Grain supply to the city of Rome
Encyclopedia
In classical antiquity
, the grain supply to the city of Rome
could not be met entirely from the surrounding countryside, which was taken up by the villas
and parks of the aristocracy
and which produced mainly fruit, vegetables and other perishable goods. The city therefore became increasingly reliant on grain
supplies from other parts of Italy
, notably Campania
, and from elsewhere in the empire, particularly the provinces
of Sicily
, North Africa and Egypt. These regions were capable of shipping adequate grain for the population of the capital amounting to 60 million modii
( 540 million litre
s / 540 tonne
s or 135 million gallon
s / 16.8 million bushel
s ), according to some sources. These provinces and the shipping lanes that connected them with Ostia and other important ports thus gained great strategic importance. Whoever controlled the grain supply had an important measure of control over the city of Rome.
in 79 AD. A sequence of water mills was established at the terminus of the highest Roman aqueduct
, the Aqua Traiana
in the second century AD. Traces of the water channels and equipment have been excavated on the Janiculum
. Protecting this valuable industrial complex was important, as attested by the actions of Belisarius
in the Siege of Rome (537–538) when the city was besieged by the Ostrogoths. When the water supply to the aqueduct was cut off, he built a bridge of boats across the Tiber
and used floating mills to crush the grain and so kept the supply of bread intact.
The complex of mills bear parallels with a similar complex at Barbegal in southern Gaul
built in the first century AD.
, the care of the grain supply (cura annona) was part of the aedile's
duties. The annona was personified as a goddess
, and the grain dole was distributed from the Temple of Ceres. As early as 440 BC, however, the Roman Senate
may have appointed a special officer called the praefectus annonae
with greatly extended powers. An emergency cura annona was an important source of influence and power for Pompeius Magnus
("Pompey the Great") in his later career. Under the Principate
, the position of praefectus annonae became permanent, while a range of privileges, including grants of citizenship and exemption from certain duties, were extended to ship-owners who signed contracts to transport grain to the city.
A large part of the city's supply was obtained through the free market. Prices in the city were invariably high, and merchants could count on making a profit. Grain was also collected as tax in kind from certain provinces; some of this was distributed to officials and soldiers and some was sold at market rates.
Grain supply was an important issue for the Gracchi
, with the elder brother Tiberius Gracchus
arguing that consolidation of Roman agricultural lands in the hands of a few had pushed landless Romans into the city, where they found poverty rather than employment. Under the grain law of Gaius Gracchus
in 123 BC, a portion of the grain collected as revenue for the state was sold at a subsidised rate to citizens. The grain supply was a consistent "plank" in the popularist
platform for political leaders who appealed to the plebs
.
The price of grain became a major issue when the Roman province of Sicily revolted repeatedly, thus pushing the price to unaffordable levels. Lowering grain prices became an important part of the political platform of the radical popularist
Saturninus
, who acquired the office of plebeian tribune
an unusual three times.
In 58 BC, the patrician-turned-plebeian
Clodius Pulcher
advanced a popularist political agenda in his bid for the tribunate by offering free grain for the poor. The expense was considerable, and Julius Caesar
later reformed the dole. Augustus
considered abolishing it altogether, but instead reduced the number of the recipients to 200,000, and perhaps later 150,000.
Later emperors all used free or greatly subsidized grain to keep the populace fed. The political use of the grain supply along with gladiatorial games
and other entertainments
gave rise to the saying "Bread and circuses
". As the empire continued, the annona became more complex. During the reign of Septimius Severus
, olive oil was added to the distribution, and during that of Aurelian
, pork and wine.
With the devaluation of currency in the course of the third century, the army was paid in rationed supplies (annonae) as well as in specie
from the later third century, through a cumbrous administration of collection and redistribution. The role of the state in distributing the annona remained a central feature of its unity and power: "the cessation of this state function in the fifth century was a major factor leading to economic fragmentation, as was the end of the grain requisition for the city of Rome". Averil Cameron notes.
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
, the grain supply to the city of Rome
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
could not be met entirely from the surrounding countryside, which was taken up by the villas
Roman villa
A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
and parks of the aristocracy
Nobiles
During the Roman Republic, nobilis was a descriptive term of social rank, usually indicating that a member of the family had achieved the consulship. Those who belonged to the hereditary patrician families were noble, but plebeians whose ancestors were consuls were also considered nobiles...
and which produced mainly fruit, vegetables and other perishable goods. The city therefore became increasingly reliant on grain
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
supplies from other parts of Italy
Italian Peninsula
The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...
, notably Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
, and from elsewhere in the empire, particularly the provinces
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
of Sicily
Sicilia (Roman province)
Sicilia was the first province acquired by the Roman Republic, organized in 241 BC as a proconsular governed territory, in the aftermath of the First Punic War with Carthage. It included Sicily and Malta...
, North Africa and Egypt. These regions were capable of shipping adequate grain for the population of the capital amounting to 60 million modii
Modius
Modius is the nomen of the Roman gens Modia.Modius is also a Roman unit of dry measure, approximately equal to one peck....
( 540 million litre
Litre
pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...
s / 540 tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
s or 135 million gallon
Gallon
The gallon is a measure of volume. Historically it has had many different definitions, but there are three definitions in current use: the imperial gallon which is used in the United Kingdom and semi-officially within Canada, the United States liquid gallon and the lesser used United States dry...
s / 16.8 million bushel
Bushel
A bushel is an imperial and U.S. customary unit of dry volume, equivalent in each of these systems to 4 pecks or 8 gallons. It is used for volumes of dry commodities , most often in agriculture...
s ), according to some sources. These provinces and the shipping lanes that connected them with Ostia and other important ports thus gained great strategic importance. Whoever controlled the grain supply had an important measure of control over the city of Rome.
Shipping and milling
The widespread use of water mills or grain crushers in Italy is mentioned in passing by Pliny the ElderPliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
in 79 AD. A sequence of water mills was established at the terminus of the highest Roman aqueduct
Roman aqueduct
The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to serve any large city in their empire, as well as many small towns and industrial sites. The city of Rome had the largest concentration of aqueducts, with water being supplied by eleven aqueducts constructed over a period of about 500 years...
, the Aqua Traiana
Aqua Traiana
thumb|240px|Route of Aqua Traiana shown in red.thumb|240px|Route of Aqua Traiana within ancient Rome.The Aqua Traiana was a 1st-century Roman acqueduct built by Emperor Trajan and inaugurated on 24 June 109 AD...
in the second century AD. Traces of the water channels and equipment have been excavated on the Janiculum
Janiculum
The Janiculum is a hill in western Rome, Italy. Although the second-tallest hill in the contemporary city of Rome, the Janiculum does not figure among the proverbial Seven Hills of Rome, being west of the Tiber and outside the boundaries of the ancient city.-Sights:The Janiculum is one of the...
. Protecting this valuable industrial complex was important, as attested by the actions of Belisarius
Belisarius
Flavius Belisarius was a general of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Mediterranean territory of the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century previously....
in the Siege of Rome (537–538) when the city was besieged by the Ostrogoths. When the water supply to the aqueduct was cut off, he built a bridge of boats across the Tiber
Tiber
The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...
and used floating mills to crush the grain and so kept the supply of bread intact.
The complex of mills bear parallels with a similar complex at Barbegal in southern Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
built in the first century AD.
Politics and the grain supply
Throughout most of the Republican eraRoman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
, the care of the grain supply (cura annona) was part of the aedile's
Aedile
Aedile was an office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order. There were two pairs of aediles. Two aediles were from the ranks of plebeians and the other...
duties. The annona was personified as a goddess
Annona (goddess)
In ancient Roman religion, Annona is the divine personification of the grain supply to the city of Rome. She is closely connected to the goddess Ceres, with whom she is often depicted in art....
, and the grain dole was distributed from the Temple of Ceres. As early as 440 BC, however, the Roman Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
may have appointed a special officer called the praefectus annonae
Praefectus annonae
The praefectus annonae was a Roman imperial official charged with the supervision of the grain supply to the city of Rome. Under the republic, the job was usually done by an aedile...
with greatly extended powers. An emergency cura annona was an important source of influence and power for Pompeius Magnus
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
("Pompey the Great") in his later career. Under the Principate
Principate
The Principate is the first period of the Roman Empire, extending from the beginning of the reign of Caesar Augustus to the Crisis of the Third Century, after which it was replaced with the Dominate. The Principate is characterized by a concerted effort on the part of the Emperors to preserve the...
, the position of praefectus annonae became permanent, while a range of privileges, including grants of citizenship and exemption from certain duties, were extended to ship-owners who signed contracts to transport grain to the city.
A large part of the city's supply was obtained through the free market. Prices in the city were invariably high, and merchants could count on making a profit. Grain was also collected as tax in kind from certain provinces; some of this was distributed to officials and soldiers and some was sold at market rates.
Grain supply was an important issue for the Gracchi
Gracchi
The Gracchi brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, were Roman Plebian nobiles who both served as tribunes in 2nd century BC. They attempted to pass land reform legislation that would redistribute the major patrician landholdings among the plebeians. For this legislation and their membership in the...
, with the elder brother Tiberius Gracchus
Tiberius Gracchus
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populares politician of the 2nd century BC and brother of Gaius Gracchus. As a plebeian tribune, his reforms of agrarian legislation caused political turmoil in the Republic. These reforms threatened the holdings of rich landowners in Italy...
arguing that consolidation of Roman agricultural lands in the hands of a few had pushed landless Romans into the city, where they found poverty rather than employment. Under the grain law of Gaius Gracchus
Gaius Gracchus
Gaius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populari politician in the 2nd century BC and brother of the ill-fated reformer Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus...
in 123 BC, a portion of the grain collected as revenue for the state was sold at a subsidised rate to citizens. The grain supply was a consistent "plank" in the popularist
Populares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
platform for political leaders who appealed to the plebs
Plebs
The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
.
The price of grain became a major issue when the Roman province of Sicily revolted repeatedly, thus pushing the price to unaffordable levels. Lowering grain prices became an important part of the political platform of the radical popularist
Populares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
Saturninus
Lucius Appuleius Saturninus
Lucius Appuleius Saturninus was a Roman popularist and tribune; he was a political ally of Gaius Marius, and his downfall caused a great deal of political embarrassment for Marius, who absented himself from public life until he returned to take up a command in the Social War of 91 to 88...
, who acquired the office of plebeian tribune
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
an unusual three times.
In 58 BC, the patrician-turned-plebeian
Plebs
The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
Clodius Pulcher
Publius Clodius Pulcher
Publius Clodius Pulcher was a Roman politician known for his popularist tactics...
advanced a popularist political agenda in his bid for the tribunate by offering free grain for the poor. The expense was considerable, and Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
later reformed the dole. Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
considered abolishing it altogether, but instead reduced the number of the recipients to 200,000, and perhaps later 150,000.
Later emperors all used free or greatly subsidized grain to keep the populace fed. The political use of the grain supply along with gladiatorial games
Gladiator
A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
and other entertainments
Ludi
Ludi were public games held for the benefit and entertainment of the Roman people . Ludi were held in conjunction with, or sometimes as the major feature of, Roman religious festivals, and were also presented as part of the cult of state.The earliest ludi were horse races in the circus...
gave rise to the saying "Bread and circuses
Bread and circuses
"Bread and Circuses" is a metaphor for a superficial means of appeasement...
". As the empire continued, the annona became more complex. During the reign of Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus , also known as Severus, was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211. Severus was born in Leptis Magna in the province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of...
, olive oil was added to the distribution, and during that of Aurelian
Aurelian
Aurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...
, pork and wine.
With the devaluation of currency in the course of the third century, the army was paid in rationed supplies (annonae) as well as in specie
Specie
Specie may refer to:* Coins or other metal money in mass circulation* Bullion coins* Hard money * Commodity money* Specie Circular, 1836 executive order by US President Andrew Jackson regarding hard money* Specie Payment Resumption Act...
from the later third century, through a cumbrous administration of collection and redistribution. The role of the state in distributing the annona remained a central feature of its unity and power: "the cessation of this state function in the fifth century was a major factor leading to economic fragmentation, as was the end of the grain requisition for the city of Rome". Averil Cameron notes.