RCS Lecture 5
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Roman Culture and Society
Lecture 5 – Patronage

Patronage in modern society

Roman patronage
Freedmen and freedwomen and their former masters
 Former slave still tied to former owner
 Obligations of freed to patron
 Attitudes towards relationship of freed-patron –
o CIL VI 9222
To the spirits of the departed. Marcus Canuleius Zosimus; 28 years old; his patron erected this to a
well-deserving freedman. During his life he spoke unkindly of no one; he did nothing without his
patron’s permission; there was always a great amount of gold and silver in his possession and he
never desired any of it; in his craft – silver engraving in the Clodian style – he excelled everybody.
o Suetonius Life of Claudius 25:
If any freedman proved ungrateful to his former master and caused him annoyance, back he
went to slavery – Claudius told the lawyers engaged in such cases that a patron should not be placed in
the disgraceful position of having to sue his own freedman.
o Freedwoman excluded from tomb: CIL VI 13732/ ILS 8115:
Gaius Caecilius Felix and Gaius Caecilius Urbicus consecrated this place… for themselves and for
Gaius Caecilius Rufinus and Gaius Caecilius Maternus and their freedmen and freedwomen and their
descendants except for Secundina, a freedwoman who was impious towards Caecilius Felix her
patron….
Individual client-patron relationships

Patronage in the late 1st / early 2nd C A.D
TASK: Pliny the Younger as patron
Consider the following questions, on the basis of the following three letters
written by Pliny:
 Whose patron is he & why?
 What favours is he seeking for clients & how?
 What language does he use to describe clients/ to address different
recipients of letters?
 What does he get in return?
A. Pliny Younger Letters 7.22 = Levick no.134:
Gaius Pliny greets his friend Falco. You will be less surprised at the pressing nature of my request that
you confer a military tribunate on a friend of mine, when you know who he is and what he is like. Your
promise makes it possible for me now to give you his name and a description of the man.
He is Cornelius Minicianus, whose rank and character alike add lustre to my native district.
His birth is distinguished and he is well off, but his devotion to literature is that of a man who has to
earn his living. Added to that, his integrity as a judge, courage as counsel and loyalty as a friend are
unsurpassed. You will believe that it is you who are being done the favour when you get to know the
man at closer quarters: he is equal to any office and any distinction (he is very unpretentious and I
don’t want to say anything too extravagant about him). All good wishes.
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B. Pliny the Younger Letters 10.5 – to the Emperor Trajan:
When I was seriously ill last year, my Lord, and in some danger of my life, I called in a medical
therapist whose care and attentiveness I cannot adequately reward without the help of your kind interest
in the man. I pray you there to grant him Roman citizenship. He is a resident foreigner, Arpocras by
name, and was given his freedom by his mistress, also a foreigner. She was Thermuthis, wife of Theon,
and died some time ago.
I also pray you to grant full Roman citizenship to Hedia and Antonia Harmeris, the
freedwomen of the noble lady Antonia Maximilla. It is at her desire that I make the request.
C. Pliny the Younger Letters 1.19 = Gardner/Wiedemann sourcebook n.204 – to
Romatius Firmus:
You and I both come from the same town, went to the same school, and have been friends since we
were children. Your father was a close friend of my mother’s and uncle’s, and a friend to me too, as far
as our difference in age allowed; so there are sound and serious reasons why I ought to try to improve
your position. You are a town-councillor of Comum, which shows that your present capital is 100,000
sesterces, so I want to give you another 300,000 to make up your qualification for the order of
equestrians. I can then have the pleasure of seeing you in that position as well as in your present one.
The length of our friendship is sufficient guarantee that you will not forget this gift, and I shall not even
remind you to enjoy your new status with becoming discretion, because it was received through me; as
I ought to, did I not know that you will do so unprompted. An honourable position has to be maintained
with special care if it is to keep alive the memory of a friend’s generous gift.

Martial and Juvenal
Martial
 Patron’s arrogance towards clients
o Dinner-parties:
Martial Epigram 3.60 (extract)
…Why don't I get the same dinner as you?…
A golden turtle dove fills you up with its outsize rump,
I am served with a magpie that died in its cage…
Martial Epigram 3.49
You drink the best, yet serve us third-rate wine.
I’d rather sniff your cup than swill from mine.
Cf Pliny Letters 2.6:
The best dishes were set in front of himself and a select few, and cheap scraps of food before the rest of
the company. He had even put the wine into tiny little flasks, divided into three categories, not with the
idea of giving his guests the opportunity of choosing, but to make it impossible for them to refuse what
they were given. One lot was intended for himself and for us, another for his lesser friends (all his
friends are graded) and the third for his and our freedmen.
Martial Epigram 3.45
Whether or not Apollo fled from the table
Thyestes ate his sons at, I’m unable
To say; what I can vouch for is our wish
To escape your dinner parties. Though each dish
Is lavish and superb, the pleasure’s nil
Since you recite your poems. To hell with brill,
Mushrooms and two-pound turbots! I don’t need
Oysters: give me a host who doesn’t read.

Technique of exaggeration. Poetic persona.
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 Juvenal
Satire 1.95ff:
…Clients were guests in those days.
But now Roman citizens are reduced to scrambling
For a little basket of scraps on their patron's doorstep…
… The crier has his orders:
Each man to answer his name, nobility included Oh yes, our Upper-Ten are scrounging with the rest.
'The praetor first, then the tribune - ' But a freedman blocks
Their way, 'I got here first,' he says, 'why shouldn’t I keep
My place?….
Emperor as ultimate patron

Alimentary schemes
o Overall character. alimenta - ‘subsistence payments’
o Chronology. T. Helvius Basila third quarter 1st c A.D., Atina
o Imperial involvement.
o How it worked.
o Elite involvement.
TASK
Read the following letter by Pliny, and consider why Pliny is recommending that
his friend sets up an alimentary scheme.
Pliny, Letter 7.18:
To Caninius Rufus. You want my advice on what provision to make for securing now and after your
death the money you have offered to our native town to pay the cost of an annual feast. It is an honour
to be consulted, but difficult to give an immediate opinion. You might hand over the capital to the
town, but there is a danger of its being dissipated. Or you might make a gift of land, but it would be
neglected as public property always is. Personally I can think of no better plan than the one I adopted
myself. I had promised a capital sum of 500,000 sesterces for the maintenance of free-born boys and
girls, but instead of paying this over I transferred some of my landed property (which was worth
considerably more) to the municipal agent, and then had it reconveyed back to be charged with an
annual rent payable of 30,000 sesterces. By this means the principal is secured for the town, the interest
is certain, and the property will always find a tenant to cultivate it because its value greatly exceeds the
rent charged. I am well aware that the fixed rent charge has reduced the market value of a fine property,
but one ought to make personal and temporary interests give place to public and permanent
advantages, and consider the security of a benefaction more than one's own gains.


Inscribed records
Veleia foundation CIL XI 1147 – ILS 6675 = Sherk n.197, Veleia, AD 102-14
(Large heading)
Mortgages on estates for 1,044,000 sesterces, in order that through the indulgence of our best and
greatest leaders, Emperor Trajan, boys and girls may receive assistance: legitimate boys to the number
of 245 at 16 sesterces each per month, making a total of 47,040 sesterces; legitimate girls to the number
of 34 at 12 sesterces each (per month), making a total of 4,896 sesterces; illegitimate boy, 1 at 144
sesterces per year; illegitimate girl, 1 at 122 sesterces per year. Total: 52,200 sesterces, which equals
interest of 5% of the principal listed above.
o Differentiation in monthly allowance according to child’s status
245 legitimate boys, each 16 sesterces a month [= 192 sesterces per annum]
1 illegitimate boy, 144 sesterces per annum
34 legitimate girls, each 12 sesterces a month [= 144 sesterces per annum]
1 illegitimate girl, 122 sesterces per annum
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(col. 1 – details of one mortgage)
Gaius Volumnius Memor and Volumnia Alce, through the agency of Volumnius Diadumenos, their
freedman, put up for mortgage their Quintiacus-Aurelianus farm and the Hill of Muletas with its forest,
which is in the territory of Veleia in the Ambitrebian district, bounded by the properties of Marcus
Mommeius Persicus, Satrius Severus, and the public road, valued at 108,000 sesterces. They are to
receive 8,692 sesterces and to put up the above-mentioned farm as security.

Aims of the schemes?
o Combat rural poverty & depopulation.
o Concern about manpower
o Status hierarchy
o Italy receives imperial schemes
o A way of transferring central funds to children without risk of funds being
squandered by town councils.
 Problem: favoured males
o Girls. Elder Faustina - "puellae Faustinianae," + "novae puellae
Faustinianae" honouring the younger Faustina.

The arch of Trajan at Beneventum
o Beneventum location.
o Arch of Trajan AD 114
Virtual tour of the arch online:
http://www.dl.ket.org/latinlit/historia/empire/beneventum/index.htm
o Northwest side of the arch, facing Rome: glorifies what Trajan had
accomplished for Rome.
1. Northwest side, attic level, upper right
2. Northwest side, centre right
3. Northwest side, lower left
o Southeast side of arch, towards Brundisium: Trajan and the empire are
celebrated.
1. Southeast side, attic, upper right
2. Southeast side, centre left
3. Southeast side, below left
4. Southeast side, right side
o Trajan and alimentary schemes: Coins
Obverse: IMP TRAIANO AVG.GER.DAC.P.M.TR.P.COS.VI P.P Laureate head
right; drapery over left shoulder.
Reverse: S.P.Q.R.OPTIMO PRINCIPI/ALIM ITAL; Annona or Abundantia standing
facing, her head left holding cornucopia, child at her feet
Civic patronage
 Formal process
 Municipal law from Malaca, Baetica = Levick no.26:
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(61) No-one is to co-opt a patron for the citizens of the Flavian municipality of Malaca on behalf of the
municipality or offer the position to anyone without the authority of a decree passed by the majority
of the city council, which decree shall be passed when not less than two thirds are present and give
their vote by ballot on oath. Anyone who co-opts a patron for the citizens of the Flavian municipality of
Malaca on behalf of the municipality by another method contrary to these provisions, or offers the
position to anyone, is to be liable to pay the sum of 10,000 sesterces to the public treasury of the
citizens of the Flavian municipality of Malaca, and a man co-opted patron or offered the position
contrary to this law is not on that account to be a patron of the citizens of the Flavian municipality of
Malaca.

Patronal tablet of Pomponius Bassus, Rome (ILS 6106 – CIL VI 1492):
Gardner/Wiedemann n.213; Sherk n.193:
When Lucius Arruntius Stella and Lucius Iulius Marinus were consuls, on the 14 th day before the
Kalends of November (Oct. 19th, AD 101 or 102), Manius Acilius Placidus and Lucius Petronius
Fronto, the magistrates for the administration of justice, consulted the senate of Ferentinum in the hall
of the temple of Mercury. Witnesses present at the writing of the decree were: Quintus Segiarnus
Maecianus and Titus Munnius Nomantinus.
Whereas they all said that Titus Pomponius Bassus, most illustrious man, was performing
the charge given to him by our most considerate Emperor Trajan, by which means Trajan has
looked forward to the continuance forever of his Italy, and was performing it in accordance with
his generosity in such a way that our whole generation ought to give thanks for his meritorious
performance, and whereas they all said it could happen that a man of such excellent character would
be of assistance to our municipality, in regard to their pleasure about what should be done about it,
concerning it they decreed as follows:
it pleased the senators of Ferentinum that envoys from their number be sent to Titus
Pomponius Bassus, most illustrious man, and that those envoys should obtain his agreement in
thinking it fit to receive our town into the patronage of his most esteemed house, and to permit
himself to be selected as our patron, with a table of hospitality engraved with this decree placed
in his house.
Decreed. The envoys who performed this task were: Aulus Caecilius, son of Aulus, Quirinalis,
and Quirinalis his son.
o Pliny as town patron: Tifernum Tiberinum, Firmum, Comum
Pliny the Younger, Letters 4.1
...Close to my property is the town of Tifernum on Tiber which adopted me as its patron when I was
scarcely more than a child – its enthusiasm outrunning its discretion. The people always celebrate my
arrivals, regret my departures, and rejoice in my official titles, and so to express my gratitude (one
always feels disgraced at being outdone in friendly feeling) I defrayed the cost of building a temple in
the town.
Professional associations
o Ostia, CIL XIV 409 = Sherk n. 182 – Cn. Sentius Felix
Cultural patron

Greek poets.
o Garland of Philip – AD 40s, epigram collection
o Philodemus no.23:
Tomorrow from three o’clock, my dear Piso, your poetic friend drags you to his humble cottage, giving
a dinner for the anniversary of the Twentieth. If you find no udders or Chios-born draughts of wine, yet
you shall see true friends, yet you shall hear things far sweeter than Phaeacia did. And if ever you turn
your eyes even toward me, Piso, we shall celebrate a richer instead of a humbler Twentieth.
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o Crinagoras no.36, praise to Sallustius Crispus
You deserve not only the three Fortunes as your neighbours, Crispus, for the sake of your heart’s deep
riches, but all the good fortunes of all men too. Nothing can be too much for so great a man, whose
aim is the infinite prosperity of his friends. Now may Caesar, who is mightier even than these,
raise you to higher things. What man’s fortune stands firm without him?
 Roman poets
o cf Pliny Ep. 6.15
Legal patron
Conclusions
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Bibliography - Patronage
Key Readings
@Lomas, K. and T. Cornell (2002) Bread and Circuses (Routledge, London)
'Introduction'
@Wallace-Hadrill, A., ed. (1989) Patronage in ancient society (London: Routledge) [DE
71.P2], ‘Introduction'
General Reading
@Duncan-Jones, R. (1982) The economy of the Roman Empire: quantitative studies,
chap. 7 (2nd edn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) [DG 85.D8]
@Forbis, E.P. (1990) 'Women's public image in Italian honorary inscriptions' AJPhil 111:
493-512
Garnsey, P. and R. Saller (1987) The Roman Empire, economy, society, culture, chap.
8 (London: Duckworth) [DG 276.G2]
Garnsey, P. (1968) 'Trajan's alimenta: some problems' Historia 17.3: 367-81
Gold, B. K., ed. (1982) Literary and artistic patronage in ancient Rome (Austin:
University of Texas Press) [PA 6027.L4] Introduction; G. Williams, ‘Phases in political
patronage of literature in Rome'; T. P. Wiseman, ‘Pete nobiles amicos: poets and patrons
in late Republican Rome'; J. E. G. Zetzel, ‘The poetics of patronage in the late first century
BC’
Gow, A.S.F. & Page, D.L. (1968) The Greek Anthology. The Garland of Philip
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] [PA 3868.A45]
Jones, P. and K. Sidwell (1997) The World of Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press) 147-50 [DG 77 W6]
Patterson, J.R. (1987) ‘Crisis, what crisis? Rural change and urban development in
Imperial Apennine Italy’, Papers of the British School at Rome 55: 115-46 [Arts periodical]
Saller, R. P. (1982) Personal patronage under the early empire (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press) [DG 83.3.S2]
@Saller, R.P. (1980) 'Promotion and Patronage in Equestrian Careers', JRS 70: 44-63
Verboven, K. (2011) 'Friendship among the Romans', in The Oxford Handbook of Social
Relations in the Roman World, ed M. Peachin [on order]
@Wallace-Hadrill, A., ed. (1989) Patronage in ancient society (London: Routledge) [DE
71.P2], ‘Introduction; Ch. 2 ‘Patronage and friendship in early Imperial Rome’ – R. Saller;
Ch. 3 ‘Patronage in Roman society’ – A. Wallace-Hadrill
@White, P. (1975) 'The Friends of Martial, Statius, and Pliny, and the Dispersal of
Patronage', Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 79: 265-300
@Woolf, G. (1990) ‘Food, poverty and patronage’, Papers of the British School at Rome
58: 197-228 [Arts periodical]
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@Veyne, P. (1992) Bread and circuses: historical sociology and political pluralism
pp.246-61, 390-6 (abridged, London: Penguin) [DE 60.V3]
Sourcebooks
Gardner, J.F. and Wiedemann, T. (1991) The Roman household: a sourcebook
(London: Routledge) [DG 90.G2]
@Levick, B. (1985) The Government of the Roman Empire, a sourcebook, chap. 8
(Totowa, N.J.: Barnes and Noble Books) [DG 83.L3]
@Parkin, T. & Pomeroy, A. (2007) Roman Social History. A Sourcebook [DG 78.R6 + ebook]
Shelton, J-A. (1998) As the Romans Did (2nd edn: Oxford/New York) chap. 1
Sherk, R.K. (1988) The Roman Empire: Augustus to Hadrian (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press) [DG 275.R6] nos. 182, 193
On Martial and Juvenal:
Braund, S. (1992) Roman Verse Satire (Greece & Rome New Surveys no.23)
@Saller, R. P. (1983) 'Martial on Patronage and Literature' Classical Quarterly 33.1: 24657
Wallace-Hadrill, A., ed. (1989) Patronage in ancient society (London: Routledge) [DE
71.P2], Ch. 10 ‘The client-patron relationship’ – D. Cloud