In terms of 'charity' I would argue that this had existed for a while. Augustus in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti makes much of his free distributions of grain and money during times of crisis during his time as princeps, for example. Even during the late Republic, grain doles were being expanded, as the Gracchi introduced subsidised grain in the late 2nd century BCE and Pulcher's Lex Clodia Frumentaria (58 BCE) briefly introduced free grain for the poor before being reined in by Julius Caesar and Augustus later on. Juvenal's complaint about 'bread and circuses' (panem et circenses) was in part directed towards the use of grain distribution by the emperors to keep the masses sated.

Added to this was the emphasis on expanding entertainments seen among many emperors. Domitian (r. 81-96), whose Rome Juvenal wrote about, was one of the 'popular' emperors who certainly did a lot on the circuses front, with his introduction of more chariot teams (Cassius Dio, Roman History 67.4.4) and shorter races so as to fit more in one day (Suetonius, Domitian 4.3). Earlier, Augustus made much of the 8 gladatorial shows with 10,000 fighters and 26 animal games with 3,500 slain beasts which he put on, again in the Res Gestae. Baths, too, saw much expansion – 'Who worse than Nero? What better than Nero's Baths?' (Martial, Epigrams 7.34). It is notable that Domitian and Nero, two emperors usually reviled in the often pro-senatorial sources, were so invested in public welfare.

Frontinus' Aqueducts, the edited notes of the administrator of the city water supply under Nerva and Trajan, sees much discussion of the establishment of effective management of this essential service. One thing noted is the expansion of the water services under previous emperors, Agrippa (a right hand man of Augustus') having left 240 slaves to the state for aqueduct maintenance, whilst the emperors since Claudius had furnished 460 more. Frontinus himself was not an un-'charitable' man, with much of his work narrating his countering of corruption by the water men, who for some time had been using obfuscatory measurement systems to hide the fact that they were using oversized delivery pipes and undersized distribution pipes, then selling off the excess to private buyers, thereby literally siphoning off the public amenities of the city for personal profit.

Suggesting that Christianity brought 'charity' to the Romans forgets that for much of its existence, especially the early Principate, the Roman state was a very much a provider of amenities to the Roman public, and indeed the emperors, whom one would at first believe were the most 'dominant' of all, were often the providers of this 'charity'.