Patronage has long been an important topic of interest to ancient historians. It remains unclear what patronage entailed, however, and how it worked. Is it a universal phenomenon embracing all, or most, relationships between unequals? Or is it an especially Roman practice? In previous discussions of patronage, one crucial body of evidence has been under-exploited: inscriptions from the Greek East that borrow the Latin term 'patron' and use it to honour their Roman officials. The fact that the Greeks borrow the term patron suggests that there was something uniquely Roman about the patron-client relationship. Moreover, this epigraphic evidence implies that patronage was not only a part of Rome's history, but had a history of its own. The rise and fall of city patrons in the Greek East is linked to the fundamental changes that took place during the fall of the Republic and the transition to the Principate. Senatorial patrons appear in the Greek inscriptions of the Roman province of Asia towards the end of the second century BC and are widely attested in the region and elsewhere for the following century. In the early principate, however, they become less common and soon more or less disappear. Eilers's discursive treatment of the origins, nature, and decline of this type of patronage, and its place in Roman practice as a whole, is supplemented by a reference catalogue of Roman patrons of Greek communities.

The Roman Empire may be properly described as a consortium of cities (and not as set of proto national states). From the late Republic and into the Principate, the Roman elite managed the empire through insititutional and personal ties to the communities of the Empire. Especially in the Latin West the emperors encouraged the adoption of the Latin language and urban amenities, and were generous in the award of citizenship. This process, and ‘Romanization’ is a reasonable label, was facilitated by civic patronage. The literary evidence provides a basis for understanding this transformation from subject to citizen and for constructing a higher allegiance to the idea of Rome. We gain a more complete understanding of the process by considering the legal and monumental/epigraphical evidence that guided and encouraged such benefaction and exchange. This book uses all three forms of evidence to provide a deeper understanding of how patrocinium publicum served as a formal vehicle for securing the goodwill of the citizens and subjects of Rome.

This second edition examines all aspects of Roman history, and contains a new introduction, three new chapters and updated bibliographies.

The first major study of patronage in the early Empire.

Opens windows into imperial policy and artistic taste

Jonathan Marshall, born in 1978, earned his PhD in 2008. He has taught courses at Biola University (La Mirada, CA) and Eternity Bible College (Simi Valley, CA); currently, he serves as Associate Pastor in the Camarillo Evangelical Free Church (EFCA; Camarillo, CA).