How did the city of Rome acquire the food, water, and other supplies it needed? Not only did the city have a rapidly increasing population during the mid - and late republican periods, it was also the seat of the Roman elite, where their houses and households were located. Consumption in the city thus included the demand generated by the aristocracy as well as the subsistence requirements of the population as a whole. As usual, the evidence from the Imperial period is fuller than that for the
Republic, so much about the extent of demand and arrangements for supply in the earlier period must remain hypothetical.
Assuming a total population of about a million at Rome, it has been estimated that a minimum of 237,000 tonnes of wheat, 100,000 tonnes of wine, and 18,000 tonnes of olive oil would have been needed in the city annually; if the weight of the containers for the wine and oil is added to that of the produce itself, the minimum figure grows to more than 400,000 tonnes. Given the demand for other goods and agricultural produce across Roman society, the total quantities actually brought to the city would have been larger still.62 In particular, there was a large (and increasing) market for luxuries in the city, generated by the senators, members of the equestrian order, and the upper echelons of the plebs. Indeed, extravagant dining was a cause of repeated concern to the Roman authorities, during the second century in particular, and numerous pieces of sumptuary legislation were enacted: the Lex Fannia of 161 instituted a maximum expenditure on festive occasions of 100 asses per dinner, and this figure was subsequently raised by Sulla to 300 asses (Gell. NA 2.24). The fact that sumptuary legislation had to be reiterated frequently, however, suggests not only that the practical impact was limited and that ostentation in dining continued to flourish, but that ideological considerations were paramount in the promulgation of these laws, which are best seen as a contribution to defining Roman identity.63 The influx of wealth from Rome’s overseas conquests and exposure to foreign luxury were conventionally blamed for this enthusiasm for extravagant living (Polyb. 31.25.2-7; Livy 39.6.7-9). Writing from the point of view of the first-century farmer, Varro draws attention to the wealth to be gained by producing luxury foodstuffs in the periphery of Rome: triumphs, banquets, and collegia dinners provided a regular and lucrative market (Rust. 3.2.15-17).
In the past, particular attention has been paid to the way in which Rome acts as an example of the ideal type of the ‘‘consumer city,’’ a concept derived ultimately from the work of Max Weber and other nineteenth-century social theorists but associated in more recent years primarily with the work of M. I. Finley.64 The city, by virtue of its political authority, is seen as consuming the resources of its hinterland in the form of rents and taxes rather than generating income by means of production and manufacture. Indeed, Finley sees the city of Rome as the ‘‘quintessential consumer-city,’’ conforming most closely to this model.65 In recent years, however, the focus of debate on the ‘‘consumer-city’’ has tended to shift away from the city itself toward the hinterland, whether seen in terms of the immediate environs of Rome or as the whole of the Empire, and has explored the implications for the economies of these areas of the demand generated by Rome with its large population and high prices.66 Here I focus primarily on the nature of arrangements made to feed and supply with water Rome’s vast population; the consequences for the appearance of the city; and the implications both for Roman politics and for the survival strategies available to those below the elite.
At the beginning of the Republic Rome’s extensive territory had been one of its particular strengths, but by the end of the third century the resources available from the city’s immediate hinterland had long since been outstripped.67 From the end of that century, we hear of the exaction of taxes in the form of grain from the provinces of Sicily and Sardinia, to be followed later by that of Africa; grain might also be gifted to Rome by well-disposed foreign rulers. The city population, however, was in competition with Roman armies in the field for such supplies (see also Chapter 13).68 When, during the early Republic, there were shortages of corn, it was from other areas of Italy that the Romans obtained additional supplies, and the peninsula continued to supply the city with substantial quantities of grain and other types of agricultural produce.69
A range of potential problems might have affected the supply of food to the city, however, and in particular that of corn, the chief staple food. Corn yields in antiquity (as in other periods before the use of chemical fertilizers became widespread) were highly variable from year to year and from place to place, given also the risk of damage to crops as a result of bad weather, drought, or vermin.70 Added to this were natural disasters - epidemics, fires and storms - which affected the cultivation, transport, and storage of the grain; man-made causes of crisis such as slave revolts, warfare, and piracy; and the competing demands of the army. The corn supply of Rome was permanently at risk of disruption and crisis as a result of some or all of these factors; the result would be high prices for some and starvation for others when grain became unavailable in sufficient quantities and was, as a result, priced beyond the financial capabilities of the poor.71
The traditional solution to these difficulties adopted by the Roman elite was a range of ad hoc measures: the aediles, whose responsibility the grain supply was, would obtain additional supplies beyond the usual sources either by purchase or gift. An inscription records how additional supplies were obtained from the Thessalians, probably in 129, following a visit by a Roman aedile; the Lex Gabinia of 67, authorizing military operations against the pirates who were disrupting the grain supply, can be seen as an initiative in the same tradition.72 From 123, however, more systematic arrangements began to be implemented: at the initiative of the tribune C. Gracchus grain was provided at a fixed price (613 asses per modius) for a fixed number of beneficiaries.73 Measures were also taken to build state granaries (Plut. C. Gracch. 5.2, 6.3). In subsequent years the provision of fixed-price grain continued to be a contentious issue: the ‘‘grain dole’’ was abolished by Sulla, revived in a modest way in 73, and then amplified in 62 before being made free to recipients during the tribunate of P. Clodius in 58. In general, the traditional aristocracy saw the intervention of the state in the provision of grain as detrimental to their authority over the lower orders in Rome; but there was also an awareness, especially in the first century, of the risks to the stability of the city that food riots could pose. In 62, the traditionalist senator Cato introduced proposals for enhancement of the corn distributions, apparently in response to the social and political tensions revealed by the recent Catilinarian uprising. The initiatives introduced by Pompey, who was given responsibility for improving the corn supply in 57, and subsequently Caesar as dictator, look forward to those of the emperors, for example, in providing incentives for those involved in shipping the grain and seeking to create a new harbor at Ostia so the largest grain ships could berth there rather than having to transship their cargoes at Puteoli.74
Although it is not known where the Gracchan warehouses were located, there is considerable evidence of the way in which the increasing demand for goods and produce was reflected in the built environment of the city during the second century. In 193 the aediles M. Aemilius Lepidus and L. Aemilius Paullus built a porticus by the Tiber, creating an emporium (port) below the Aventine Hill where ships with provisions for the city were unloaded (Livy 35.10.12). Subsequently this facility was extended and developed, with a series of stairways constructed to connect the porticus with the wharves (Livy 41.27.8).75 These public constructions were complemented by other warehouses (horrea), a series of which were built below the Aventine from the late second century onward by aristocratic families and evidently formed a part of their property portfolio in the same way their urban residential properties did. Indeed the tomb of Ser. Sulpicius Galba, consul in 108 and probably the builder of the Horrea Galbana (‘‘filled with wine, oil and similar goods,’’ according to a scholiast on Horace: Porphyry on Hor. Carm. 4.12.18), was located near his warehouse.76 Meanwhile, a specialist market building for the sale of luxury foods, the macellum, was constructed behind the Forum Romanum following a fire there in 210, and replaced the food shops and earlier market buildings that had previously surrounded the Forum.77 The public grain distributions, however, appear to have taken place in the Circus Flaminius or the Campus Martius near the Saepta, all locations with strong links to ‘‘popular politics,’’ reflecting the populist character of the innovation (see also Chapter 4).78
Considerable efforts were also made from the late fourth century onward to provide a more copious and more reliable water supply for the city. The first of these was the construction of the Aqua Appia, built (like the Via Appia) by Ap. Claudius Caecus, the censor of 312, and was followed by the Anio Vetus (272), Aqua Marcia (144), and Aqua Tepula (125), though we also hear of an (abortive) attempt to build an aqueduct by the censors of 179 (Livy 40.51.7). The building of the Marcia had the effect of doubling the water supply to the city, and its construction was associated by Frontinus with the growth of Rome (Frontin. Aq. 7). All of these initiatives can also be seen as ‘‘triumphal’’ in a loose sense, as the wealth required to carry out these major projects was derived from the spoils of victory over the Samnites, Pyrrhus, Corinth, and Carthage: the Marcia in particular had a major visual impact on the city, also, as for some 10 km the channel was carried on arcades across the Roman Campagna, which were then apparently reused for the Tepula nearly twenty years later.79
The wide range of building projects undertaken at Rome under the mid - and late Republic - temples, porticoes, basilicas, and private housing, as well as the aqueducts80 - generated a vast demand for building materials. Monumental buildings were traditionally constructed in stone blocks (opus quadratum), using tufa, which was derived from volcanic outcrops in Rome’s immediate hinterland, and later travertine from around Tibur. With the development of the opus incertum (and subsequently opus quasi-reticulatum) style of stone-faced concrete in the early second century, however, lime (which came from the limestone foothills of the Apennines) and volcanic pozzolana (an essential ingredient in the concrete mix) were also needed in large quantities (see also Chapter 5). The building industry generated substantial demand for wood, which was in addition needed for heating, cooking, and cremations.8
Even when fixed-price (or even free) food distributions had been introduced, by no means were the financial and nutritional needs of the poor satisfied. Eligibility for the distributions was related to citizenship, not need; so many migrants who would have benefited most were ineligible, and those who did receive cheap or free grain would need additional cash to pay for the milling of the grain, buy other sorts of food (typically vegetables, wine, and oil), and also provide for their families.83 Hence there was a large pool of potential labor in the city, seeking permanent or (more realistically) temporary employment: both the building trade itself and the operations to supply the city with building materials and other goods provided a major source of jobs.84 Mattingly and Aldrete have calculated that, assuming an average size for ships of 250 tonnes, a minimum of 1,692 shiploads of goods would have had to arrive in Rome annually to provide the city with grain, wine, and oil.85 Given the repeated loading and unloading required as the goods were transferred first to warehouses and then to customers, it is clear that a large workforce would have been needed, but largely a casual one - the constraints of the sailing season meant that activity was concentrated into a restricted period in spring and summer, so to maintain a force of slaves for this highly seasonal work would have been uneconomic.86 Indeed, the traditional ‘‘popular’’ associations of the Aventine and Transtiberim regions of the city may in part reflect their proximity to a major source of employment for the urban plebs.
The growth of the city’s population, the building industry generated by the construction of public monuments and private housing, and the structures which allowed for the feeding of that population were thus closely interlinked; the megalopolis had a vast population to feed and house but also an abundance of casual labor to help ensure this was done.
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