Patronage in perspective

In this study we have sought to discover in what aspects of Roman life patronage played a part and how it functioned during the early Empire. The evidence suggests that exchange between patrons and clients was of considerable importance in political, legal, social and economic affairs. The aristocratic social milieu of the Republic continued into the Principate, and with it the basic notion that a man's social status was reflected in the size of his following — a large clientèle symbolizing his power to give inferiors what they needed. If a man's clientela was indicative of his current status, his potential for mobility depended on the effectiveness of his patrons, whose wealth and political connections could be indispensable. Perhaps partly because of the unchanging social structure and values, financial institutions developed little, and so Romans appear to have continued to rely largely on patrons, clients and friends for loans or gifts in time of need, and assistance in financial activities.

Within the sphere of politics and administration, patron-client relations supply part of the answer to the question of how such a large empire was governed by so small an administration. The emperor had at his disposal formal organizations to meet his primary needs of the maintenance of law and order and the collection of taxes: here patron-client relations allowed manipulation of administrative activities, but did not in themselves fulfill governmental functions. With regard to the recruitment of administrators, on the other hand, Rome during the Principate had markedly little formal machinery by comparison with other great, enduring pre-industrial empires (e.g. the Chinese and Ottoman).