Clientele

Relations patronage - clientele arose long before the appearance of plebeians in Roman society . Initially, they originated within the mass of populus Romanus as a result of its socio-economic differentiation and led to the emergence of a large dependent class of clients . It should be noted that in the early, still royal, Rome, the concepts of populus Romanus and quirites did not differ, the concept of patricia had a different meaning, and the concept of cives ( citizens ) was not included in everyday life. No differences in the legal status of the population were observed, and Rome itself willingly attracted emigrants, giving them equal rights, being interested in increasing the number and defense capabilities of their young community.

However, impoverished or having lost their clan ties and in need of protection, people were drawn into the families of wealthy and influential patricians as patriarchal dependent persons. Dependent people were called customers , and their patrons - patrons . This was affected by the fact that the Roman community, based on public land use and subsistence farming, was organized according to the curia - gens - familia scheme, and in order to use the land or just have an income, it was necessary to be part of this system. Roman curiae , clans and families received allotments by lot (or directly from the king), and inside these social organisms were elected kurions , hereditary clans and fathers of the families - patres and pater familias (hence the patrician ). The tribus did not yet exist, since this was not necessary. Early Roman clients resemble ancient Eastern patriarchal-dependent individuals drawn into the farms of the rich and noble “houses”.

The situation changed somewhat in connection with the vigorous activity of the last three Roman kings (616-510 BC), the Etruscans by origin, who carried out a number of important reforms, in particular: three tribes were organized on a national basis - Ramna ( Latins ), Titius ( sabins ), Lucers (Etruscans); each tribe included 10 curiae, and each curia - 10 genera; individual families separated from childbirth, as well as “extra” families and other populations (voluntary or forced emigrants) were no longer automatically included in these 300 childbirths. However, it is possible that a similar system in its individual manifestations could take shape in the previous era of elected kings. Now, only these 300 clans were considered patricians — populus Romanus — quirites , the rest became plebeians , and if only the former had all rights, then everyone should have equal responsibilities to the state, a new source of replenishing the client’s estate along with freedmen appeared. This situation was somewhat smoothed out by the second of the Etruscan kings - Servius Tullius , eliminating national tribes and establishing four territorial ones, he included plebeians in them, at the same time dividing all populus Romanus newly united in this way into property classes with gradation of part of their rights and obligations.

The situation escalated again with the abolition of tsarist rule and the establishment of a republic, the aristocrats who seized power took over huge powers, interpreting the estate system in their own way - since the previous reform did not concern the curiae and 300 genera, so their members became patricians — quirites — citizens , and populus Romanus again It was interpreted solely as the totality of all residents in relation to their duties within the property classes, only patricians had the right to occupy elected posts. The flow of emigrants arrived, and at the same time, the mass of populus naturally grew, now most of them are plebeians, a significant part of whom became clients of the patricians, while the other part decided to actively fight for equalization of rights, solving land and debt issues, and therefore ending practice clientele. This struggle continued throughout the era of the early republic (509-265 BC) and ended in the complete victory of the plebs. In the era of the republic’s great conquests (265–133 BC), the clientele was conserved for a long time as a well-proven political struggle instrument - the plebs were never deprived of their right to vote on the centuriate and then tributary comitia , and the economic and legal reasons were purely clientele massively disappear.

At the same time, by the time of the civil wars of the republic (133–31 / 27 BC), the tactics and practice of political struggle were gradually changing, and then, by the time of the Principate, the traditional struggle was completely extinguished. In these epochs, the clientele acquires a distinctive prestige character for rich cartridges, which now compete with each other both in the old fashion and in quantity, and in a new way - in the qualities of their clients. Clients, being gifted but poor, could improve their condition, and persons without Roman citizenship were forced to resort to such patronage in the hope of obtaining it or simply gaining at least some status in Roman society. However, the total number of customers in Rome was no longer close to what was previously observed. A variety of clientele, thus, was the relationship between artists and their patrons, patrons. A vivid example is the satirical poet Marcial , often subsidized by his patrons.

In fact, the clientele was of particular importance during the period of the Roman Republic , and client obligations were often inherited. Traditionally, clients accompanied their patron at the Forum , supported him in the elections and served in the war under his leadership. At the same time, the patron was obliged to protect their clients in case of litigation, or to redeem their addicted family members, to support their minimum necessities of life, as well as clients, if necessary, were obliged to financially support him. Clients were accepted into the patron’s clan and bore their patronymic name, participated in the general holidays of the surname of their patron, and buried clients in the family cemetery. According to Dionysius , the clients were farmers, shepherds, artisans. They received land from a patron, who, as you might believe, used the land fund of the genus for this, and also could borrow from ager publicus . The conditions under which customers used the land are not known not only for the tsarist era, but also for the next era of the republic. Some scholars consider clients serfs, while others - patriarchal slaves. According to Russian historians, it is indisputable so far that during the tsarist era, clients began to form in the hereditary estate of personally dependent people, who, however, were not considered slaves ^[1] .

The clientele was also a legal category in relations between the Roman Republic and the dependent and union states.

• Clientele - article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia .