296 alimenta 



only possible for those who could afford to bribe. There remains the 

 alternative of taking it by eluding or defying the vigilance of the staff. 

 Is it probable that the poor market-gardener ventured to do this? 

 Not often, I fancy: we can only guess, and I doubt whether much of 

 the intercepted water came his way. There was it is true one aqueduct 1 

 the water of which was of poor quality. It was a work of Augustus, 

 intended to supply the great pond (naumachid) in which sham sea-fights 

 were held to amuse the public. When not so employed, this water was 

 made available for irrigation of gardens. This was on the western or 

 Vatican side of the Tiber. Many rich men had pleasure-gardens in 

 that part, and we cannot be sure that even this water was in practice 

 serving any economic purpose. 



XXXIX. INSCRIPTIONS RELATIVE TO ALIMENTA. 



It is impossible to leave unnoticed the inscriptions 2 of this period 

 relative to alimenta, and Mommsen's interpretation 8 of the two chief 

 ones, though their connexion with my present subject is not very close. 

 In the bronze tablets recording respectively the declarations of estate- 

 values in the communes of Ligures Baebiani (101 AD) and Veleia 

 (103 AD), made with the view of ascertaining the securities upon which 

 the capital endowment was to be advanced, we have interesting details 

 of this ingenious scheme for perpetuating charity. But neither these, 

 nor some minor inscribed records of bequests, nor again the experience 

 of Pliny the younger in a benefaction 4 of the same kind, give us direct 

 evidence on labour-questions. It is in connexion with tenure of land 

 and management of estates that these documents mainly concern us. 

 The fact that there was felt to be a call for charities to encourage the 

 rearing of children was assuredly not a sign of social or economic 

 wellbeing; but this I have remarked above. 



The following points stand out clearly in the interpretation of 

 Mommsen. The growth of large estates as against small is shewn in 

 both the tablets as having gone far by the time of Trajan : but not so 

 far as modern writers have imagined. In the case of the Ligures 

 Baebiani there is record of a considerable number of properties of 

 moderate value, indeed they are in a majority. At Veleia, though 

 small estates have not disappeared, there are more large ones, and the 

 process of absorption has evidently been more active. This was not 

 strange, for the former case belongs to the Hirpinian hill country of 

 southern Italy, the latter to the slopes of the Apennine near Placentia, 



1 de aquis n, cf also 92. 2 Wilmanns exempla 2844-8." 



3 Hermes XIX pp 393-416. 4 Plin epist VII 1 8. 



