congiary

plural congiaries

1. A present of corn, wine, oil, etc. or later of money, made by a Roman emperor to the soldiers or the common people.

   We often fee on them the emperor, and two or three general officers, sometimes sitting, and sometimes standing, as they made speeches, or distributed a congiary to the soldiers or people

   1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   On his arrival in Rome in the year A.D. 219, Elagabalus thought well to carry through the laudable custom (for the poor) of bestowing the usual congiary on the people. If Mediobarbus were to be trusted, he gave six such during his short reign of approximately four years, besides the soldiers' donatives (which to his cost and undoing he foolishly neglected as time went on).

   1911, John Stuart Hay, The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus