These are the oldest instances, with which I am at present acquainted, of institutions for the benefit of poor children and orphans. Orphan-houses, properly so called, in which the children were educated together, I find mentioned for the first time, under the name of orphanotrophium, in the laws of the emperor Justinian. At later periods they occur frequently in the decrees of the different councils, such as that of Chalcedon in the fifth century. At the court of Byzantium the office of inspector of orphans, orphanotrophi, was so honourable and important, that it was filled by a brother of the emperor Michael IV. (Paphlago), in the beginning of the eleventh century[1106]. But under the latter emperors this place was entirely suppressed.
At present, orphan-houses have been abolished, since it has been shown, by many years’ experience, that the children cannot be educated in them healthy and at a sufficiently cheap rate. The children are placed out to be boarded and educated by individuals, under the inspection of those who manage everything relating to the poor.
FOOTNOTES
[1091] Diogen. Laert. i. § 55, and the observation of Menage. This law is praised by Plato in Menexenus, and by Demosthenes, adversus Macartatum.
[1092] Heraclides de Politiis, added to the addition of Aristot. Politic. Heinsii, Lugd. Bat. 1621, 8vo, p. 1004.
[1093] Mention is made of them several times in the Roman code of laws, L. 8, § 9, et § 24, D. de Transact. L. pen. § 1, D. ad leg. Falcid. See also Ælii Spart. Vita Adriani, c. 7.—Æl. Capitolin. Vita Antonini. P. cap. 8.—Vita Pertin. c. 9, p. 555.—Æl. Lamprid. Vita Alexandri Severi, c. 44, p. 995.
[1094] This city was situated at no great distance from Piacenza (Placentia). It is mentioned by Horace, Pliny and Phlego Trallianus de Longævis, i. p. 114. See Cluverii Ital. p. 1259.
[1095] This remarkable inscription was first printed at Florence in 1749, by itself, with the title Exemplar Tabulæ Trajanæ pro Pueris et Puellis Alimentariis Reip. Veleiatium. Secondly, in Museum Veronense, Veronæ, 1749, fol., to which some explanations are added. Thirdly, in Histoire de la Jurisprudence Romaine, par A. Terrasson. Paris, 1750, fol. in the Appendix, pp. 27–43.
[1096] Lib. iv. p. 228.
[1097] See the proofs quoted by Brisson, under the word Menstruum.