Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The language and ideology of patronage
- 2 The emperor and his court
- 3 Seniority and merit: alternatives to patronage?
- 4 The Roman imperial aristocracy
- 5 Patronage and provincials: the case of North Africa
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - The emperor and his court
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The language and ideology of patronage
- 2 The emperor and his court
- 3 Seniority and merit: alternatives to patronage?
- 4 The Roman imperial aristocracy
- 5 Patronage and provincials: the case of North Africa
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The principes of the late Republic were, first and foremost, great patrons—patrons of armies, of the urban masses, of foreign kings and provincial cities, of senators and equites. After Octavian eliminated his rivals, the princeps' role continued to be defined in terms of a patronal ideology. In the previous chapter arguments were adduced to suggest that this ideology was not an anachronistic survival from the Republic and that the patronal language was not sterile jargon. In this chapter the patronal aspects of the emperor's position will be explored in greater detail in an attempt to elucidate the reality which lay behind the ideology. First, a list of the beneficia at the emperor's disposal can be drawn up. This should help to define the range of imperial activities in which patronage was a factor. Next, the core of the chapter will approach the questions of who was able to secure the beneficia and in what contexts. Finally, after considering how the recipients fulfilled their reciprocal obligations, attention will be turned to the broad implications and significance of these exchange relationships.
IMPERIAL BENEFICIA
The word beneficium occurs frequently in Pliny's Panegyricus, suggesting an important theme in the aristocrats' ideology of the good emperor. The ideology clearly made an impression on the minds of the emperors themselves. Though the Suetonian anecdote about Titus may not be accepted as historically accurate, we possess documentary evidence of the imperial viewpoint. In an edict preserved in a letter of Pliny, Nerva wrote that he had abandoned his quies and assumed responsibility for the empire ‘in order that I might confer new beneficia and preserve those already granted by my predecessors’.
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- Personal Patronage under the Early Empire , pp. 41 - 78Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982
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