African Wheat, Roman Bread

Corn prefect: An official in ancient Rome who supervised the corn market and the pricing of corn, as well as, it seems, the wheat supply.

"However, it was over the crucial occupations that the state first appears to have exercised its control: those industries which helped to ensure provisions for the army and the large cities, especially Rome. And it is in Rome that we can study in the greatest detail this supervision of the occupations connected with the food supply. The wheat supply for the city of Rome was the major concern. Although there was a free market for the surpluses which Italian landowners put up for sale, only small quantities were involved and the praefectus annonae, or corn prefect, merely kept an eye on the prices. In contrast, wheat, which was collected by the treasury and officially distributed, was strictly controlled from its importation until it was baked into bread. The emperor fixed the 'wheat ration' to be sent to Rome each year. Most of it came from Africa, and from the time that it was taken aboard ship in an African port it was the object of unrelenting security precautions. The official first responsible was the prefect of the African corn. He supervised its being handed over to the shippers charged with the carriage to Ostia. These navicularii, members of a guild, were kept under double supervision: during the crossing they were responsible to the praetorian prefect and the prefect of the African annona. Upon their arrival at Ostia or at Porto, they passed to the control of the Roman corn prefect and the urban prefect. They were required to make the shortest possible crossing and were not allowed to stop anywhere, on pain of death or deportation. They were held responsible for delivery and they paid for any loss out of their own pockets. A register of the Roman navicularii was kept by the urban prefect, which contained a list of the estates owned by the guild, whose sixty richest members each year contributed towards the upkeep of the public baths."

Claude Mossé, The Ancient World of Work

[translated by Janet Lloyd], 1969.