Hum 110 | Reed Classics | Reed Library | Reed | Perseus

Herodotus and the Historian’s Craft

Families and Friends

 

Lecture Outline

I.) Introduction

II.) The Family as a Political Institution

III.) The Roman Family

IV.) The Family and the State

V.) Patronage as Value System

VI.) Patronage as Government

  1. Rome
  2. Provinces

VIII.) Conclusion

Terms & Names

affectio maritalis beneficium

cliens decurion

gratia latus clavus

meritum officium

patronus salutatio

conventio in manum sine manu

Dionysius of Halicarnassus Seneca

Pliny the Younger Plutarch

 

The Four Elements of a Patron-Client Relationship

  1. Involving a reciprocal exchange of goods and services over time.
  2. Based on personal rather than commercial relationships.
  3. Asymmetrical relations between parties, either in terms of their status or their access to scarce material and symbolic commodities.
  4. Voluntary and not legally enforceable.

Quotations

  1. The Romans seem to have been always ready to create kinship and affinity. They did this either indirectly, through women, by matrimonial alliances (implying also the potential for ‘second turns’ thanks to the practice of remarriage, which might occur fortuitously (after widowhood) or designed (after divorce)), or else directly, by procuring sons and successors through adoption. (Corbier in Rawson, ed Marriage, Divorce and Children, 6
  2. Patronage is an indirect form of power: a patron influences the behavior of his clients because he can grant or withdraw benefits, thereby rewarding compliance or punishing disobedience. He can manipulate his clients because of their indebtedness for past favors and fear of future reprisals; his control over their behavior gives him power. Patronage is the art of obligation, of manipulation through rewards and punishment. (Kettering, 3)
  3. I ask, Sir, that you delight me by increasing the dignitas of my former quaestor–that is to say, my dignitas through him–as soon as is convenient. (Pliny, Ep. 10.26.3)
  4. Not only is it necessary for a statesman to keep himself and his home city blameless toward the rulers, but also always to have some friend in the circles of the most powerful as a firm support for the city. For the Romans themselves are best disposed toward the civic exertions of friends. And it is good that those who enjoy benefits from friendship with the powerful use it for the prosperity of the people. (Plutarch, Moralia, 814c)

 

 

Bibliography

  • Dixon, Suzanne, The Roman Family (Johns Hopkins, 1992)
  • Kettering, Sharon, Patrons, Brokers and Clients in Seventeenth-Century France, (Oxford, 1986).
  • Millar, Fergus, The Roman Empire & Its Neighbours, 2nd ed., (Holmes & Meier, 1981)
  • Rawson, Beryl, ed., The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives (Cornell, 1986)
  • --------, ed., Marriage, Divorce and Children in Ancient Rome, (Oxford, 1991)
  • Rawson, Beryl and Paul Weaver, eds., The Roman Family in Italy: Status, Sentiment, Space, (Oxford, 1997)
  • Saller, Richard, Personal Patronage Under the Early Empire, (Cambridge, 1982)
  • Starr, Chester G., The Roman Empire 27 B.C. — A.D. 476: A Study in Survival (Oxford, 1982)
  • Talbert, Richard J. A., The Senate of Imperial Rome, (Princeton, 1984)
  • Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew, ed., Patronage in Ancient Society, (Routledge, 1989)

Hum 110 | Reed Classics | Reed Library | Reed | Perseus