Of
Ancient Roman
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
containers, a congiarium, or congiary (
Latin, from ''
congius''), was a vessel containing one
congius, a measure of volume equal to six
sextarii
The ancient Roman units of measurement were primarily founded on the Hellenic system, which in turn was influenced by the Egyptian system and the Mesopotamian system. The Roman units were comparatively consistent and well documented.
Length
T ...
.
In the early times of the
Roman Republic, the congius was the usual measure of
oil or
wine which was, on certain occasions, distributed among the people; and thus congiarium became a name for liberal donations to the people, in general, whether consisting of oil, wine, grain, or money, or other things, while donations made to the soldiers were called ''
donativa'', though they were sometimes also termed ''congiaria''.
Congiarium was, moreover, occasionally used simply to designate a present or a pension given by a person of high rank, or a prince, to his friends; and Fabius Maximus called the presents which
Augustus made to his friends, on account of their smallness, ''heminaria'', instead of congiaria, because
hemina
The ancient Roman units of measurement were primarily founded on the ancient Greek units of measurement, Hellenic system, which in turn was influenced by the ancient Egyptian units of measurement, Egyptian system and the Ancient Mesopotamian unit ...
was only the twelfth part of a congius.
gave a congiarium of 72½ denarii (300 sesterces) to each citizen.
Caligula
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germanicu ...
gave the same amount of three hundred
sesterces on two occasions.
Nero, whose congiaria were the earliest known examples represented on medals, gave four hundred.
Despite
Trajan's financial success, his practice of giving extravagant congiaria to the people of Rome received severe condemnation. His first congiarium, in 99, was probably no larger than that of
Nerva
Nerva (; originally Marcus Cocceius Nerva; 8 November 30 – 27 January 98) was Roman emperor from 96 to 98. Nerva became emperor when aged almost 66, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the succeeding rulers of the Flavian dy ...
(75
denarii per person), but his second and third distributions of money, after each
Dacian War, amounted to 650 denarii per person.
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
treated the Roman people in the same way as Trajan, and of him
Fronto said:
{{"
, text=I consider it good policy that the prince did not neglect the theatre or the circus and arena, as he well knew that there are two things which the Roman applaud especially—the distribution of grain, and games. The neglect of the important thing
rains Rains may refer to:
Surname
*Rains (surname)
Places
* Rains, South Carolina, an unincorporated community in Marion County, South Carolina
* Rains County, Texas, a county in East Texas
Entertainment
* ''The Rains'', a 2016 zombie novel by Gregg Hu ...
causes great harm, of the frivolous thing
ntertainmentgreater hatred—the crowd hungering more for games than for bread, because by the gift to the people
ongiariumonly those who are authorized to receive the grain will be gratified, while by the games the whole population is pacified.
, sign=Fronto, ''Princ. Hist.'', p. 249, ed. Barthold Georg Niebuhr.
[Ferdinand Gregorovius. ]
The Emperor Hadrian
'. Macmillan. 1898. {{ISBN, 0-7905-5228-0. p 214.
See also
*
Aerarium
*
Comes
*
Fiscus
*
Rationalis
A ''rationalis'' was a high-ranking fiscal officer in the Roman Empire. Until replaced by the ''comes sacrarum largitionum'' by Emperor Constantine in the early 4th century, the ''rationalis summarum'' – comparable to a modern-day finance minist ...
*
Rationibus The ''a rationibus'' was the secretary of finance in the Roman Empire and in charge of the imperial treasury, the ''fiscus''. His responsibilities involved monitoring the state's revenues and expenditures and maintaining the accounts of the ''fiscus ...
*
Roman finance
References
Roman Empire
Roman military payments
Economy of ancient Rome