Temple of Saturn
The altar of Saturn in front of the temple was much older. The temples of Rome were public buildings offering benefits, first by freewill offerings establish the social bonds of the people but eventually by compelled offerings again consolidating the power of the government as Polybius warned.
Temple of Saturn
The Temple of Saturn (Templum Saturni or Aedes Saturni) was an ancient Roman temple said to be dedicated to the god Saturn. It stood at the foot of the Capitoline Hill at the western end of the Roman Forum. The temples of Rome were public buildings offering benefits, first by freewill offerings but eventually by compelled offerings.
The temples not only housed government records, private contracts but were also the place for birth registration. This was to insure your eligibility for benefits from such welfare programs like annona and alimenta.[1]
The Aliamenta was next to the Temple of Juno Moneta, the mint, on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. The Temple of Saturn, in the Forum Romanum, served as the treasury and registry of birth records.
The Temple of Saturn provided general funds, as well as food and subsidized education. The Roman welfare program that existed from around 98 AD to 272 AD. According to most modern historians, including Nerva biographers by Nathan Elkins and John Grainger, was initiated by emperor Nerva but expanded by Trajan.
Aerarium (from Lat. aes, in its derived sense of “money”) the name (in full, aerarium stabulum, treasure-house) given in ancient Rome to the public treasury, and in a secondary sense to the public finances. The treasury contained the moneys and accounts of the state, and also the standards of the legions; the public laws engraved on brass, the decrees of the senate and other papers and registers of importance.
These public treasures were deposited in the temple of Saturn, on the eastern slope of the Capitoline hill... In addition to the common treasury, supported by the general taxes and charged with the ordinary expenditure. There was a special reserve fund, also in the temple of Saturn, the aerarium sanctum (or sanctius), probably originally consisting of the spoils of war, afterwards maintained chiefly by a 5% tax... The later emperors had a separate aerarium privatum, containing the moneys allotted for their own use, distinct from the fiscus, which they administered in the interests of the empire.” [2]
Alimenta
The alimenta was part of a social safety net programs in the form of social welfare for the people including the tutor of the youth. It provided general funds, as well as food and subsidized education.
There were many Roman welfare programs that existed from around 98 AD to 272 AD. The idea of governments providing for the welfare of the people date's back to the first city-states of Cain, Nimrod, and Pharaoh, or Babylon, Sumer, and Egypt.
The program was supported out of the spoils or "booty" of the Dacian Wars and by a combination of estate taxes and some left over philanthropy, used sometimes to bribe the votes of the people.
The Alimenta was next to the Temple of Juno Moneta, the mint, on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. The Temple of Saturn, in the Forum Romanum, served as the treasury and registry of birth records.
Saturninus
The Church is one form of government that depends upon charity rather than force. As Christians, the six principal among them were Speratus, Narzalis, and Cittinus; and three women, Donata, Secunda, and Vestina, declined the proconsul's offer to them of the emperor’s pardon if they would worship the gods of the Romans, and sign up for their system of Qorban, social welfare. They knew that system of sacrifice made the word of God to none effect. Christians relied upon the Genius of God the Father working through the freewill offerings given in congregations of the Church by faith, hope, and charity.
Vigellius Saturninus, proconsul of Africa in 180 CE, addressed the seeming antisocial behavior of the twelve Scillitan Christian martyrs with the statement, “We too are religious, and our religion is simple, and we swear by the Genius of our lord the emperor, and we apply for his benefits, as you also ought to do.” The true Christians like Speratus, one of the twelve, would not apply to that Emperor for their daily bread and social security or common welfare, but claimed Christ as “Lord, the King of kings” and ruler of all nations.
See Scillitan Christian martyrs .
"Our father", either the ruler, Caesar, president, king, potentate or executive that exercises authority over his people, his nation, his citizens and nationals (a substitute family), or the eldest father or patriarch of a natural family that serves his family and his neighbors in faith, hope and charity.
- PATRONUS, in Roman civil law this word is a modification of the, Latin word pater, father; a denomination applied by Romulus to the first, senators of Rome. Romulus at first appointed a hundred of these elders of society.
The difference between public and private welfare is the difference between socialism and charity. The nation of Rome and those of the Pax Romana were all going socialist and made the power of the state their benefactors while Christians were living by love for one another according to the commandments of Christ.
This persecution which began under the Emperor Septimius Severus:
- "Severus returned victorious from having vanquished the kings who had taken part with Nigar against him, he published his cruel edicts against the Christians in the year of Christ 202, the tenth of his reign. But the general laws of the empire against foreign religions, and the former edicts of several emperors against the Christians, were a sufficient warrant to many governors to draw the sword against them before that time; and we find that the persecution was very hot in Africa two years before, under the proconsul Saturninus..." [3]
The emperors, as the commander in chief, maintained the loyalty by the sword and by the temples which supplied free bread and welfare for the people in a welfare state that would degenerate the masses by the benefits if provided.
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those unable to avail themselves of the minimal provisions for a good life. The general term may cover a variety of forms of economic and social organization." Welfare state, Britannica Online Encyclopedia
Temple of Saturn - Parents where required to get newborns registered (birth certificate) within 30 days at the Temple of Saturn so that everyone would know when the children reached the age to receive benefits.
Tesserae
There were tokens known as tesserae, meaning "tile" were used for a great many things over a long history of their existence. They were commonly made of clay with a stamp or marks etched in them for a variety of purposes much like the plastic cards in your modern wallets. They could be used as a ticket for entry to a building or event or as evidence of your personal status as a slave or citizen of a city or state and therefore showing your tight to receive government benefits or protection. They were often evidence of your entanglements under the authority of the world of Rome and its ménage of temples.
Registration
If you were registered at birth in Rome in the temple of Saturn you could get a tesserae issued by the state to obtain tutelary benefits. But all tesserae were not the same.
"The conflict between Christians and the people who persecuted them in the early days of the Church was mostly over their system of social welfare which was managed through their temples like Ephesus, Temple of Saturn and the Parthenon." (Read more. and discover the iconoclastic answer to the question Are Christians Idiots? See Temples.)