Patronage in ancient Rome

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Patron-client relationship" redirects here. For a political practice, see Clientelism.
A tabula patronatus from Bocchorus (AD 6)

general and his soldiers, a founder and colonists, and a conqueror and a dependent foreign community.[4]

Nature of clientela

Statue dubbed Gaius Marius, after a general and statesman of the Roman Republic, who introduced reforms that led to generals, rather than the state, becoming the patrons of their soldiers

Benefits a client may be granted include

sepulchre.[10]

One of the major spheres of activity within patron–client relations was the law courts, but clientela was not itself a legal contract, though it was supported by law from earliest Roman times.[11] 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.[12] 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, and a cliens 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.[13]

Reciprocity ethics played a major role in the patron client system. Favors given from patron to client and client to patron do not cancel the 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.[14]

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.[10] In the earliest periods, patricians would have served as patrons; both patricius, "patrician", and patronus are related to the Latin word pater, "father", in this sense symbolically, indicating the patriarchal nature of Roman society. Although other societies have similar systems, the patronus–cliens relationship was "peculiarly congenial" to Roman politics and the sense of familia in the Roman Republic.[15] An important person demonstrated their prestige or dignitas by the number of clients they had.[16]

Patronus and libertus

When a

destitute or entangled in unjust legal proceedings would reflect poorly on the patron and diminish their prestige.[citation needed
]

Changing nature of patronage

Painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo of one of Augustus' political advisers presenting him the liberal arts. Literary and artistic patronage was common in the Augustan Period.

The complex patronage relationships changed with the social pressures during the

Roman elections that it has often been seen as.[20]

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 on the basis of political decree, benefaction by an individual who becomes the communities' patron, or by the community formally adopting a patron.[21] Both sides had expectations of one another, the community expected protection from outside forces while the patron expected a loyal following for things such as political campaigning and manpower should the need arise. The extent of a person's client relationships was often taken into account when looking for an expression of their potential political power.[21]

Patronage in the late empire differed from patronage in the republic. Patrons protected individual clients from the tax collector and other public obligations. In return, clients gave them money or services. Some clients even surrendered ownership of their land to their patron. The emperors were unable to prevent this type of patronage effectively.

vavasor in documents.[citation needed
]

Civic patronage

Map showing Roman colonies as of the mid-2nd century

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.[21] 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.[6] Through these examples, Augustus also altered the form of patronage to one that suited his ambitions for power, encouraging acts that would benefit Roman society over selfish interests.[21] Though rare, it was possible for women to be patronesses.[23]

Patronage and its many forms allowed for a minimal form of administration bound by personal relations between parties and thus in the

Transpadanes.[27] This form of patronage in turn 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

References

  1. ISBN 978-3-11-008469-6
    .
  2. The American Cyclopædia
    .
  3. ISBN 9780393250930
    .
  4. ISBN 9780415224581
    .
  5. ^ "Patronage in Politics | Roman Patronage in Society, Politics, and Military". sites.psu.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  6. ^
    OCLC 1038024098.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
    )
  7. ^ "Societal Patronage | Roman Patronage in Society, Politics, and Military". sites.psu.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  8. ^ Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Clients" . Encyclopedia Americana.
  9. OCLC 733795148
    .
  10. ^ a b Muirhead, James; Clay, Agnes Muriel (1911). "Patron and Client" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  11. ^ Twelve Tables 8.10; Dillon and Garland, Ancient Rome, p. 87.
  12. ^ Karl-J. Hölkeskamp, Reconstructing the Roman Republic: An Ancient Political Culture and Modern Research (Princeton University Press, 2010), pp. 33–35; Emilio Gabba, Republican Rome: The Army and the Allies, translated by P.J. Cuff (University of California Press, 1976), p. 26.
  13. ^ Carlin A. Barton, The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans: The Gladiator and the Monster (Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 176–177.
  14. S2CID 162385287
    .
  15. ^ Quinn, "Poet and Audience in the Augustan Age," p. 118.
  16. ^ Dillon and Garland, Ancient Rome, p. 87.
  17. ^ Quinn, "Poet and Audience in the Augustan Age," p. 116.
  18. ^ J.A. Crook, Consilium Principis: Imperial Councils and Counsellors from Augustus to Diocletian (Cambridge University Press, 1955), p. 22; Dillon and Garland, Ancient Rome, p. 87; Koenraad Verboven, "Friendship among the Romans," in The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World (Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 413–414.
  19. ^ Fergus Millar, "The Political Character of the Classical Roman Republic, 200–151 B.C.," in Rome, the Greek World, and the East: The Roman Republic and the Augustan Revolution (University of North Carolina Press, 2002), p. 137, citing also the "major re-examination" of clientela by N. Rouland, Pouvoir politique et dépendance personnelle (1979), pp. 258–259.
  20. ^ Millar, "The Political Character of the Classical Roman Republic," p. 137.
  21. ^
    OCLC 869672373.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  22. ^ Oxford Classical Dictionary "patronus"
  23. JSTOR 4436724
    .
  24. ^ Cicero, De officiis 1.35.
  25. ^ Erich S. Gruen, "Patrocinium and clientela," in The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome (University of California Press, 1986), vol. 1, pp. 162–163.
  26. New International Encyclopedia
    (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  27. ^ A.T. Fear, Rome and Baetica" Urbanization in Southern Spain c. 50 BC–AD 150 (Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 142.

Further reading

  • Badian, Ernst. 1958. Foreign Clientelae (264–70 B.C.). Oxford: Clarendon.
  • Bowditch, Phebe Lowell. 2001. Horace and the Gift Economy of Patronage. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of Carolina Press.
  • Busch, Anja, John Nicols, and Franceso Zanella. 2015. "Patronage." Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum 26:1109–1138.
  • Damon, Cynthia. 1997. The Mask of the Parasite: A Pathology of Roman Patronage. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
  • de Blois, Lucas. 2011. "Army and General in the Late Roman Republic." In A Companion to the Roman Army. Edited by Paul Erdkamp, 164–179. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Eilers, Claude. 2002. Roman Patrons of Greek Cities. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  • Gold, Barbara K. 1987. Literary Patronage in Greece and Rome. Chapel Hill and London: Univ. of North Carolina Press.
  • Konstan, David. 2005. "Friendship and Patronage." In A Companion to Latin Literature. Edited by Stephen Harrison, 345–359. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Lomas, Kathryn, and Tim Cornell, eds. 2003. “Bread and Circuses:" Euergetism and Municipal Patronage in Roman Italy. London: Routledge.
  • Nauta, Ruurd R. 2002. Poetry for Patrons: Literary Communication in the Age of Domitian. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill
  • Nicols, John. 2014. Civic Patronage in the Roman Empire. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill
  • Saller, Richard P. 1982. Personal Patronage Under the Early Empire. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  • Verboven, Koenraad. 2002. The Economy of Friends: Economic Aspects of Amicitia and Patronage in the late Roman Republic. Brussels: Latomus
  • Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew, ed. 1989. Patronage in Ancient Society. London: Routledge.

External links

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Patronage in ancient Rome
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