Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/323

 OF THE KOMAN EMPIEE 303 of the Asiatics, and the dissolute, effeminate prostitution of the Syrians, were mingled in the various multitude, which, under the proud and false denomination of Romans, presumed to despise their fellow-subjects, and even their sovereigns, who dwelt beyond the precincts of the eternal citv.^^ Yet the name of that city was still pronounced with respect .-PubUcdiB- •' ' 11. • tributlon of the trequent and capricious tumults ot its mhabitants were m- bread, bacon, 1111 11 r /-< ■ ■ lOU, wine, &c. dulged with impunity; and the successors or Lonstantnie, nistead of crushing the last remains of the democracy by the strong arm of militaiy power, embraced the mild policy of Augustus, and studied to relieve the poverty, and to amuse the idleness, of an innumerable people.^* I. For the convenience of the lazy plebeians the monthly distributions of corn were converted into a daily allowance of bread ; a great number of ovens was construct and maintained at the public expense ; and at the appointed hour each citizen who was furnished with a ticket as- cended the flight of steps which had been assigned to his peculiar quarter or division, and received, either as a gift or at a very low price, a loaf of bread of the weight of three pounds for the use of his family. II. The forests of Lucania, whose acorns fattened lai'ge droves of wild hogs,^^ afforded, as a species of tribute, a plentiful supply of cheap and wholesome meat. During five months of the year a regular allowance of bacon was distributed to the poorer citizens ; and the annual consumption of the capi- tal, at a time when it was much declined from its former lustre, was ascei'tained by an edict of Valentinian the Third, at three 53 See the third Satire (60-125) of Juvenal, who indignantly complains, Quamvis quota portio fascis Achasi ! Jampriedem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes ; Et linguam et mores, &c. Seneca, when he proposes to comfort his mother (Consolat. ad. Helv. c. 6) by the reflection that a great part of mankind were in a state of exile, reminds her how few of the inhabitants of Rome were born in the city. 54 Almost all that is said of the bread, bacon, oil, wine, &c. , may be found in the fourteenth book of the Theodosian Code, which expressly treats of the police of the great cities. See particularly the titles iii. iv. xv. xvi. xvii. xxiv. The colla- teral testimonies are produced in Godefroy's Commentary, and it is needless to transcribe them. According to a law of Theodosius, which appreciates in money the military allowance, a piece of gold (eleven shillings) was equivalent to eighty pounds of bacon, or to eighty pounds of oil, or to twelve modii (or pecks) of salt (Cod. Theod. 1. viii. tit. iv. leg. 17). This equation, compared with another, of seventy pounds of bacon for an amphora (Cod. Theod. 1. xiv. tit. iv. e.^. 4), fixes the price of wine at about sixteen pence the gallon. 5' The anonymous author of the Description of the World (p. 14 in torn. iii. Geograph. Minor. Hudson) observes of Lucania, in his barbarous Latin, Regio obtima, et ipsa omnibus habundans, et lardum multum foras emittit. Propter quod est in montibus, cujus a;scam animalium variam, &c.