Alimenta

The alimenta was a welfare programs in the form of social welfare for the people including the youth. It provided general funds, as well as food and subsidized education.

Roman welfare program that existed from around 98 AD to 272 AD.

The program was supported out of the spoils or "booty" Dacian Wars and by a combination of estate taxes and philanthropy.

According to most modern historians, including Nerva biographers Nathan Elkins and John Grainger, it was initiated by emperor Nerva and expanded by Trajan.

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.

See Temples.