ALIMENTA´RII PUERI ET PUELLAE
ALIMENTA´RII PUERI ET PUELLAE In the Roman republic
the poorer citizens were assisted by public distributions of corn, oil, and
money, which were called
congiaria [
CONGIARIUM]. These
distributions were not made at stated periods, nor to any but grown--up
inhabitants of Rome. The Emperor Nero first conceived the notion of
extending them, not only to other Italian towns, but also to children
(Aurel. Vict.
Epit. 12.4); and Trajan appointed them to be
made every month, both to orphans and to the children of poor parents. The
children who received them were called
pueri et puellae
alimentarii, and also (from the emperor)
pueri puellaeque Ulpiani; and the officers who administered
the institution were called
quaestores pecuniae
alimentariae, quaestores alimentorum, procuratores
alimentorum, or
praefecti
alimentorum.
The fragments of an interesting record of an institution of this kind by
Trajan were found at Veleia, near Placentia, in 1747; and much light has
been thrown upon their interpretation by the discovery of a similar table in
1832 at Campolattaro, near Beneventum (Mommsen,
Inscr. Lat. Regn.
N. 1354; Desjardins,
Disputatio hist. de tabulis
alimentariis, Paris, 1854). We learn thus the sums which were
thus distributed, and the means by which the money was raised. The emperor
lent considerable sums at low interest on the security of landed estates
belonging to members of the municipality, and the interest was paid to the
municipal chest for the support of orphans. The idea appears to have been
borrowed from the institutions due to private benevolence, such as that
founded by the younger Pliny at Comum (
Plin. Ep.
7.18,
1.8 ; and the inscription in
Annali dell' Inst. Arch. 1854), and by Helvius Basila at
Atina (Orelli, 4365,
C. I. L., vol. 10.5056). The records of
similar foundations have been discovered at Tarracina, at Sicca, and at
Hispalis (Wilmanns, 2846-8). Trajan's benevolent plans were carried on upon
a larger scale by Hadrian and the Antonines, who established additional
foundations in honour of the two Faustinas. Under Commodus and Pertinax the
distribution ceased. In the reign of Alexander Severus we again meet with
alimentarii pueri et puellae, who were
called
Mammaeani, in honour of the emperor's mother. We learn
from a decree of Hadrian (Ulp. in
Dig. 34, tit. 1,
s. 14) that boys enjoyed the benefits of this institution up to their
eighteenth, and girls up to their fourteenth year; and from an inscription
(Fabretti, 235, 619), that a boy four years and seven months old had
received nine times the ordinary monthly distribution of corn. At Sicca 300
boys, between three and fifteen, and 200 girls between three and thirteen,
received the benefits of the foundation. (Capitolin.
Ant. Pi.
8,
M. Aur. 26,
Pert. 9; Spart.
Hadr. 7; Lamprid.
Sev. Alex. 57; Orelli,
Inscr. 3364, 3365; Rasche,
Lex. Univ. Rei
Num. s. v.
Tutela Italiae; Eckhel,
Doctr. Num. Vet. vol. vi., p.
[p. 1.98]408; F. A. Wolf,
Von ciner milden Stiftung Trajans; Henzen,
Tabula alim. Baebiorum, Romae, 1845; Desjardins,
op. cit.）
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