1921 AND HIS SUCGESSOBS 9 till fourteen. 1 It has, therefore, been suggested that the words of Spartianus refer to an extension of the age limit. A further establishment of maintenance grants, this time to girls only, was made by Antoninus Pius, in honour of .the Empress Faustina upon her death. 2 This is perhaps one of the first occasions on which an endowment for the assistance of the poor was made by a husband in memory of his wife. The testimony of Capitolinus — an historian of the third century whose authority is none of the best — is confirmed by the discovery of a coin, bearing the inscrip- tion ' Puellae Faustinianae ', and showing the emperor surrounded by a group of his beneficiaries. 3 Three other coins have no inscription, but suggest by their types that further grants were made in the years 151, 160, and 161. About this time the young people benefiting by the imperial generosity — or the public authorities in their name — began to put on record their gratitude to their patron. An inscription of this sort was erected by the ' pueri et puellae alimentarii ' of Cupra Montana. Another comes from Urbinum, and a third from Sentinum, 4 sixteen miles away. Marcus Aurelius also showed an interest in the maintenance grants, for Capitolinus relates 5 that on the occasion of the marriage of Verus to the emperor's daughter, Lucilla, fresh names were added to the lists. Further, in 173, Marcus enrolled ' novas puellas Fausti- nianas ', in honour of his wife, the younger Faustina, who had died two years before. Elsewhere Capitolinus tells us that Marcus ' carried out many wise reforms in regard to the public food doles but what these reforms were he does not relate. An inscription put up in 162 by the 'pueri et puellae alimentarii Ficolensium ' is dedicated * Optimo et indulgentis- simo principi '. 6 The next literary evidence to the institution belongs to the reign of Pertinax, and shows us that the alimentary funds did not long remain secure. For Capitolinus, writing of the year 193, only about thirty years after the dedication just mentioned, tells us that this emperor ' alimentaria etiam compendia, quae novem annorum ex instituto Traiani debebantur, obdurata vere- cundia, sustulit.' 7 Only one more foundation is recorded. 8 1 Digest, xxxiv. 2 ' Puellas alimentarias in honorem Faustinae Faustinianas constituit ' : Capito- linus, 8. 8 Eckhel, vii. 40 ; see also vii. 48. 4 Corpus Inscript. Latin, ix. 5700, xi. 5957, xi. 6002. 5 ' Ob hanc coniunctionem pueros et puellas novorum nominum frumentariae perceptioni adscribi praeceperunt,' Capitolinus, Marcus Aurelius, 7 ; ' novas puellas Faustinianas instituit in honorem uxoris mortuae,' 26 j ' de alimentis publicis multa prudenter invenit,' 11. 6 Corpus Inscript. Latin, xiv. 4003. 7 Pertinax, 9. 8 ' Puellas et pueros, quemadmodum Antoninus Faustinianas instituerat, Mam- maeanas et Mammaeanos instituit ' : Lampridius, Alex. Sev. 7.
