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This article presents a historical study of suffragium. The developments in the meaning of the Latin word suffragium illustrate admirably the inner political evolution of ancient Rome, above all the growth of patronage, which provides the key to the working of the Roman constitution in the imperial period. Of the three main stages in the evolution of suffragium, only the first is at all well known to most classical scholars. Suffragium is said to mean a vote, voice, suffrage or the right of voting, right of suffrage. The only important extension of the meaning of suffragium during the period of the Roman Republic and early Principate, beyond the sphere of actual voting, is into a kindred field. When nothing is done by popular vote any longer, the original meaning of suffragium gives place to something very like that of suffragatio, which means influence, interest and patronage. Suffragium in this sense becomes just as much a technical term as when it denoted voting, and indeed it now reflects the realities of political power rather more accurately. From the gratuitous suffragium of the indulgent patron, venale suffragium is a natural development. Finally, the technical meaning of the word is extended to the other side of the bargain, the quid pro quo.