a) What role did the patron-client relationship play in Roman politics?

- It is a symbiotic relationship: patrons might offer financial/legal help, and the

clients were expected to vote for them in elections or promoting them
b) Explain why this system would be so important for a new man such as Cicero.
- His life would be easier if he was integrated in this political network (finding a
patron), as he had no ready-made political support base in his position of a novus
homo. For instance, in his defence of Cluentius, he was trying to garner support
from him and become his client.
c) Explain why the patron/client relationship came to be so important in the later years
of the Roman Republic.
- Pompey won lots of clients in the provinces, due to his campaign in Spain and
during the Mithridatic War
- Caesar, in his consulship, wanted to extend the citizenship of the people of
Cisalpine Gaul (thus wanting them to become his clients)
- Veterans settled on a land provided by a general, therefore becoming his clients
(e.g. Pompey and the land allotment to veterans)
- As the frontiers of the empire extended, there were implicitly more
opportunities to acquire clientela