Female City Patronage: Wielding Power and Influence Through Civic Contributions

Public recognition through city patronage was a way women could wield power and political influence.

Eumachia is an example of how a Roman woman of non-aristocratic descent could become an important figure in a community involved in public affairs. Mentnafunangann, CC BY-SA 3.0

Arguably the most prominent distinction within Roman society was the distinction between patron and client. A patron was a wealthy individual who held higher status within the community and provided assistance. Although city patronesses were exceptional, their occurrence shows that women were not wholly barred from public positions.

Ruins of the building in Pompeii funded by Eumachia - Lure CC BY-SA 3.0

Influential matrons within the patronage network were involved in the complex politics of the Empire. Almost all city patronesses came from exceedingly high-ranking families of local prominence, morally obliged to show their personal commitment to their cities.

Eumachia was patroness of the guild of fullers (cleaners, dyers, and clothing makers). Mural from from fullonica at Pompeii, now in the National Museum of Naples

The women were expected to promote the interests of their client cities by intervening on their behalf as, essentially, brokers between the local town and the central government of Rome. As per inscriptions, patrons’ responsibilities were to "to protect the city" and to be the "patron and defender of the public cause." 

Using the power of a public patroness, Eumachia is seen as a representative for the increasing involvement of women in politics. Isaac Harjo of ProWalk Tours by CC BY-SA 4.0

In addition to the political maneuvering of local and central governments, city patronesses could give legal support in conflicts in which their client city might be involved, embellish their cities with public buildings, and gratify its people with all kinds of benefactions, such as the distribution of bread, wine or money as per limited evidence from honorific inscriptions. Therefore, city patroness, as actors and benefactors, wielded influence both over the central powers of Rome and the wider social network. 

The power these elite women wielded was an informal one. It was based on birth, rank, family, reputation, and political connections, but was not a formalized political career like that of men. But given the society’s blurring of the social and the political, such informal authority was real and could be acknowledged publicly.

Works Cited:

Suzanne Dixon, "A Family Business: Women's Role in Patronage and Politics at Rome 80-44 B.C," Classica et Mediaevalia 34 (1983): 91;  Emily A. Hemelrijk, “City Patronesses in the Roman Empire,” Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 53, no. 2 (2004): 215-216, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4436724.

Emily A. Hemelrijk, “Patronage of Cities: The Role of Women,” in Roman Rule and Civic Life: Local and Regional Perspectives (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 416, http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004401655_024.  

Hemelrijk, “City Patronesses in the Roman Empire,” Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 53, no. 2 (2004): 234, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4436724; Emily A. Hemelrijk, “Patronesses and “Mothers” of Roman Collegia,” Classical Antiquity 27, no. 1 (2008): 125, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/ca.2008.27.1.115.