Favors given from patron to client and client to patron do not cancel each other; instead, the giving of favors and counter favors was symbolic of the personal relationship between patron and client. As a consequence, the act of returning a favor was done more out of a sense of gratuity and less so because a favor needed to be returned. The regulation of the patronage relationship was believed by the Greek historians Dionysius and Plutarch to be one of the early concerns of Romulus. Hence, it was dated to the very founding of Rome. An important person demonstrated their prestige or dignitas by the number of clients they had. ==Patronus and libertus==

When a slave was manumitted, the former owner became their patron. The freedman (libertus) had social obligations to their patron, which might involve campaigning on their behalf if the patron ran for election, doing requested jobs or errands, or continuing a sexual relationship that began in servitude. In return, the patron was expected to ensure a certain degree of material security for their client. Allowing one's clients to become destitute or entangled in unjust legal proceedings would reflect poorly on the patron and diminish their prestige. ==Changing nature of patronage==

Presenting the Liberal Arts'', 1743, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo depicting Augustus in a fanciful setting as a patron whose support is sought The complex patronage relationships changed with the social pressures during the late Republic, when terms such as patronus, cliens and patrocinium are used in a more restricted sense than amicitia, 'friendship', including political friendships and alliances, or hospitium, reciprocal "guest–host" bonds between families. It can be difficult to distinguish patrocinium or clientela, amicitia, and hospitium, since their benefits and obligations overlap. Traditional clientela began to lose its importance as a social institution during the 2nd century BC; Fergus Millar doubts that it was the dominant force in Roman elections that it has often been seen as. Throughout the evolution from republic to empire we see the most diversity between patrons. Patrons from all positions of power sought to build their power through the control of clients and resources. More and more patronage extended over entire communities whether based on political decree, benefaction by an individual who becomes the community's patron, or by the community formally adopting a patron. The significance of clientela changed along with the social order during late antiquity. By the 10th century, clientela meant a contingent of armed retainers ready to enforce their lord's will. A young man serving in a military capacity, separate from the entourage that constituted a noble's familia or "household", might be termed a vavasor in documents. ==Civic patronage==

Several influential Romans, such as Caesar and Augustus, established client–patron relationships in conquered regions. This can be seen in Caesar’s relations with the Aedui of Gaul wherein he was able to restore their influence over the other Gallic tribes who were once their clients. Hereafter he was asked on several occasions to serve the duties of a patron by the Aedui and was thus regarded by many in Rome as the patron of the Aedui. Augustus established colonies in all parts of the empire during his conquests which extended his influence to its furthest reaches. He also made many acts of kindness to the whole of Rome at large, including food and monetary handouts, as well as settling soldiers in new colonies that he sponsored, which indebted a great many people to him. Patronage and its many forms allowed for a minimal form of administration bound by personal relations between parties and thus in the late Republic patronage served as a model for ruling.'''''' Conquerors or governors abroad established personal ties as patron to whole communities, ties which then might be perpetuated as a family obligation. One such instance was the Marcelli's patronage of the Sicilians, as Claudius Marcellus had conquered Syracuse and Sicily. Extending rights or citizenship to municipalities or provincial families was one way to add to the number of one's clients for political purposes, as Pompeius Strabo did among the Transpadanes. This form of patronage contributed to the new role created by Augustus as sole ruler after the collapse of the Republic, when he cultivated an image as the patron of the Empire as a whole. Various professional and other corporations, such as collegia and sodalitates, awarded statutory titles such as patronus or pater patratus to benefactors. ==See also==