CORN DOLE ARCHIVE II

is owing to his heir. (Scaevola’s) response was that it was. The same person inquired whether there were also owing to his heir the advantages and the principal largesses which the freedman would have obtained from the same tribe up to the day of his death, if (a place in) that tribe had been bought for him at the time in accordance with his patron’s will, and indeed whether the interest on their value was owing. The response was that the man passed to his heir whatever he would have obtained himself." original Latin: tribum aestimatio heredi eius debeatur. respondit deberi. idem quaesivit an et commoda et principales liberalitates, quas libertus ex eadem tribu usque in diem mortis suae consecuturus fuisset, si ei ea tribus secundum voluntatem patroni sui tunc comparata esset, an vero usurae aestimationis heredi eius debeantur. respondit quidquid ipse consecuturus esset, id ad heredem suum transmittere (Scaevola)

"If a man wills that tesserae frumentariae be bought for his freedmen, even if the greater part of the estate lies in the provinces, still it must be stated that the trust is to be executed at Rome, since it is apparent from the nature of the provision that that was the testator’s intention" (Ulpian). original Latin: v 1, 52, 1 Si libertis suis tesseras frumentarias emi voluerit, quamvis maior pars hereditatis in provincia sit, tamen Romae debere fidei commissum solvi dicendum est, cum apparet id testatorem sensisse ex genere comparationis

It seems to me that in these cases the word tessera is used as a simple and intelligible metaphor for the right to draw the corn dole. One of the above passages uses instead of "to buy a token" original Latin: tesseram emere the expression "to buy a tribe" original Latin: tribum emere, which may mean exactly the same thing, see Cardinali in Diz. Epigr. iii 269–71. Whether it does or not, the usage is metaphorical and seems to me to supply a good parallel to "to buy a token." "To buy the tribe" means to buy a place in a tribe, more particularly to buy the advantages of belonging to a tribe, as the text goes on to specify: "the advantages and principal largesses which the freedman would have obtained from the same tribe..." original Latin: commoda et principales liberalitates quas libertus ex eadem tribu . . . consecuturus fuisset There seems no need at all to suppose that the tessera changed its nature.

But even on this interpretation of tessera the allusions to buying and bequeathing the right to the corn dole are hard to understand, because they seem to contradict what we already know of the qualifications for it. Van Berchem believed that the state sold the right to citizens newly settled at Rome (pp. 49–53). It seems to me that this is inconsistent with the operation of the lot and would represent a diminution of the privileges of the citizens born in Rome too serious to be passed over in silence. The lot, however, did not apply to freedmen, as we see from the scholia to Persius, Sat. v 73: "Moreover, there was a custom at Rome that all who became Roman citizens through manumission would receive public grain in the number of Roman citizens." original Latin: Romae autem erat consuetudo ut omnes qui ex manumissione cives Romani fiebant in numero civium Romanorum frumentum publicum acciperent The tense of the verbs and the prominent position of "at Rome" original Latin: Romae tend to show that this comment is late and provincial, but the fact is confirmed by passages where it is alleged that Romans freed their slaves in order to take advantage of the doles that freedmen received (Suet. Aug. 42, 2; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. iv. 24, 5).