ALIMENTIRII

The Latin name, during the imperial period, for children of needy but free-born parents, who, out of the in- terest of funds invested for the purpose, received monthly contributions to their support in goods or money up to a certain age (fixed in the case of boys at eighteen, in that of girls at fourteen). This scheme, the object of which was to encourage people to marry, and so to check the alarming decrease of the free population, was started by the Emperor Nerva (A.D. 96-98), and extended by Trajan to the whole of Italy. Succeeding emperors also, down to Alexander Severus (222-235), founded such bursaries; and private citizens in Italy and the provinces, as, for instance the younger Pliny, vied with them in their liberality.