Define "paid protestor." The Roman and Greek world did not know of a category of political action called "protest," not in the way that we mean. There were no Romans marching around the forum carrying signs reading "End The War" or anything like that. Nor did Roman law conceive of any sort of right to protest as we understand it. There were political demonstrations, organized or spontaneous. Voters crossing the pontes at the comitia were subject to the threats and encouragements of onlookers, who even crowded onto the pontes themselves to catch voters with a last bribe or intimidation before they cast their votes. Audiences watching speakers at contiones or if the law courts could and did express their opinions openly, en masse. Public disturbances, which often turned violent, could and did disrupt elections, speeches, and legal proceedings, sometimes originating spontaneously from an agitated populace or incited by a small group of organized individuals. Speakers at contiones, Morstein-Marx has shown, would pack their audiences with personal supporters, who often responded to their speech and behavior as prompted and riled up the crowd--such contiones and other public addresses often resembled something like modern protest rallies. These smaller, organized groups could be paid, but they were not necessarily, nor do they need to have been personally ordered by the individuals whom they supported. Sallust, it is true, has a strange reference to duces multitudinum, who would hire themselves out to politicians apparently, and Tacitus talks about a dux theatralium as if this is this dude's profession. And professionals they often were--gladiators were a perennial favorite for hired "muscle." But every Roman of any public significance whatsoever was surrounded by hundreds, even thousands, of clients, slaves, staff, family, friends, and other dependents or associates. Some three or four thousand clients accompanied Ti. Gracchus, and Plutarch reports three thousand clients died with C. Gracchus and Fulvius. These retinues engaged in brawls with each other--Clodius was killed when his retinue was jumped by Milo's on the Via Appia--supported their leaders at the ballot, served as the core of organized political activity, and were the face of an individual's public persona. Some of them, mind you, were paid, but what constitutes a paid protestor or a paid political supporter? In the ancient world organized political activity was no great rarity, but "protest," as we understand it today, is not really recognized by our authors as existing as a separate concept. popular political demonstrations are popular political demonstrations, and our authors treat them all more or less the same, even attempting to draw connections between apparently unrelated events