As so ancient proofs are found of public attention paid to foundlings,
it may be readily supposed that in well-regulated states care was
employed at an early period to provide also for the maintenance and
education of orphans. There is reason to believe that this was the
case at Thebes, which took under its protection the children of all
poor parents. Solon made a law, that children whose fathers had fallen
in the defence of their country should be educated at the expense and
under the inspection of government[1091]. The same thing was customary
among the Iasei, who inhabited an island on the western coast of
Caria[1092].
At Rome children maintained at the public expense were called _pueri
alimentarii_, and _puellæ alimentariæ_[1093].
The emperor Trajan was the first who formed large establishments for
this purpose; and the children maintained in them were called, from
his family name, _pueri Ulpiani_. Pliny relates in his panegyric, that
he had caused five thousand free-born children to be sought out and
educated. It is more than probable that he suffered them to remain
with their parents, and that those who were unable to educate them
themselves, received a monthly or annual allowance in corn or money.
Orphans perhaps were given out to board at a certain fixed sum. It
deserves to be remarked, that the emperor in this manner might afford
assistance, not only to such as were depressed by poverty, but also
to persons of distinction who were not able, according as we say at
present, to support their families in a manner suitable to their rank.
To have an offspring therefore was not a misfortune, but rather a
blessing. Children were begotten in order that the parents might take
advantage of this beneficence, as some people build houses that they
may obtain the offered premium; and the large capitals required were
not taken from the public treasury, but from the emperor’s own privy
purse. That these establishments might exist after his death, the
money in different parts destined for their support was laid out on
land, which produced a perpetual income. This is shown by a letter of
foundation for the town of Veleia[1094], which is still extant.
In the year 1747, some peasants while ploughing in the neighbourhood
of Placentia found, together with several other antiquities, a
copper-plate five and a half feet in height and ten and a half in
breadth, which weighed 600 pounds. They broke it in great haste,
because they expected to find under it a treasure, and sold the pieces
as old copper. One of these having fallen into the hands of the learned
count Giovanni Roncovieri, he remarked that it contained a part of a
public document belonging to the reign of Trajan. With much trouble
and at considerable expense he at length collected all the pieces, the
possessors of which, on account of the eagerness shown to obtain them,
expected for them a high price, and thus was the means of saving one
of the most beautiful monuments of antiquity, a complete document in
regard to the imperial establishment for the community of Valeia[1095].
The inscription forms six hundred and seventy lines, and is divided
into seven columns, over which stands the following title: “Obligatio.
praediorum. ob. H--S. deciens. quadraginta. quatuor. milia. vt. ex.
indulgentia. optimi maximique. principis. imp. caes. Nervae. Trajani.
Aug. Germanici. Dacici. pueri. puellaeque. alimenta. accipiant.
legitimi. n. CCXLV. in. singulos H--S. XVI. n. f. H--S XLVII. XL n.
legitimae. n. XXXIV. sing. H--S. XII. n. f. H--S. IV. DCCCXCVI. spurius
I. H--S. CXLIV. spuria. I. H--S. CXX. summa. H--S. LIICC. quae. sit
vsura 55 5 55 sortis. supra. scriptae.”
Trajan therefore laid out a capital of 1,044,000 sesterces at five
per cent. interest on forty-six farms around Valeia, which town or
community was destined for this establishment. These farms formed the
mortgage, and on that account are particularly named, together with
the sum for which they were security. The annual interest amounted to
52,200 sesterces. Of this sum 245 boys born in wedlock received monthly
sixteen sesterces each, which in a year makes 47,040; and 34 girls of
the same description twelve sesterces monthly, making in a year 4896
sesterces. Besides these, one illegitimate male child received yearly
144 sesterces, and one illegitimate female child 120 sesterces. These
different sums amounted exactly to the interest of the capital laid out.
It is hardly worth while to reduce these sums to our present currency.
For even if we should calculate how many pounds or shillings the
silver contained in 1,044,000 sesterces would make, this result would
not give us the real value, because we have no standard by which the
relative value can be determined; that is to say, it is not known what
proportion silver and copper bore in those periods to the prices of
the necessaries of life. The price of grain proposed by Unger as a
standard, can be employed only for later times, when corn began to be a
more general article of trade.
However, Trajan’s capital, according to our money at present, makes
about 54,375 dollars, and the sum of the interest 2718 dollars;
consequently a legitimate male child obtained yearly ten dollars, and
a legitimate female child between seven and eight dollars. Such is the
calculation made from the principles laid down in Romé de l’Isle’s
Metrology by Professor Hegewisch, who has endeavoured also to compare
some pieces in the time of Trajan with those at present.
It appears, therefore, that among 300 children the emperor admitted
only two illegitimate; and Professor Hegewisch is inclined to believe
that this was the actual proportion at that time; which indeed would
induce one to form a very favourable opinion of the state of public
morals, under the reign of Trajan, in the district above named.
That it was then customary to pay interest, salaries, and
pensions, not annually but monthly, is known from other sources of
information. The case was the same in regard to the distribution
of corn (_frumentatio_), as is proved by a passage in Dionysius of
Halicarnassus[1096], and when money was bequeathed in perpetuity for
benevolent purposes by any person’s will[1097].
Muratori is of opinion that these pensions were paid to boys till
they arrived at the age of eighteen, and to girls till they attained
to that of fourteen; and for a proof he refers to an order of Adrian,
confirmed by the emperor Alexander Severus[1098]. At the above age the
males could become soldiers and gain their pay; and girls of fourteen
were fit either to be given in marriage, or to be employed in such a
way as to obtain a livelihood by their industry. That the emperor,
in forming this establishment, had an eye to recruits for the army,
appears probable from a passage in Pliny[1099]; and the example of
Trajan induced rich private individuals during his life-time, and
afterwards many of his successors, to form similar establishments for
the like purpose. The same plate was destined also to eternise the
bequest of one Cornelius, according to which 3600 sesterces, or about
187 dollars, being the interest of 72,000 sesterces, or 3750 dollars,
were to be employed in maintaining eighteen legitimate male children,
and one legitimate female child, at the rate before-mentioned. Pliny
even, the panegyrist of Trajan, founded from his own property pensions
for the free-born children of poor parents; a circumstance which he
does not forget to mention in his letters, and the same thing is
confirmed by an inscription still extant[1100]. Antoninus Pius made
a similar establishment for poor girls, which after his consort were
called _puellæ Faustinianæ_[1101]. The emperor Antoninus Philosophus
did the same thing; and from the name of the empress the girls
were called _Faustinianæ_, but by way of distinction _novæ puellæ
Faustinianæ_[1102]. Alexander Severus formed an institution for the
education of boys and girls, whom he caused to be named from his mother
_mammæani_ and _mammæanæ_[1103].
In regard to the manner in which these establishments were managed we
are entirely ignorant. It is known only, that in each of the provinces
into which Italy was divided, there was a public functionary of
some rank, with the title _procurator ad alimenta_, to whom, in all
probability, the inspection of them was entrusted. This is known to
have been an honourable office. It was held by the emperor Pertinax
when a young man, in the towns and villages on the Via Ancilia, and in
his old age at Rome itself[1104]. It was held also by Didius Julianus
before he became emperor, after he had been prætor and consul, that is,
enjoyed the highest offices next to the imperial dignity, and after he
had been governor of Germany[1105]. On ancient monuments erected to
the memory of persons of distinction, by their children, relations or
friends, it is mentioned, that, besides filling other places of honour,
they had been _procuratores ad alimenta_ in certain districts there
named.
These are the oldest instances, with which I am at present acquainted,
of institutions for the benefit of poor children and orphans.
Orphan-houses, properly so called, in which the children were
educated together, I find mentioned for the first time, under the
name of _orphanotrophium_, in the laws of the emperor Justinian. At
later periods they occur frequently in the decrees of the different
councils, such as that of Chalcedon in the fifth century. At the court
of Byzantium the office of inspector of orphans, _orphanotrophi_,
was so honourable and important, that it was filled by a brother of
the emperor Michael IV. (Paphlago), in the beginning of the eleventh
century[1106]. But under the latter emperors this place was entirely
suppressed.
At present, orphan-houses have been abolished, since it has been shown,
by many years’ experience, that the children cannot be educated in
them healthy and at a sufficiently cheap rate. The children are placed
out to be boarded and educated by individuals, under the inspection of
those who manage everything relating to the poor.