ABSTRACT
In a sharply stratified society, each level defined by birth and wealth, jealous of status and privileges and inclined, if only in self-defence or in reaction from oppression from above, to oppress social inferiors, patronage was vital. It alleviated (a Marxist would say masked) conflicts of interest between classes, securing loyalties in a series of vertical ties not only between but within them – as between Roman senators governing provinces and their fellow landowners in the cities and tribes.
