ned undiminished after the change of
the national religion. But there was also a great horde of free, poor
plebeians, who were the perpetual paupers of the government. These lived
in the same careless, indigent idleness as had the same class in
preceding centuries. They inhabited tenements not unlike those known to
the great cities of modern times. These houses were of several stories,
each tenement sheltering a number of families. That they were
exceedingly uncomfortable is easy to believe, seeing that even the
wealthy of ancient times, notwithstanding the architectural grandeur
which they could command, were ignorant of the ordinary modern domestic
conveniences. The free working class of the present day was then
practically unknown: that place was taken by the slaves. So the
poverty-stricken Roman citizen was both necessarily and willingly
unemployed. Generally, however, corn, wine, and oil were supplied him
with little or no expense to himself. Each morning, at a set time, his
wife would repair to a prescribed station in the district, and there, on
showing a citizen's ticket, she would receive a three-pound loaf of
bread. So indulgent was the government, that it ground and baked the
allowance which at one time was made in the shape of corn. During five
months in the year there was also distributed, to the poorer people, an
allowance of pork; the annual consumption of this kind of meat in Rome
was three million six hundred and twenty-eight thousand pounds. When the
populace had clamored before Augustus for free wine as well as bread,
that wise and firm ruler reminded them that since his friend Agrippa had
brought into the city a bountiful supply of pure water, no Roman need
complain of thirst. But those emperors who denuded Roman citizenship
entirely of its right of suffrage yet had an interest in keeping the
populace quiet and contented; hence, in the fourth century there existed
public cellars from whence was dispensed, at a small cost to the
inhabitants of Rome, the fermented vintage of Campania.

It was also necessary, the people being idle, that they should be
amused. There were the magnificent public baths where they could while
away the time in luxury and gossip. But the amusement with which the
multitude was never satiated was found in the exhibitions of the circus.
On special occasions, many would sleep in the porticoes near by, in
order to be the first on hand to obtain seats in the morning. The
immense amph