Grain supply to the city of Rome

The cura annonae (from the Latin cura " care ", " supervision" and annona " annual yield ", " food ") was the supervision of the grain donations ( annona civica ) of the city of Rome in ancient times.

The annona civica

The original cura annonae was incumbent in the Republican period curule aediles to. Their duties, in case of a famine on behalf of the state grain purchase and resell favorable to the citizens belonged. Also one of the Office fixing the market price for grain, regardless of income and need. With the growth of the urban Roman population and the simultaneous decline of agriculture in Italy, the grain had to be imported from distant provinces increasingly. On the grain from Sicily, the city of Rome has had since the Punic Wars a monopoly.

Towards the end of the Republic it went on for free distribution of grain. The supervision of the grain distribution was responsible for the establishment of the monarchy by Augustus an administration that was headed by Prefects annonae who used the emperor. Were eligible to receive only those Roman citizens who were recognized in certain lists; it was not about need. The grain was issued in the early and high imperial period in the portico Minucia on the Field of Mars, from the 3rd century at other locations. The corn was now mainly from North Africa and Egypt; in late antiquity, the grain from the Nile, however, went to Constantinople Opel.

On Roman coins of the imperial age, the goddess Annona with cornucopia and ears of corn or grain bushel ( dry measure ) was mapped. She was also presented with Bow for grain imports. This made it possible the emperor, since Augustus ultimately were responsible for the annona civica, celebrate as a benefactor and provider of Rome.

Since the high imperial period the annona civica included not only grain but also North African olive oil and pork and wine from Italy. The cura annonae survived the end of the Western Roman Empire (476 ) by several decades; since Gregory the Great took over the church overseeing the supply of now, however, greatly shrunken urban Roman population and was following other rules.

The annona militaris

In Principate and late antiquity is to distinguish between the annona civica, so the cereal donations to the citizens of Rome ( and from the 4th century, including those of Constantinople ), and the annona militaris. The latter referred to the maintenance of both regular imperial troops as well as rich foreign foederati. Since the 4th century, the collection and redistribution of this annona that could be paid from the 5th century in the form of cash, the most important task of the praetorian prefect.

The pursuit of Germanic warriors associations according to a regulated supply by the Roman State played during the mass migration an important role: the sack of Rome by mutinous Visigoth foederati in 410 had its origin, not least the fact that the imperial government had the Goths sufficient annona militaris want to concede.