SOCIAL RELATIONS 179ranging from an estate and an apartment in the city to an offi cial salaried
appointment, money, clothing and food. Many writers were disappointed by
lack of generosity and others had no need of it, but that should not obscure
the fact that important literary fi gures from Virgil to Martial did receive
signifi cant material support from patrons, such as Maecenas, Seneca and
C. Calpurnius Piso, who viewed themselves as supporters of literature.^14
Friends
Roman philosophers placed great value on friendship, stressing that ideal
friends should share common interests and values without thought of
self- interest.^15 Though the philosophers eschewed material advantage as a
motive for friendship, for other Romans (and indeed for the philosophers in
their more pragmatic moments) the exchange of services was a foundation
for friendship (Fronto, Ad M. Caesarem 1.3.4f.). The exchange between
friends of comparable social standing and resources had a different character
from those described above. Though neither party was in a permanent
position of superiority, one or the other might be better placed at a particular
time to confer a favour.
The glittering prizes of late Republican senatorial politics were no longer
available, yet support in the competition for magistracies and other posts
before the emperor and in senatorial elections remained essential. Governors
had staff offi ces to bestow not only on their own ‘lesser friends’, but also on
those of their peers. Pliny introduced a request that his friend Priscus confer
such a post on a protégé of his with the comment that Priscus had had time
to reward his own friends and should now be prepared to spread his favours
more widely ( Ep. 2.13.2).^16
The fi nancial favours exchanged between friends of comparable resources
were generally more sporadic than the continuing dependence of a humble
client on a patron. Despite their wealth, even senators occasionally found
themselves with temporary liquidity problems, which they solved by turning
to friends and kin for gifts or loans. The praetorian games expected of
senators, for example, required heavy outlays of cash to which friends often
contributed (Seneca, Ben. 2.21.5). If a wealthy Roman suffered a catastrophe,
such as a fi re in his home, it was customary for his friends to contribute to
reestablishing the household (Juvenal, Sat. 3.220). The wealthiest Romans
also used friends to look after their widely dispersed property (see above,
pp. 93ff.). As a fi nal gesture, the services of friends were customarily
acknowledged by means of bequests in wills. To leave friends out of a will,
or worse, to criticize them in a will, was an insult that drew public attention
(e.g. Fronto, Ad Pium 3.3). Legacies could be very valuable, allowing some
Romans to make fortunes from them and giving rise to the literary topos of
the base legacy- hunter who courted favour with the old and childless (Pliny,
Ep. 2.20; Seneca, Ben. 4.20.3).^17