) Concept of nanny state is a modern construct.
This isn't true. Rome had subsidized grain sold to the public in the city of Rome since the 3rd century BCE.
That eventually became just a straight free grain dole during the last century of the Republic, then was expanded during the imperial age.
The Emperor vespasian instituted the Alimenta system which started with free schooling for the children of the poorest citizens. Later during the Antonines the Alimenta system was expanded further to include money directly to these citizens, which were literally became a welfare system. Trajan later created orphanages (an innovation in the Ancient world that would take centuries after the fall of the Western empire to exist in some form again).
Similar things existed in other cities at the time, albeit not with a civil bureaucracy and institutions that the Romans had. The reason this isn't common knowledge is because while Classical studies were a mandatory subject in higher education for centuries, it wasn't known until the the Renaissance. If you went to college it was required to get a degree, but the classical liberal education (nothing to do with liberal vs conservative, just liberal arts) is essentially a niche area of study now.