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14 THE ' ALIMENT A' OF NERVA January the records of private endowments, 1 and we may probably assume that the restriction was general. It is somewhat surprising to find that at Veleia two illegitimate children, and only two, are specially mentioned ; they are to receive grants less in value than those made to the other boys and girls. This disadvantage naturally suggests that the government wished to encourage legal marriage ; but one cannot help wondering why these two children are mentioned at all. The simplest explanation seems to be that their presence in this case was due to personal favouritism. The questions of the form and value of alimentary dole raise problems of great interest to the economic historian. By far the most important part of the diet of the Italian people in ancient times consisted in wheat. It was natural, therefore, that the cheapening or free bestowal of corn should be the means most often adopted of winning the favour of the people or improving the lot of the poor. The quantity generally allotted to each recipient in the ordinary public distribution in Rome was five modii (nearly one and a quarter bushels) a month, and this was considered to be more than adequate for the entire sustenance of a grown-up man for that period. 2 When the distributions were so extended as to include children, the most convenient method, in Rome at any rate, was to add the names of children to the lists of those already in receipt of corn. Thus, when a new enrollment was made by Marcus Aurelius, ■ pueros et puellas . . . f rumentariae perceptioni adscribi praeceperunt 3 The coin types of Trajan and Hadrian show ears of corn offered to children ; and the epitaph of a child 4 who belonged to the foundation of the younger Faustina shows, by its wording, that these children did in fact receive their allowance in the form of corn. Outside Rome there was very little free distribution of corn, and it is therefore not surprising to find that at Veleia the grants were made in money. Here it is recorded that sixteen sesterces should go to each legitimate boy, twelve sesterces to each legitimate girl, twelve to an illegitimate boy, and ten to an illegitimate girl. It would be rash to conclude that the practice here recorded of one small town proves the existence of a general scale prescribed by the central authorities. But it is not improbable that such a scale existed, and this conjecture is somewhat strengthened when we come to consider the real value of the money allotted. Any attempt to give the modern English equivalent of Roman 1 At Comum (Pliny's endowment) and at Hispalis. 2 See Marquardt, Stuatsverwcdtung, ii. 107. Cato, De Re Bustica, recommends that a slave should be allowed 4 modii in winter, 4£ in summer. Soldiers were allowed 4 modii. 3 See above, p. 9, n. 5. 4 She is described as ' Sexta Saturnina ingenua frumento publico Divae Faustinae Iunioris '.