A great deal of light is thrown on these two questions by the hundreds of stone and bronze tablets which were set up by donors themselves or by grateful cities to commemorate the gifts made to them.The sums of money which an ancient or a modern city spends fall in two categories the amounts which are ymca berkeley ca paid out for permanent improvements, and the running expenses of the municipality.Corporations, as we have seen, played an important part in politics, and their doings are chronicled in the literature, like oratory and history, which deals with public questions, but the trades guilds had little share in politics they were made up of the obscure and weak, and consequently are rarely mentioned in the writings of a Cicero or a Livy.A curious distinction ymca berkeley ca between the professions is also brought out by these guild inscriptions.The cost of the entertainment amounted to one hundred and sixty nine denarii, or about twenty seven dollars, a sum which would probably have a purchasing value to day of from three to four times that amount.After giving the name of the deceased, it reads He bequeathed to his guild, ymca berkeley ca the rag dealers, a thousand sesterces, from the income of which each year, on the festival of the Parentalia, not less than twelve men shall dine at his tomb.In a similar way the Romans had organizations of capitalists and laborers, religious associations, political and social clubs, and leagues of veterans.What scenes of violence and disorder there must have been on such occasions as ymca berkeley ca these, without systematic police surveillance, can be readily imagined.Dealers in oil, in wine, in fish, and in grain are found organized all over the Empire.Naturally only rich men could be elected to office in Roman towns, and in this respect the same advantages and disadvantages attach to the Roman system as we find in the practice which the English have followed up to the present time of paying no salary to members of the House ymca berkeley ca of Commons, and in our own practice of letting our ambassadors meet a large part of their legitimate expenses.The versatile Curio, following this practice, testified his respect for his father's memory by giving the people such elaborate games that he never escaped from the financial difficulties in which they involved him.The story of Rome carries the ymca berkeley ca founding of these guilds back to the early days of the regal period.These contributions not only helped to meet the cost of building temples, colonnades, and other structures, but they were often intended to cover a part of the running expenses of the city.Cities and villages elected to this position some ymca berkeley ca distinguished Roman senator or knight, and he looked out for the interests of the community in legal matters and otherwise.
