This chapter argues that the poets whose epigrams were assembled by Philip of Thessalonice in his Garland share predominantly North Aegean origins, and that their mentions of Romans and of visits to Rome should be taken as evidence of these Romans being their ‘patrons’ much less often than they were by Gow and Page 1968: rather, some at least of these poets were more probably from the propertied Greek elite (as Crinagoras of Mytilene certainly was) and made short visits to Rome either as envoys on behalf of their cities or as tourists, picking out in their poetry its monuments that had Hellenic connections. Only Philodemus seems certainly to have become a long-term resident of Italy, and his contrast of his simple abode with Piso’s mansion does not demonstrate him to be financially dependent on him.

Chapter 4 consists of an introduction to the discourses and ideologies of patronage and benefaction and to the ways in which they are appropriated throughout the Apocalypse. Across ancient Mediterranean societies, one of the primary functions of the king consisted of distributing benefits to subjects, material and otherwise, in order to establish loyalty amongst subjects as well as power that accrued therefrom, a pattern which is best understood within broader systems of patronage and benefaction. A survey of the general contours of personal, imperial, and divine patronage and benefaction reveal how some of the most basic discursive strategies, attending socio-cultural-economic realities, and underlying ethical frameworks not only appear in Revelation but constitute the primary means of depicting the relationship between God, Lamb, and the followers thereof. In sum, Revelation depicts the Lamb as a royal benefactor who dispenses divine benefits on behalf of God.

Chapter 4 consists of an introduction to the discourses and ideologies of patronage and benefaction and to the ways in which they are appropriated throughout the Apocalypse. Across ancient Mediterranean societies, one of the primary functions of the king consisted of distributing benefits to subjects, material and otherwise, in order to establish loyalty amongst subjects as well as power that accrued therefrom, a pattern which is best understood within broader systems of patronage and benefaction. A survey of the general contours of personal, imperial, and divine patronage and benefaction reveal how some of the most basic discursive strategies, attending socio-cultural-economic realities, and underlying ethical frameworks not only appear in Revelation but constitute the primary means of depicting the relationship between God, Lamb, and the followers thereof. In sum, Revelation depicts the Lamb as a royal benefactor who dispenses divine benefits on behalf of God.

This essay looks at satires of the literary marketplace written by three non-elite female poets: Mary Barber (1685–1755), Mary Jones (1707–78), and Elizabeth Hands (1746–1815). Writing outside the urban marketplace and living with heightened financial precarity, these women did not market their volumes directly in a London commercial space. Rather, these poets sold their collections by subscription, cultivating potential patrons, subscribers, and readers through personal connections across provincial, non-London networks. Their rich satires draw on the keenly felt challenges of attracting a sufficient number of subscribers, a process that essentially moves the public literary marketplace into more private, often domestic, space shaped by individual relationships and social networks. A distinctly different kind of literary satire results, one focused on private interactions, particular utterances, and domestic gatherings. This essay examines satiric poems by Barber, Jones, and Hands, and suggests that the female poet’s perspective gained from their proximity produces effective satire both of the specific individuals the women encounter and of the cultural attitudes those individuals represent. Within the very material object marking these women’s success – the published volume in the reader’s hands – these four verse satires document the precarity of their situation and their perilous path to publication by subscription.

This chapter explores the reception strategies of metrical inscriptions on statues and other monuments from the turn of the fifth to the fourth cent. BCE found at Xanthos in Lycia – and recently in Caria. They offer a insights into the practice of composing encomia for powerful dynasts and prominent addressees through the medium of hexameters, elegiac couplets, and trochaic tetrameters. In that respect, they call for close comparison with the lyric encomiastic poetry composed in the late archaic and early classical period by poets such as Ibycus, Pindar, and Bacchylides for powerful military and political rulers and patrons. Four of these inscriptional texts display a feature which is extremely rare in archaic poetry and is not found in all the other extant metrical inscriptions down to the 4th century BCE: the signature bearing the name of the poet. This chapter interprets the poet’s signature as a way of stressing the bond between poet and patron/addressee in a different way from the lyric practice, and stresses the new strategy of praise entailed by these inscriptions, by combining the visual power of the monuments with the power of the poet’s words.

The chapter reconstructs the grand themes of the social history of the Roman scribae. It tells stories of low social origin and subsequent high social mobility, of social upstarts entering the senate and the equestrian order, and of local notables acting as generous patrons of their hometowns. It analyses known lives and careers of scribae to arrive at a picture of social opportunities and possibilities of scribae in any given period.