Patronage (p1)

This is once again a very fundamental part of ancient culture. It was "expected and publicized" (HP, p.96). In De Beneficiis, Seneca says that the system of patronage was the "practice that constitutes the chief bond of human society" (1.4.2). So what is patronage?

There was patronage between the higher and lower classes, and patronage among the lower classes. We will take a cursory look at patronage between the higher and lower classes in this entry.

We have two main parties here: the patron, and the client. The patron is the one with all the resources, and the client is the one asking for help--also known as making a petition. If the patron granted the petition, this would be called giving favor or grace. So it is a two-way system: first the request, then the grant. You want, I have.

So that's how it worked in a nutshell. If the patron granted the request, the petitioner would become the client. A potentially long-term relationship would begin, where the patron would be available for further help, and the client would fulfill the obligations, as we will see. Let's look at the honor aspects of this system. Recall limited good. The patron gives; the patron has lost something. Thus the patron's grace has left the client indebted to him (or her, on occasions). The client therefore had some obligations: to enhance the patron's honor and fame, to be loyal to the patron, and provide services (HP, p.97).

One interesting (and perhaps amusing to us) example of how clients could enhance the patron's honor is by joining his entourage. When the patron would go somewhere, a crowd of clients would go with the patron, proclaiming his name and 'clearing the way'. We will look at grace and returning grace in more detail later.

The benefits that the patron could grant were numerous. Some of them are land, money to start a business, protection, debt relief, and more glamorously, position and office. One important benefit that a patron could grant was access to another patron. This is also known as being a broker, or to use the classical term, mediator. (HP, p.97) This works by the patron becoming a client to a greater patron. The patron would testify for the character of his client (we'll see more about this in grace), basically that the person he is petitioning for is worthy of grace. If the greater patron granted the request, the original client would be indebted to both the broker and the greater patron.

An example of brokerage would be granting citizenship. deSilva cites the case of Pliny the Younger's physical therapist Arpocras. Pliny petitions the Emperor Trajan (Epistles 10.5-7, 10), and Arpocras is graced with both Roman and Alexandrian citizenship.

Patrons also referred to their clients as 'friends', out of sensitivity to their client's honor. Clients mostly referred to their patrons as patrons, as would be expected from gratitude. Thus if we see 'friends' we should suspect that it really means 'clients' (HP, p.99).