Introduction. xix 



own time of meeting, and worship Its own special 

 patron god."^ 



Lamprldlus also ascribes similar measures to 

 Alexander Severus, of whom he says that he 

 formed corporations of all vintners, sellers of 

 pulse, makers of caligae (a kind of military 

 shoe), and, in general of all the other crafts In 

 Rome.^ 



We have frequent mention of these corpora- 

 tions, moreover, at various periods of Roman 

 history. The bakers at Rome, the collegmm 

 pistoru77t, a distinct and important guild, are 

 frequently mentioned. Nor were the collegia 

 confined to Rome proper. Their existence is to 

 be traced in the remotest provinces of the empire. 

 We have had handed down to us, among the 

 letters of the younger Pliny, one addressed to the 

 Emperor Trajan, referring to the establishment 

 of a guild or corporation of artificers {Fabin.y at 

 Nicomedia, the ancient capital of Bithynia, 

 formerly a Roman province on the Asiatic coast 

 of the Sea of Marmora. There is also an 

 interesting account In the Proceedings of the 

 Society of Antiquaries * of the researches of 

 Mr. A. J. Evans, M.A., F.S.A. at Illyricum, a 

 Roman province on the east coast of the Adriatic, 



^ Numa, cap. xvii,, Bohn's Plutarch. 



^ " Corpora omnium constituit vinariorum, lupinariorum, 

 caligauriorum et omnino omnium artium." Lampridius, cap. 

 xxxiii. (Alex. Severus). 

 Epistolse X., 42, 43. 

 Archseologia, vols. 48 and 49. ^ 



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