Grain for Rome

©2000 The American Numismatic Society. Images are not to scale. Photography by Sharon Suchma, ANS Photography Department.

1944.100.39780: Mint of Rome. Bronze Sestertius of Nero. 34mm. 25.49gr. Axis 7. 64-66 AD. Obverse: Head laureate right. IMP NERO CAES AUG P MAX TR P P P. Reverse: Annona facing right standing at left holding cornucopiae, Ceres facing left seated at right holding grain stalks; between them a table with modius on top; behind, ship's prow. ANNONA] AUGUSTI [CERES. BMC 305Variant. RIC 571. Western Coinage of Nero 460.

The food supply of Rome is inextricably connected with the political history of the city and the empire it ruled. State subsidized distribution of grain to Roman citizens began in 123 BC as part of the Gracchan reforms. In 58 BC free distribution began after the passage of the Clodian grain law. Both Julius Caesar and Augustus reined in what had become an excessive burden on the state so that during the imperial period the number of people receiving grain ranged from approximately 150,000 to 250,000. This was out of an estimated population for the city of 1 million. The sestertius of Nero illustrated here is a compelling representation of both the ideological framework and the physical infrastructure that had developed to support the feeding of Rome's masses.

Grain had, of course, long had a place on Greek and Roman coinage; most famously on the issues of Metapontum. Nero's bronze brings together not only Ceres, a goddess with a long-standing role as the personification of the ancient concern over food supply, but also Anonna, a newer arrival attending to her superior and representing the harvest as well as the state sponsored system of grain distribution within the city. Between them is a modius, the standard Roman measure of grain equal to approximately 8 liters or 2 gallons. The ship's prow makes reference to the growing role of Rome's overseas provinces, especially Egypt, in feeding the capital. Nero's contemporary issue of a sestertius illustrating the Claudian harbor at Ostia further shows the importance that successive emperors gave to ensuring that sufficient supplies could reach Rome. This is the same harbor that Trajan (d. 117) improved during his reign.

MacDowall, D., The Western Coinage of Nero. New York (1979).

Potter, D. and D. Mattingly, Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire. Ann Arbor (1999). Particularly Chapter 5.

Rickman, G., The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome Oxford (1980). Particularly Appendix 11.