s the dole"
(_sportulam furunculus captat_) was a proverb. The _sportula_ was a
charity sufficiently important for state regulation. Nero (A.D. 54)
reduced it to a payment in money (100 _quadrantes_, about 1s.). Domitian
(A.D. 81) restored the custom of giving food. Subsequently both
practices--gifts in money and in food--appear to have been continued.

In these conditions the Roman family steadily decayed. Its "old
discipline" was neglected; and Tacitus (A.D. 75), in his dialogue on
Oratory, wrote (c. xxviii.) what might be called its epitaph. Of the
general decline the laws of Caesar and Augustus to encourage marriage
and to reward the parents of large families are sufficient evidence.

The destruction of the working-class family must have been finally
achieved by the imperial control of the _collegia_.

The collegia.

In old Rome there were corporations of craftsmen for common worship,
and for the maintenance of the traditions of the craft. These
corporations were ruined by slave labour, and becoming secret
societies, in the time of Augustus were suppressed. Subsequently they
were reorganized, and gave scope for much friendliness. They often
existed in connexion with some great house, whose chief was their
patron and whose household gods they worshipped. The gilds of the
poor, or rather of the lower orders (_collegia tenuiorum_), consisted
of artisans and others, and slaves also, who paid monthly
contributions to a common fund to meet the expenses of worship, common
meals, and funerals. They were not in Italy, it would seem (J.P.
Waltzing, _Etudes histor. sur les corporations professionnelles chez
les Romains_, i. 145, 300), though they may have been in Asia Minor
and elsewhere, societies for mutual help generally. They were chiefly
funeral benefit societies. Under Severus (A.D. 192) the _collegia_
were extended and more closely organized as industrial bodies. They
were protected and controlled, as in England in the 15th century the
municipalities affected the cause of the craft gilds and ended by
controlling them. Industrial disorder was thus prevented; the
government were able to provide the supplies required in Rome and the
large cities with less risk and uncertainty; and the workmen employed
in trade, especially the carrying trade, became almost slaves. In the
2nd century, and until the invasions, there were three groups of
_collegia_: (1) those engaged in