The 'Alimenta of Nerva and his Successors
IN his History of European Morals, the late Professor Lecky called attention to the growth of a more humane spirit in Rome in the second century after Christ. This spirit may be seen in private and municipal life, and above all in the policy of benevolent intervention adopted by the emperors who ruled during that period. Among other examples of state action, the alimentary grants ('alimenta') made to poor children throughout Italy deserve special attention. The aim of this paper is to give in short form the main evidence bearing on the establishment and administration of the alimentary funds, to suggest some conclusions as to the character of the institution, and to indicate the probable causes of its discontinuance.
Under a system which had grown up in the later days of the republic, great numbers of the Roman populace were already receiving regular state assistance, in the form of corn doles ('frumentationes'). Further gifts of wine, oil, and money ('congiaria') were frequently added at irregular periods; and to these latter distributions at any rate children had been admitted by Augustus.[1] Outside Rome, there was little direct distribution of corn, and such assistance as was given to the poor was provided by the municipalities. Under Nerva a distinctly new departure was made with the establishment of maintenance grants ('alimenta'). Evidence as to. this extension of imperial munificence is supplied by Aurelius Victor, an epitomist of the fourth century, who writes of Nerva, 'puellas puerosque natos parentibus egestosis sumptu publico per Italiae oppida ali iussit'.[2] The phrase 'per oppida Italiae' is significant. Previously children had indeed been assisted, but in Rome only. It would seem from the evidence of inscriptions that in another sense also a new development was taking place, namely that the new 'alimenta' were regarded as the gifts made
- ↑ 'Congiaria populo frequenter dedit. . . . Ac ne minores quidem pueros praeteriit, quamvis non nisi ab undecimo aetatis anno accipere consuessent': Suetonius, Augustus, 41. τώ τε δήμω καθ’ έκατόν δραχάς, προτέροίς μέν τόίς ές άνδρας τελούσιν, έπειτα δέ καί τοίς παις… διένειμε : Dio Cassius, li. 21. 3.
- ↑ Epitome, 12.
