176 THE ROMAN EMPIRE
of the lower classes in the city of Rome. The salutatio and other Republican
customs characteristic of patronage continued throughout the Principate,
though with a different complexion. After AD 14 the relationship could no
longer revolve around the electoral process. In the Handbook on Canvassing
(11) it was stressed that a Republican candidate for high offi ce had to make
every effort to win followers of all ranks, even to the extent of lowering
himself by mixing with and fl attering members of the lower classes who
would ordinarily be beneath his dignity. In the imperial era the impotence of
the popular assemblies deprived the ordinary people of their political
leverage and, with it, the incentive for aristocrats to treat their humble
clients with a modicum of respect.^8 The patron’s arrogance toward his
clients was a common motif in imperial literature (e.g. Martial, Epig. 2.68).
Nevertheless, some quid pro quo was still possible and provided the basis
for patronal exchange. Clients could contribute to their patron’s social
status by forming crowds at his door for the morning salutatio (Tacitus,
Ann. 3.55) or by accompanying him on his rounds of public business during
the day and applauding his speeches in court. In return, they could expect
handouts of food or sportulae (small sums of money, customarily about six
sesterces in Martial’s day) and sometimes an invitation to dinner. Martial
lists attendance on a patron as one way that an immigrant to the city of
Rome might hope to support himself, though he warns that the sportulae
were not enough to live on. They must have been just one of the possible
supplements to the grain dole ( Epig. 3.7 and 8.42). These epigrams were
written after the inauguration of Vespasian, whose more austere habits were
supposed to have set an example for a retreat from the lavish clienteles of
the Julio-Claudian era (Tacitus, Ann. 3.55). Martial’s verses and other
evidence, however, leave no doubt that the salutatio and other patronal
customs continued to characterize life in Rome throughout the Principate.^9
Patron–client bonds extended out from Rome to the provinces. Like the
emperor, governors and other offi cials representing his power had a patronal
role. In a speech before a governor of Africa Proconsularis, Apuleius claimed
that provincials esteemed governors for the benefi ts they conferred ( Flor. 9).
This is corroborated by a number of north African inscriptions dedicated
by provincials to governors as their ‘patrons’. In their offi cial capacities
governors could help provincials secure citizenship, offi ces and honours from
Rome, and they could also make administrative and legal decisions in their
favour. The public dedications to governor ‘patrons’ from lawyers ( advocati )
may strike the modern reader as an ominous sign of corruption, but in fact
highlight the differences between ancient and modern ideologies of
administration (e.g., CIL VIII 2734, 2743, 2393).^10 Governors also received
from grateful provincials gifts (or, differently interpreted, bribes) and support
in case of a prosecution for maladministration after the governor’s term of
offi ce. For his part in discouraging a prosecution against a senatorial ex-
governor of Gaul, T. Sennius Sollemnis received from the former governor a
tribunate on his staff in Britain (salary paid in gold), several luxury garments,