CORN-TRADE,ROMAN. What we know of the ancient corn-trade of Italy mainly relates to the city of Rome. From an early period it belonged to the admi nistration to see that the city was duly supplied with grain. The immediate neighbourhood of Rome did not supply the wants of the city, and grain was im ported into Rome from the country of the Volsci and from Cumae soon after the establishment of the consular govern ment. (Liu, ii. 9.) An importation of corn from Sicily is mentioned by Livy (ii. 41) under the year B.c. 486. As the Romans extended their empire, and pro vincial governments were formed, such as those of Sicily and Sardinia, supplies t grain were got from foreign parts. After the conquest of Sicily, the proprie tors were allowed to keep their lands on condition of paying a tenth of the produce to the Romans, according to the system which bad been established by King Biero. Sardinia, after the conquest, paid the same (Livy, xxxvi. 2). The mode of proceeding, as to the tenths in Sicily, was this. The cultivator gave notice of what quantity of land he intended to sow, and an entry was made of it. The Roman State took the tenth of the produce in kind, which the cultivator was bound to convey to some port in Sicily, where it was embarked for Rome. All the wheat pro duced by the tenths was entered in the public books, and it was all conveyed to Rome or to the armies; this at least ap pears to have been the general rule.
Sometimes two-tenths of the produce were claimed by the Roman State (Livy, xxxvi. 2; xxxvii. 2), but iu this case the second tenth was paid for out of the Roman Aerarium. Presents of grain from foreign states and princes were sometimes made to the Romans (Plutarch, C. Gracchus, c. 2). Thus it appears that the State under took to provide the chief supply of grain for the city : the grain was sometimes sold, and sometimes distributed gratis among the poor, a practice which became common under the late Republic. Besides these distributions of corn at the public expense, the wealthy Romans who sought popularity sometimes made like distribu tions of corn among the poorer citizens, as M. Crassus the Rich did in his consul ship (Plutarch, Grasses, c. 2, 12).
It does not appear, then, that the chief supply of corn for the city of Rome during the Republic was furnished in the regular way of trade. It was the business of the State to keep the proper supply of corn for the city in the public warehouses ; but the supply was not always equal to the demand, and it also often happened that many people could not afford to pay the price. Scarcity was not uncommon both under the Republic and the Empire.
In Livy (iv. 12) we have a notice of the creation of a Praefectus Annonae, or Superintendent of Provision, L. Minu cius, Re.. 440, in a season of scarcity. He exercised his office in an arbitrary manner, by compelling persons to state what corn they had in their possession, and to sell it; and he endeavoured to raise a popular clamour against the corn dealers ; if Frumentarii here means pri vate dealers. Cu. Pompeius Magnus was
intrusted with the superintendence of Pro vision for five years. (Cicero, Ad. Attic, iv. 1.) Augustus, at the urgent impor tunity of the people, took ou himself the office of Praefectus Annonae, such as Pom peius held it. (Dion Cassius, liv. I.) Under the early Republic many parts of Italy were well cultivated, and Rome, as already observed, derived supplies of corn from various parts of the Peninsula. But the civil wars which devastated Italy near the close of the Republic were inju rious to agriculture. Murder and pro seription thinned the numbers of the people, and life and property were inse cure. Many of the lauds changed owners, and the property of those who were cut off by violence fell into the hands of others, and chiefly of the soldiers. These and other causes made Italy less produc tive about the time of the Christian sera than it had been some centuries earlier. Even under the peaceable administration of Augustus, 60,000,000 modii of wheat were annually imported into Italy and Rome from Egypt and the Roman pro vince of Africa. The modius is estimated at 1 gallon and 7.8576 pints, English measure. But this did not prevent scarcity : there was a great famine at Rome in the latter part of the adminis tration of Augustus (Dion Cassius, Iv. 26 ; Vell. Paterc. ii. 104 ' • Suetonius, Augustus, C. 42). The general adminis tration of Tiberius, the successor of Au gustus, is commended by Tacitus (Annal. Iv. 6). He endeavoured to secure a proper supply of corn by intrusting to the Publican' the management of the tenths of grain from the provinces ; but there was a great famine in his time, and the high price of grain almost caused an insurrection. The emperor showed that he had not neglected this important part of the administration : he published a list of the provinces from which corn was brought, and he proved that the im portation was larger than in the time of Augustus (Tacit. Annal. vi. 13). Again, under the administration of the Emperor Claudius, a famine in Rome occurred (Tacit. Annal. xii. 43). Tacitus observes that during the scarcity Claudius was assailed with menaces while he was seated on the tribunal in the forum, and he only escaped by the aid of his soldiers. He adds there were only fifteen days' pro visions in the city ; and " formerly Italy used to export supplies for the legions to distant provinces ; nor is Italy now barren, but men prefer cultivating Egypt and Africa, and the existence of the Roman people is intrusted to ships and the dangers of the sea." Claudius subsequently paid great attention to the supplying of Rome with corn. Under Nero, the successor of Claudius, there was a famine at Rome (Suetonius, Nero, c. 45).