Quintus Cicero’s Commentariolum petitionis: The importance of personal relationships and clientship in the history of public relations

Abstract

This paper is about the importance of personal relationships in the history of public relations. It suggests that clientship and exchange of favors were at the core of the history of public relations from its beginnings. Modern reviewer Richard Beard (2012) is “struck by its modernity,” particularly the book’s extensive advice regarding the usea of personal relationships to gain political influence and power. Quintus Cicero should be included in the proto-history of public relations, and his approaches reveal commonalities with non-Western approaches to public relations such as India’s personal influence model or China’s guanxi.