As The Population Encreased, And The Former Corn Fields Were Converted Into Pleasure-Grounds Or Pasture, The Demand For Corn Was Proportionally Encreased, And The Supply From The Neighbourhood Proportionally Diminished.

But there was another circumstance which rendered a regular and full supply of corn an object of prime importance:

The influence of the patron depended on his largesses of corn to his clients; and the popularity, and even the reign of an emperor, was not secure, unless he could insure to the inhabitants this indispensable necessary of life. There were several laws respecting the distribution of corn: by one passed in the year of Rome 680, five bushels were to be given monthly to each of the poorer citizens, and money was to be advanced annually from the treasury, sufficient to purchase 800,000 bushels of wheat, of three different qualities and prices. By the Sempronian law, this corn was to be sold to the poor inhabitants at a very low price; but by the Clodian law it was to be distributed _gratis_: the granaries in which this corn was kept were called Horrea Sempronia. The number of citizens who received corn by public distribution, in the time of Augustus, amounted to 200,000. Julius Caesar had reduced the number from 320,000 to 150,000. It is doubtful whether five bushels were the allowance of each individual or of each family; but if Dr. Arbuthnot be correct in estimating the _modius_ at fourteen pounds, the allowance must have been for each family, amounting to one quarter seven bushels, and one peck per annum.

We have dwelt on these particulars for the purpose of pointing out the extreme importance of a regular and full supply of corn to Rome; and this importance is still further proved by the special appointment of magistrates to superintend this article. The prefect, or governor of the market, was an ancient establishment in the Roman republic; his duty was to procure corn: on extraordinary occasions, this magistrate was created for this express purpose, and the powers granted him seem to have been increased in the latter periods of the republic, and still more, after the republic was destroyed. Pompey, who held this office, possessed greater power and privileges than his immediate predecessor, and in a time of great scarcity. Augustus, himself, undertook the charge of providing the corn: it was at the same time determined, that for the future, two men of the rank of praetors should be annually elected for this purpose; four were afterwards appointed. It would seem, however, that even their appointment became an ordinary and regular thing: the emperors themselves superintended the procuring of corn, for one of their titles was that of commissary-general of corn.

Besides this magistrate, whose business was confined to the buying and importing of corn, there were two aediles, first appointed by Julius Caesar, whose duty it was to inspect the public stores of corn and other provisions.

Till the time of Julius Caesar, the foreign corn for the supply of Rome was imported into Puteoli, a town of Campania, between Baiae and Naples, about seventy miles from the capital.

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