SOURCE: "Martial the Client," The Classical Journal, Vol. XXX, No. 6, 1935, pp. 355-61.

[In the essay below, Jones describes the patron-client system, emphasizing both the humiliation Martial endured under various patrons and the poet's frequent evasion of the responsibilities he was supposed to fulfill as a client.]

In the Rome of the first century of our era there were many who preferred to be client to one or more patrons rather than to earn a precarious living by hard work. One of these was Martial. Coming to Rome from Spain, probably in the year 64 A.D., he successively flattered the emperor and paid court to wealthy patrons in the hope of gaining a livelihood. His failure was as marked as his persistence, for he was nearly always begging and nearly always on the verge of poverty. Martial found the thirty-four years of his life at Rome disappointing but out of them he wove a vivid pattern of the seamy side of life in the Rome of his time. Especially is this true of his experiences as a client.

Martial felt deeply about the trials of a client, for he knew from experience the inconveniences, hardships, and insults that a client had to undergo. He detested the salutatio. He must break off his sleep and, clad in his toga, the official dress, plow through the muddy streets in order to present himself at daybreak at the house of his patron. He must salute his patron as the latter entered the atrium with the words "Salve, domine." Some patrons were exacting in allowing no violation of this etiquette. When Martial unthinkingly saluted Caecilianus with "Salve, Caeciliane," he was docked of his dole for the day.¹ But the trials of a client did not end here. Decianus was seldom at home when Martial went to salute him, and if he was, he had his doorkeeper trained to say that he was not at leisure. Martial tells Decianus that it is not irksome to walk two miles to see him but that it is irksome to trudge four miles and then not see him.² Another difficulty was that Maximus owned so many houses in town that Martial could not tell where to find him: "A man who lives everywhere," declares Martial, "lives nowhere."³

The other duties of a client were almost equally tedious to Martial. After the salutatio the patron, surrounded by his band of clients, set out for the forum. It was considered a mark of honor to have a large number of clients as an escort, but there were practical reasons as well. Clients as well as slaves carried the patron's sedan chair or trudged on ahead to clear a passage through the narrow streets, while others followed as escort. If the patron went on foot, one of his clients walked on his left to protect him from assault, while others cleared the way. If the patron was pleading a case, his clients must shout applause. If he gave a recitatio, they must rise from their seats and applaud. In short, as Martial puts it, they must praise whatever he said or did.⁴ Martial, moreover, found fault with the long working hours, for he must attend his patron from daybreak until late afternoon.⁵

Lassus ut in thermas decuma vel serius hora
  te sequar Agrippae.

Many times he even had to escort his patron back home. This constant attendance on his patron prevented him from writing epigrams:⁶

Dum te prosequor et domum reduco,
aurem dum tibi praesto garrienti,
et quidquid loqueris facisque laudo,
quot versus poterant, Labulle, nasci.

While these duties cannot be called burdensome, they were calculated to destroy a man's self-respect and independence of spirit. Martial with his poetic temperament and aversion to manual labor naturally hated the inconvenience of the salutatio, the indifference of individual patrons, and the tedium of performing such menial tasks.

Hating the system as he did, Martial spared no efforts to evade his obligations. He sent his book to salute Proculus, whom he had neglected, explaining that he could not have written the book if he had been a regular attendant at the salutatio.⁷ He sent his freedman to attend Candidus, pointing out how much better an attendant he would make:

I shall hardly be able to keep up with your sedan chair; he will even carry it. If you fall into a crowd, he will elbow his way through; my side is too weak for such hard work. Whenever you plead a case in court, I myself shall have to keep silence, but he will shout "bravo" for you.⁸

The patron was expected to reward his clients for services rendered. First, he was expected to give them legal advice and to plead their cases in court. This service was sometimes of doubtful value. Sometimes it was refused. Martial attacked one of his patrons for declining to plead his case against one of the emperor's freedmen or a wealthy widow.⁹ Next, at irregular intervals or at the Saturnalia the patron was supposed to send his clients gifts. Martial warned Labullus not to think himself a generous patron merely because he sometimes sent some silver plate, a threadbare toga that would keep nobody warm, or a few pieces of money. For although Labullus might be more liberal than the general run of patrons, Martial considered him stingy when compared with the patrons of other days.¹⁰

Another of Martial's patrons had been accustomed each Satumalia to send silver plate weighing one pound. When instead of this he sent a half-pound of pepper, Martial objected that pepper at that price was too expensive.¹¹

But the most common reward of the client took another form. In the days of the Republic the patron was expected to invite his clients to a dinner (cena recta). As clients increased in number, this practice was abandoned and a basket of food (sportula) was given. Later a dole of money (centum quadrantes) was substituted, while under Domitian the cena recta was revived. Patrons, however, were too selfish to treat their clients fairly. Martial tells how Caecilianus invited a crowd, not to dine with him, but to watch him eat a choice variety of mushrooms alone.¹² Mancinus, after inviting a throng of clients, served nothing but a boar, and that only as large a one as a dwarf might slay. None of the "fixings" were served and, besides, the guests had an opportunity only to look at the boar. It was not a dinner but a spectacle.¹³ Annius, another patron, had the dinner served by slaves instead of on a table. The slaves removed the dishes so rapidly that none of the guests had a chance to eat. Martial took offense at a "dinner on wheels."¹⁴ At best, the clients were served inferior food. Martial complains that he and his patron Ponticus are not served the same quality of food. While Ponticus is eating Lucrine oysters, Martial himself tries to suck the juice of a mussel through a hole in the shell. While Ponticus enjoys a luscious, fat turtledove, Martial is served a magpie that had died in its cage.¹⁵ In short, the restoration of the cena recta was so unsatisfactory that it was again replaced by the money dole.

The clients seem to have preferred the money dole. Martial tells of a starveling Spaniard who set out for Rome. Upon hearing when a few miles north of Rome that the money dole had been replaced by the cena recta, he immediately retraced his steps.¹⁶ Martial himself bade a sad farewell to the "centum quadrantes" although he did call them "miselli":¹⁷

Centum miselli iam valete quadrantes

In the light of what has been said about the cena recta of Domitian's time it is not difficult to understand the preference. Furthermore, the money dole, although very small (about thirty cents) did allow the client a measure of independence. By careful saving he might scrape together enough to buy a toga and pay the rent for his dingy lodings. But the client paid dearly for even this modicum of independence, for some patrons were irregular in the payment of the money dole.¹⁸ There was also the expense of the toga, which the client must wear at the salutatio and during attendance on his patron. Martial laments that even twice the amount of the money dole will not buy a toga, and, therefore, his is old and threadbare.¹⁹ Again, at least one patron paid in counterfeit money.²⁰ Clearly the preference of the client for the money dole was a preference for the less annoying of two evils. Neither the cena recta nor the money dole was an adequate means of support. Martial indicts the whole system as a means of livelihood when he says.²¹

           Vix tres aut quattuor istares [being a client] aluit, pallet cetera turba   fame.

The system of patron and client had many ramifications. When Martial one morning reached the home of his patron Maximus, he was told that Maximus had gone to salute his own patron.²² Martial refused to be client to a client: "It is bad enough to be a slave; I have no desire to be the slave of a slave."²³ This criticism, however, loses some of its force when we discover that Martial had a client of his own.²⁴ Even consuls did not blush to be clients. The consul Paulus had no scruples about carrying the litter of his patron, plowing his way through the mud, or indulging in the grossest kind of flattery.²⁵ To Martial's scorn for a consul who would obsequiously perform the tasks of a client is added his anger against Paulus, whom he regards as a competitor. What can the poor client do in the face of such competition? Paulus' toga praetexta has put Martial's poor toga out of business.²⁶

Martial was constantly changing patrons. He bade adieu to After and Decianus who were never at home to be saluted, to Caecilianus and Mancinus who served such poor dinners. In these instances it is probable that the patrons were at fault. Yet sometimes it was Martial who was to blame. We have seen that he sought every excuse to escape his duties. Many of his farewells, therefore, were written in answer to charges of neglect. Candidus objected because Martial had sent his freedman as a substitute. Martial replied that his freedman would make a better client than he could ever be.²⁷ Postumus objected because Martial had not presented himself for a whole year at the salutatio. Martial, admitting the charge, replied that he was none the poorer.²⁸ Thus while Martial was often treated unfairly by his patrons, he himself was not above reproach.

Martial's criticism of the system, his efforts to dodge his responsibilities, and his frequent adieus to his patrons show clearly that he and the system were incompatible. After allowance is made for the indifference of Decianus, the meanness of Mancinus, or the parsimony of Postumus, it is evident that Martial and his patrons had entirely differing objectives. Martial loathed the salutatio. His patrons insisted that he attend it regularly. Martial desired exemption from the servile tasks of the client. His patrons were interested in him primarily as a client who would swell their train and perform these same tasks.²⁹ When he failed to discharge his duties, they considered that he was not playing the game according to the rules, and they resented it. Martial above all was in search of a patron of literature, a Maecenas, as he so often expressed it, who could and would give him freedom from the necessity of earning a living and so leisure in which to cultivate the Muses:³⁰

Olia da nobis, sed qualia fecerat olim
  Maecenas Flacco Vergilioque suo.

This was his goal alike in seeking wealthy friends and in flattering the emperor and his favorites as well as in becoming client to numerous patrons. Consequently, it is not surprising that he was continually in difficulties with his patrons.

Yet there was one class of patrons with whom Martial was on good terms: those who themselves were literary men. Even to them, however, he did not discharge his duties with any great regularity. We recall that he sent a book of his epigrams to Proculus in order to make amends for neglecting the salutatio.³¹ In apologizing to Frontinus he declared that regular attendance on one's patron was not the only way in which to show affection.³² It is likely, then, that Proculus and Frontinus were willing to excuse Martial's disregard of the officium. Since he was a literary man, Proculus could appreciate Martial's argument that he would not have had time to write the book he was sending if he had attended the salutatio regularly.³³ Since he was a literary man, Frontinus could appreciate Martial's plea that a poet ought not to waste his time attending his patron.³⁴ In other words, while the typical patron merely desired Martial as one more client to swell his train of attendants, Proculus and Frontinus could understand a poet's desire for leisure in which to write and so were willing to overlook his neglect. This is further evidence that Martial and the system were incompatible.

Thus Martial's life as a client was most humiliating. He had to push his way through the crowd up the steep, muddy street leading to the Esquiline Hill to greet Paulus, who was not at home. He had to waste his time attending Labullus all the day when he wished to be at home writing epigrams. He was reprimanded by Candidus for neglecting his duties. He was docked of his dole by Caecilianus. Mancinus served only a boar. Since any one of these experiences was sufficient to evoke his wrath, the result each time was an epigram which was to preserve for us the record of one more bitter experience in the life of a client of the first century of our era.

Notes

¹ Cf. Martial VI, lxxxviii.

² II, v, 5-8.

³ VII, lxxiii, 6.

⁴ XI, xxiv, 3.

⁵ III, xxxvi, 5 f.

⁶ XI, xxiv, 1-4.

⁷ I, lxx.

⁸ III, xlvi, 3-8.

⁹ II, xxxii.

¹⁰ XII, xxxvi.

¹¹ X, lvii.

¹² I, xx.

¹³ I, xliii.

¹⁴ VII, xlviii.

¹⁵ III, lx.

¹⁶ III, xiv.

¹⁷ III, vii, 1.

¹⁸ IV, xxvi.

¹⁹ IX, c, 5 f

²⁰ X, lxxiv, 4.

²¹ 111, xxxviii, 11 f.

²² II, xviii, 3 f.

²³ II xviii, 7 f.

²⁴ VIII, xlii.

²⁵ X, x, 7-10.

²⁶ X, X, 11 f.

²⁷ III xlvi.

²⁸ IV, xxvi.

²⁹ XI, xxiv, 10 f.

³⁰ I, cvii, 3.

³¹ I, lxx.

³² X, Iviii, 11 f.

³³ I, lxx, 18.

³⁴ X, lviii, 12.