various state manufactures; (2) those
engaged in the provision trade; and (3) the free trades, which
gradually lapsed into a kind of slavery. If the members of these gilds
fled they were brought back by force. Parents had to keep to the trade
to which they belonged; their children had to succeed them in it. A
slave caste indeed had been formed of the once free workmen.

Pueri alimentarii.

As a charitable protest against the destruction of children, in the
midst of a broken family life, and increasing dependence and poverty, a
special institution was founded (to use the Scottish word) for the
"alimentation" of the children of citizens, at first by voluntary
charity and afterwards by imperial bounty.

Nerva and Trajan adopted the plan. Pliny (_Ep._ vii. 18) refers to it.
There was a desire to give more lasting and certain help than an
allotment of food to parents. A list of children, whose names were on
the relief tables at Rome, was accordingly drawn up, and a special
service for their maintenance established. Two instances are recorded
in inscriptions--one at Veleia, one at Beneventum. The emperor lent
money for the purpose at a low percentage--2-1/2 or 5% as against the
usual 10 or 12. At Veleia his loan amounted to 1,044,000
_sesterces_--about L8156, and 51 of the local landed proprietors
mortgaged land, valued at 13 or 14 million _sesterces_, as security
for the debt. The interest on the emperor's money at 5% was paid into
the municipal treasury, and out of it the children were relieved. The
figures seem small; at Veleia 300 children were assisted, of whom 36
were girls. The annual interest at 5% amounted to nearly L408, which
divided among 300 gives about 27s. a head. The figures suggest that
the money served as a charitable supplementation of the citizens'
relief in direct aid of the children. Apparently the scheme was widely
adopted. Curators of high position were the patrons; procurators acted
as inspectors over large areas; and _quaestores alimentarii_ undertook
the local management. Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138), and Marcus Aurelius
(A.D. 160), and subsequently Severus (A.D. 192) established these
bursaries for children in the names of their wives. In the 3rd century
the system fell into disorder. There were large arrears of payments,
and in the military anarchy that ensued it came to an end. It is of
special interest, as indicating a new feeling o