Grain supply to the city of Rome

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The megalopolis of ancient Rome could never be fed entirely from its own surrounding countryside. It was therefore entirely reliant on grain supplies from foreign areas inside the empire (particularly the provinces of North Africa, Asia and Egypt). These areas were capable of shipping adequate amounts of grain for the population of the capital (60 million modii) and for the provincial populations that did not produce grain. These areas became known as Rome's bread baskets. In Rome from the 60 million modii of grain imported, estimated 10 to 15 million were for distribution as a free dole and 45 to 50 million were sold. First Sicily, then North Africa (and particularly Egypt) provided the wherewithal to feed the city of Rome. They - and the shipping lanes that connected them with Ostia and other important ports - gained great strategic and thus military importance. Whoever controlled the grain supply had a stranglehold on the city of Rome - Vespasian, for example, realised this in the year of the four emperors (69), held Egypt and so became emperor.

In order to ensure a supply of corn sufficient to enable it to be sold at a very low price, it was procured in large quantities from Umbria, Etruria and Sicily. Almost down to the times of the empire, the care of the corn-supply formed part of the aedile's duties, although in 440 BC (if the statement in Livy iv. 12, 13 is correct, which is doubtful) the Roman Senate appointed a special officer, called praefectus annonae, with greatly extended powers. As a consequence of the second Punic War, Roman agriculture was at a standstill; accordingly, recourse was had to Sicily and Sardinia (the first two Roman provinces) in order to keep up the supply of corn; a tax of one-tenth was imposed on it, and its export to any country except Italy forbidden. The price at which the corn was sold was always moderate; the corn law of Gracchus (123 BC) made it absurdly low, and Clodius (58 BC) bestowed it gratuitously. (One of Pompey's special offices in 51 BC was 'curator annonae') The number of the recipients of this free gift grew so enormously (to 320,000 recipients, 25% of the population of the city), that both Julius Caesar and Augustus were obliged to reduce it. From the time of Augustus to the decline of the empire the number of those who were entitled to receive a monthly allowance of corn on presenting a ticket was 200,000. In the 3rd century, bread formed the dole, distributed as it always had been at stationes annonae. A praefectus annonae was appointed by Augustus to superintend the corn-supply; he was assisted by a large staff in Rome and the provinces, and had jurisdiction in all matters connected with the corn-market. The office lasted till the latest times of the empire.