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Eastern Alimenta and an Inscription of Attaleia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

C. P. Jones
C. P. Jones
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Extract

A characteristic phenomenon of the High Empire, though it is found both earlier and later, is the alimentary scheme, whereby foundations established by emperors or private persons provide a kind of family allowance for the children of free-born but not wealthy parents. Though such schemes may well have had Hellenistic antecedents, the earliest known example is from Julio-Claudian Italy, where T. Helvius Basila, a senator from Atina, leaves 400,000 sesterces to his fellow-citizens ‘ut liberis eorum ex reditu, dum in aetatem pervenirent, frumentum et postea sestertia singula milia darentur’.

In the second century, probably beginning with Nerva, alimentary schemes become part of the system of imperial benefactions, and their workings are attested for many cities of Italy by inscriptions and by letters of the younger Pliny.

Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 109 , November 1989 , pp. 189 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1989

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References

I am grateful to Glen Bowersock and to an anonymous referee for JHS for their comments.

1 I use the following special abbreviations: Balland = Balland, A., Fouilles de Xanthos vii: Inscriptions d'époque impéiale du Létoon (Paris 1981);Google ScholarBull. = J. and L. Robert, Bulletin épigraphique, appearing almost every year between 1938 and 1984 in REG; Duncan-Jones = Duncan-Jones, R. P., The economy of the Roman Empire 2 (Cambridge 1982);Google Scholar Garnsey = Garnsey, P., Famine and food supply in the Graeco-Roman world (Cambridge 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the alimenta generally, Duncan-Jones, Chapter 7 and Appendixes 3–6; for the Greek evidence, Balland, 195–8.

2 CIL x 5056 (ILS 977); on the date of Helvius Basila, PIR 2 H 67; Mitchell, S., Chiron xvi (1986) 19–20, 22–5Google Scholar.

3 Pliny, , Epp. i 8.10,Google Scholar vii 18.

4 Bell, H. I., Aegyptus xiii (1933) 518Google Scholar lines 4–5; SB 7602; further bibliography in Balland, 196.

5 Athens: IG ii2 2776, re-edited and restudied by Miller, S. J., Hesperia xli (1972) 50–95,CrossRefGoogle Scholar especially 87–91 on the purpose; cf. Balland, 196.

6 Cass. Dio lxix 16.2, cf. Wörrle, M., Chiron i (1971) 335Google Scholar n. 44, Spawforth, A.J. and Walker, S., JRS lxxv (1985) 90Google Scholar. For the various ways in which emperors assisted the food supply of cities other than Rome, Wörrle, art. cit. 324–40 (Bull. 1972, 392), Garnsey, 251–7.

7 Greeks: SIG 3 835 A; F. Delphes iii 4 (4), p. 152 n. 6. Megara: IG vii 70–2. Cyrene: Reynolds, J. M., PBSR xxvi (1958) 164,Google Scholar with the restorations and discussion of J. and L. Robert, Bull. 1960, 438. For Hadrian's gifts of grain to cities of the empire, Cass. Dio lxix 5.3.

8 IG Rom iii 800–1; Bean, , Side Kitabeleri (Ankara 1965) no. 191,Google Scholar shown to be from Sillyon by J. and L. Robert, Bull. 1967, 606.

9 Oenoanda: IGRom iii 492 lines 15–16; cf. Balland 196, 197 n. 181. Tarracina: CIL x 6328 (ILS 6278); cf. the figure of 300 at Veleia (Duncan-Jones 309) and probably 600 at Sicca Veneria (CIL viii 1641; ILS 6818).

10 Balland 186 no. 67. Balland identifies the benefactor with the great Opramoas of Oenoanda: Coulton, J. J., JHS cvii (1987) 171–8,CrossRefGoogle Scholar argues that he must remain anonymous.

11 Bean, , Türk Tarihi Kurumu Belleten xxii (1958) 27–8Google Scholar no. 13 (whence SEG xvii 570, Ann. épigr. 1972, 620).

12 For these suggestions, Halfmann, H., Die Senatoren aus dem östlichen Teil its Imperium Romanum, Hypomnemata lviii (Göttingen 1979) 143;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPIR2 M 221.

13 M. Calpurnius Rufus: Halfmann (previous n.) 101 no. 2. L. Calpurnius Longus: Halfmann 105 no. 10. Ti. Claudius Flavianus: Halfmann 184 no. 107. For this suggestion about his connection with Calpurnius Longus, Bull. 1948, 229, discussing no. 21; cf. Jameson, S., Anat. Stud, xvi (1966) 134Google Scholar.

14 Dig. i 16.10; PIR 2 C 311, 313.

15 Bosch, , Türk Tarihi Kurumu Belleten xi (1947) 104–5Google Scholar no. 21; Bull. 1948, 229 (p. 202).

16 Bull. 1959, 447 (pp. 254–5).

17 Sacco, G., Settima Miscellanea greca e romana (Rome 1980) 271–86,Google Scholar gives a good discussion of θρεπτός and related words such as τρoφεύς: see now also Levick, B. and Mitchell, S., Monuments from the Aezanitis, MAMA ix (London 1988) lxiv–lxviGoogle Scholar.

18 Pliny: Epp. x 65–6. θρπτοὶ οικογενεῖς: IG vii 3376 (Chaeronea), Colin, G., BCH xxii (1898) 87,Google Scholar no. 83 line 4 (F. Delphes iii 6, no. 27). Peina, the θεραπαινίδιον οἰκογενές of POxy. 1 3555, is surely a θρεπτἡ A θρεπτἡ purchased: Bull. 1969, 364 (Leucopetra).

19 Aristid. Or. xlvii 27, 66–77, xlix 3, etc. (Zosimos), xlix 15 (Neritos), 1 54 (Epagathos). Cf. Sacco (n. 17) 273–8.

20 For such statues, Duncan–Jones 301–2; for a quaestor alimentorum so honored, CIL xi 5395 (ILS 6620: Asisium); for the expression pueri puellaeque alimentari, CIL ix 5700, xi 5957, 5989 (ILS 328), xiv 4003 (ILS 6225); in CIL xi 6002 alimentari is used alone.

21 Naples: IG xiv 748 lines 5–6 (IG Rom i 449), Buchner, G., Par. Pass, vii (1952) 408Google Scholar (Bull. 1955, 300b; SEG xiv 602; cf. Moretti, L., Iscrizioni agonistiche greche [Rome 1953] pp. 168–9)Google Scholar. Cf. Geer, R. M., TAPA lxvi (1935) 211,Google Scholar citing the expression πολιταὶ παῖδες from the entries in a contest at Carian Aphrodisias (CIG 2758 A ii lines 4–5).

22 Above, at n. 9. Balland, 197–8, argues that alimentary foundations in the Greek east were characteristically civic and egalitarian, those of the west (including the imperial alimenta) exclusive: but if the present arguments are accepted, this distinction will appear too schematic.

23 Wilhelm, A., Reisen in Kilikien, Denkschr. Wien xliv 6 (Vienna 1896) 153–4;Google ScholarRobert, L., Documents de l'Asie Mineure méridionale (Paris 1966) 83–5Google Scholar.

24 Robert, , Hellenica vii (1949) 74–81,Google Scholar xi/xii (1960) 569–73.

25 It has been suggested to me that there is a parallel in the sitometroumenoi, a numerus clausus of citizens receiving grain, attested in certain cities of Lycia under Hadrian and Pius, but the nature and origin of this phenomenon are disputed: Balland, 213–21; Garnsey, 262–5; Wörrle, M., Stadt und Fest im kaiserzeitlichen Kleinasien, Vestigia xlix (Munich 1988) 124–30Google Scholar.

26 It appears to be a pure coincidence that the senator T. Helvius Basila (above, at n. 2) is attested in an inscription of Attaleia as governor of Galatia-Pamphylia: Mitchell, S., Chiron xvi (1986) 23–5Google Scholar.

27 Bean, , Side Agorasi ve Civarindaki Binalar (Ankara 1956) no. 47,Google Scholar with the discussion of Robert, , Rev. Phil. xli (1967) 82–4;Google Scholarcf. also Bull. 1977, 519; Balland, 196 n. 177 (on p. 197). Constantine: Cod. Theod. xi 27.1–2. Oxyrhynchos: Balland, 218–21; Garnsey, 265–6.