alimenta

…Nerva’s government, the system of alimenta, or trusts for the maintenance of poor children in Italy, may have been the work of Trajan. In order to secure the succession, Nerva in 97 adopted and took as his colleague Marcus Ulpius Trajanus (Trajan), governor of one of the German provinces, who…

…institution of public funds (alimenta) for the support of poor children in the Italian cities. Such endowments had previously been established in Italy by private individuals, notably by Trajan’s close friend, the orator and statesman Pliny the Younger, for his native Comum (modern Como) in northern Italy.