=Corn Largesses.=--From the end of the second century B.C. it had become a regular feature of Roman policy to supply the populace of the city with corn either gratis or at an artificially cheap rate. After the fall of the Republic the Emperors carried still further the policy of free distributions (_congiaria_ or _liberalitates_). It has been reckoned that the annual cost of their largesses averaged £90,000 from Julius Caesar to Claudius, and £300,000 from Nero to Septimius Severus. Persius, who wrote in the time of Nero, notes with a sneer that it was one of the privileges of the meanest Roman citizen to exchange his ticket for a portion of musty flour. This policy of the Emperors is illustrated by the inscribed corn-ticket (_tessera frumentaria_) shown in this Case (No. =20=; fig. 10). It is inscribed on one side, _Ant(onini) Aug(usti) Lib(eralitas) II._, i.e., the second special largess of Antoninus, perhaps Antoninus Pius, who reigned from 138-161 A.D. On the other side appears _fru(mentatio) LXI._, i.e. the sixty-first monthly corn distribution, dating doubtless from the accession of Antoninus. The letters were originally inlaid with silver, as is shown by the remains of that metal in the numerals. The sepulchral inscription mentioned on p. 224 should be studied in connection with this corn-ticket. [Illustration: FIG. 10.--BRONZE CORN-TICKET (NO. 20). 1:1.] =Official Emblem.=--The relief in Case =99= shows the _Fasces_ (that is, the axes and the rods tied in a bundle) which were carried by the lictors before the higher Roman magistrates. =Slavery.=--The circular bronze badge (No. =21=) shows the Roman method of dealing with runaway slaves after the softening influence of Christianity had begun to make itself felt. In earlier times the runaway slave had been punished with the cruel penalty of branding. Apparently from the time of Constantine onwards an inscribed badge was substituted, authorising the summary arrest of the slave if he were caught out of bounds. The inscription on the badge exhibited runs: "Hold me, lest I escape, and take me back to my master Viventius on the estate of Callistus." Two other objects may perhaps be brought into connection with slavery. The scourge (No. =22=), with its lash loaded with bronze beads, was frequently used for the punishment of slaves. It is the _horribile flagellum_ of Horace. A scourge very similar to the present is seen on a relief in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, representing a high-priest of Kybele, whose devotees were in the habit of scourging themselves in the service of the goddess.[7] The pair of iron fetters (No. =23=), found in 1813 in a cave behind the Pnyx at Athens, bear a close resemblance to those worn by a _bestiarius_ or beast-fighter represented on a relief from Ephesus exhibited in Case 110, (_Cat. of Sculpt._, II., No. 1286). [Illustration: FIG. 11.--SLAVE BADGE (NO. 21). 3:5.]