Note 33 — Below is a copy of the deeds of the divine Augustus, by which he subjected the whole world to the dominion of the Roman people, and of the amounts which he expended upon the commonwealth and the Roman people, as engraved upon two brazen columns which are set up at Rome.1

In Chap. 15, Augustus states that in 731 he twelve times distributed grain at his own expense. This assumption of the grain administration in 732 was not strictly a charity. The extract from Dio under Note 69, gives some of the details. It is probable that from this time the tribute in kind was turned into the fiscus, or imperial treasury, instead of into the ærarium, or treasury of the senate, as heretofore. This new task of the imperial government involved not merely the gratuitous distribution of grain to the ordinary Roman citizens (after 752 even to senators and knights), but also the providing of a sufficient supply of grain for all purchasers at a minimum price, often below the market value. It appears that grain tickets “tessaræ frumentariæ” were distributed to the citizens entitled to free grain, and then, to assist the vast multitude of strangers, freedmen, and attachés of the great houses, money tickets, “tessaræ nummariæ” were given out. Cf. Mommsen, Röm. St., II, 992.