184 THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Women as patrons could pose interesting challenges for traditional male views of
the gender hierarchy: in addition to Hemelrijk (1999, 2004 a and b, 2008), see
Woodhull (2004), and Osiek (2006). Osiek is one of the scholars who are investigating
the role of patronage in texts of the early Church, surveyed by Lowe (2013).
Garnsey and Woolf (1989) analyse rural patronage; Woolf (1990) considers the
alimenta.