Note 1007 — Chapter XI · THE POOR.

The Roman poor-law was, consequently upon the Roman imperial institutions, of a strange, exceptional and most dangerous character. The rulers literally fed the people: panem et circenses, food and amusements; these were the relief which the wealthy and powerful supplied, and if ever these were sparingly distributed, convulsions and revolution were inevitable. The Λειτουργίαι, public dinners, and other doles of a compulsory nature assisted the poorer among the Athenians. (I have not cancelled this note, which was written long before the events of February 1848 and their consequences had added another pregnant example to the store of history.)