Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/268

 first demolish the altar of Pity. The exposure of new-born infants was one of the besetting sins of antiquity, and the practice was universal among the Latins and Greeks. The inhumanity of it was, however, perceived early in our era; yet not until the reign of Severus do we find a legal pronouncement against it. Constantine discountenanced it, but no comprehensive enactment for its suppression was promulgated till the end of the fourth century. Charity towards the needy was a recognized duty from the earliest times, and Homer voices the general sentiment when he writes that strangers and the poor are to be treated as emissaries from the gods. At Athens, in its palmy days, an allowance was made to indigent citizens; and the lavish system of outdoor relief denoted by the trite phrase, Panem et circenses, as introduced by the Caesars, threatened to pauperize the urban population of the Empire. The origin of charitable asylums is not well ascertained, but there is evidence that in the first century at least the foundation of such institutions was already being promoted by the rulers of the state. The Roman Empire entered the Christian, etc., Plutarch, Aristides ad fin.]*