(*patronus*, from *pater*, a father) was an appellation given by the Romans to a master who had freed his slave. As soon as the relation of master and slave expired, that of patron and freedman (*libertus*) began. The connection, as the name implies, was something analogous to that of father and son. The Romans, in giving their slaves their freedom, did not despoil themselves of all rights and privileges in those manumitted; the law still subjected them to considerable services and duties towards their patrons, the neglect of which was very severely punished. The most important part, however, of the relation between the patronus and the libertus was the right of the former, in certain cases, to the whole or part of the property of his freedman at his death. The libertus was also regarded as the client of his patron. (See CLIENT.) *Patrona* was the name borne by a female who had a freedwoman (*liberta*); but the laws regulating their connection differed in some points from those affecting the patronus and libertus.

Any Roman citizen desirous of a protector might attach himself, as client, to any patron he chose. Patron was thus not necessarily limited to the relation of patron and freedman. The patron and client were mutually attached and mutually obliged to each other; and by this means, in consequence of reciprocal ties, all those seditions, jealousies, and animosities, which were sometimes the effect of a difference of rank, were prudently avoided. For it was the duty of the patron to advise his clients in points of law, to manage their suits, to take care of them as of his own children, and secure their peace and happiness. The clients were to assist their patrons with money on several occasions; to ransom them or their children when taken in war; to contribute to the portions of their daughters; and to defray, in part, the charges of their public employments. The patron and client were never to accuse each other, or take contrary sides; and if either of them was convicted of having violated this law, the crime was equal to that of treason, and any one was allowed to kill the offender with impunity. This patronage was a tie as effectual as any consanguinity or alliance, and had a wonderful effect towards maintaining union and concord amongst the people for the space of six hundred years, during which time we find few dissensions or jealousies between the patrons and their clients, even in the times of the republic, when the populace frequently mutinied against those who were most powerful in the city.

in the Church of Rome, a saint whose name a person bears, or under whose protection he is placed, and whom he takes particular care to invoke; or a saint in whose name a church or order is founded.