On The Corn Shortage In The City Of Rome During The Late Republic

Rome was one of the central cities of the ancient Mediterranean world,and by the beginning of the first century B.C.,its population numbered nearly one million.How to secure food for the daily needs of a large number of inhabitants was a vital matter,which concerned the survival of citizens and the existence of the state.However,during the late Roman Republic（133 B.C.-27 B.C.）,from the reform of Tiberius Gracchus to the establishment of the Principate by Augustus,corn supply was frequently in shortage due to various factors such as the limitation of food production and transportation conditions in the ancient Mediterranean world,as well as the turbulent domestic political order and large numbers of landless peasants flooded into Rome.The shortage of food not only affected the daily life of the Roman residents,but also further intensified social conflicts.In 123 B.C.,Gaius Gracchus set the precedent of regularly selling grain at low prices to citizens.Through the plebeian assembly,he promulgated（the lex frumentaria）,the core of which was to guarantee that every Roman citizen could buy a certain amount of food below the market price.In order to make the law practicable,he also proposed a series of measures such as improving the system of taxation in kind in the provinces of Asia Minor,supporting Rome’s grain needs with provincial taxation in kind,building warehouses for grain storage in Ostia,appointing quaestor with the rank of knight to organize the transportation of grain by private fleet,and stabilizing grain prices.Gaius Gracchus’ s initiatives were significant in dealing with the risks posed by free trade in grain,alleviating the conflicts between the plebs and patricians,promoting provincial grain production,and improving the tax administration system.However,these initiatives were violently opposed by the senators,which made it difficult to implement them.In addition,with the reform of Gaius Gracchus,the plebs became the target of the reform,and the provision of cheap or even free grain for the plebs became the center of attention of the reformation,food was a matter of daily livelihood,and they were naturally willing to support those who could provide them with cheap grain.After Gaius Gracchus,politicians and ambitious men placed greater emphasis on winning the support of the plebs by organizing food supplies.In 62 B.C.,Cato increased the number of citizens who could receive free food,and in 58 B.C.,Publius Clodius,the tribune,issued a bill to distribute free food to all Roman citizens,with which he soon gathered a large number of supporters.However,Rome did not yet have the objective conditions to guarantee the implementation of these policies,in terms of food collection channels,food transportation capacity,and cargo-handling capabilities of the ports.Claudius’ policy of distributing free food attracted a large number of citizens to the city,causing a serious food shortage and exacerbating political unrest to the extent that the Senate had to delegate to Pompey the supreme power to "manage the food supply"（cura annona）in 57 B.C.,This decision marked the beginning of the cura annona as a matter of state government,which was left to a single individual.To weaken Pompey’s influence,Crassus procured food at his own expense and distributed it free of charge to the Roman plebs for three months.By now,solving the food shortage,from the concern for people’s livelihood,somehow evolved into a means for politicians to win the political support of the people.They kept playing the public opinion card to exert pressure on the senate and gradually broke through the framework of the Roman city-state system to satisfy their own unrestrained desire for power.Of course,they had to face the difficulty of how to enhance Rome’s weak food supply capability in an increasingly complex Mediterranean political and economic environment,and the decaying political system of the time could not possibly provide the institutional support for their reforms.Thus,the radical solutions constantly proposed around the promotion of personal power contrasted sharply with the objective reality of Rome’s corn supply.The government distributed cheap or free grain,the beneficiaries were limited to a few Roman citizens,and most of Rome’s population depended on grain markets for grain needs.In addition,the exploration of corn supply in Rome during the Late Republic accumulated certain experience in grain collection,transportation,storage and other aspects,which laid a foundation for Augustus to establish the grain distribution system.Given the intense political struggle at that time,the official measures to solve Rome’s corn shortage were temporary emergency strategies,rather than dealing with the problem from a long-term perspective,and not in the national interest.Therefore,Rome’s corn shortage problem during the Late Republic has not been addressed.The corn shortage in Rome and the countermeasures proposed by the rulers were a microcosm of the social unrest and the decline of traditional institutions during the Late Roman Republic.