ons have been found in Rome, in
my time. They are generally works of the fourth century of our era,
cut in glass by unskillful hands, and they show the portrait-heads of
SS. Peter and Paul, in preference to other subjects of the kind. This
fact is due not only to the special veneration which the Romans
professed for the founders of their church, but also to the habit of
celebrating their anniversary, June 29, with public or domestic
_agapai_. S. Peter's day was to the Romans of the fourth century what
Christmas is to us, as regards joviality and sumptuous banquets. On
one of these occasions S. Jerome received from his friend Eustochio
fruit and sweets in the shape of doves. In acknowledging the kind
remembrance, S. Jerome recommends sobriety on that day more than on
any other: "We must celebrate the birthday of Peter rather with
exaltation of spirit, than with abundance of food. It is absurd to
glorify with the satisfaction of our appetites the memory of men who
pleased God by mortifying theirs." The poorer classes of citizens were
fed under the porticoes of the Vatican basilica. The gatherings
degenerated into the display of such excesses of drunkenness that
Augustine could not resist writing to the Romans: "First you
persecuted the martyrs with stones and other instruments of torture
and death; and now you persecute their memory with your intoxicating
cups."

The institution of public granaries (_horrea publica_) for the
maintenance of the lower classes was also accepted and favored by
Christian Rome. On page 250 of my "Ancient Rome," I have spoken of the
warehouses for the storage of wheat, built by Sulpicius Galba on the
plains of Testaccio, near the Porta S. Paolo, named for him _horrea
galbana_, even after their purchase by the state. These public
granaries originated at the time of Caius Gracchus and his grain laws.
Their scheme was developed, in course of time, by Clodius, Pompey,
Seianus, and the emperors, to such an extent that, in 312 A. D., there
were registered in Rome alone two hundred and ninety granaries. They
may be divided into three classes: In the first, and by far the most
important, a plentiful supply of breadstuffs was kept at the expense
of the state, to meet emergencies of scarcity or famine, and the wants
of a population one third of which was fed gratuitously by the
sovereign. The second was intended especially for the storage of paper
(_horrea chartaria_), candles (_horrea candelaria_), spic