If his mood is very gracious, each client is allowed to seize his hand, and two or three in extra favor are suffered to kiss his cheek. The nomenclator meantime prompts him in undertone, “Ask about his wife,” “Congratulate him on his niece’s marriage,” etc. And if that evening there are not more important guests in view, the senator will delight the souls of several by saying affably, “Come to-night to dinner.” The clients in any case congratulate themselves that their patron is not like some of those very haughty parvenus, who simply hold out their hands to be kissed and never speak a word, and who like to be called “dominus,” as if their clients were merely slaves. =128. The Dole to Clients (the _Sportula_).=--After the clients will appear more pretentious visitors--equites and fellow senators--who call to see Calvus on business. Their own clients are probably waiting listlessly in the street, while Calvus’s dependents have to stand respectfully near their lord until an upper slave beckons them toward the office--the tablinum. He has a list in his hand and checks off all present as might a master the pupils in his school, and then comes the reward which brought all these toga-wearing gentry thither, a distribution of money. In former years every client had received an actual portion of victuals, known as _sportula_ from the “little basket” which everybody brought to bear the viands hence. But this custom of distributing actual food was inconvenient, and far more pleasing is an actual gift of money. Only regularly listed clients can receive this; and no client, sick or lazy, can send a deputy.[70] He must appear in person or stand his loss. At length, to every lawful retainer present is carefully counted out a hundred _quadrantes_, small coppers (rather under 25 cents), and besides the clients entertain a few hopes of a fairly liberal present at New Year’s Day, and at some other festivals, and as seen, in a kind of rotation they are invited at broad intervals to dinner. =129. Attendance by Clients in Public. Insults They Must Undergo.=--After the sportula has been paid, the clients look anxiously toward Calvus. Will he tell them, as he does about half of the time, “Nothing more to-day,” and let them scatter down the streets? Not so; “My litter” he orders. The clients are obliged to march before and behind, along with the slaves, helping to elbow aside the crowd, while the senator visits other senatorial houses, next his banker at the Forum, and then the law courts for a consultation, and so goes his round. If he detains the clients through the noon hour, he is obligated to give them some kind of luncheon; but he can command the attendance of them all even up to the tenth hour, when he may turn them loose to refresh themselves in the public Baths of Titus, after they have left him perhaps at the more select Baths of Agrippa.