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Praefectus annonae

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Manager of the grain supply to Roman cities
The columns of the statio annonae are now part of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. Another statio was located near the Crypta Balbi.

The praefectus annonae ("prefect of the provisions"), also called the praefectus rei frumentariae ("prefect of the grain supply"), was a Roman official charged with the supervision of the grain supply to the city of Rome. Under the Republic, the job was usually done by an aedile. However, in emergencies, or in times of extraordinary scarcity, someone would be elected to the office, and would take charge of supplying the entire city with provisions.

Lucius Minucius Augurinus, the accuser of Spurius Maelius, was the first individual appointed to this office, serving from 439 BC. During the early 60s BC, following the sacking of the port of Ostia by pirates, Pompey held the powers of the office. Around 7 BC, the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, followed this example, and after vesting himself with these powers, specified that two former praetors should be appointed each year to carry out the functions of this office. Augustus transferred powers from the aediles to this office, and specified that all holders of the office be members of the Equestrian order. Augustus also specified that these officers were to be aided by an adjutor (from the second century termed a subpraefectus). Later, Augustus specified that the praefecti should be of consular rank. After Augustus' reign, one person would usually hold this office, frequently for a span of several years. This continued until the fall of the Roman Empire.

During the later Empire, further praefecti annonae were established for the city of Alexandria (Egypt) and the province of Africa, the two chief sources of grain for the provisioning of Rome.

List of known praefecti annonae urbis Romae

The entries from AD 14 to 337 are based on d'Esurac, La préfecture de l'annone, service administratif impérial d'Auguste à Constantin.

List of known praefecti annonae urbis Alexandriae

  • Claudius (349)
  • Flavius Soterichus (350/450)

List of known praefecti annonae Africae

  • Amabilianus (315-316)
  • Isidorus (368/375)
  • Demetrianus (369-372)

Notes

  1. Addressee of a rescript of Hadrian; otherwise unknown.
  2. Dating Blassianus here instead of c. 133, following Bastianini, "Lista dei prefetti d'Egitto dal 30 al 299", p. 297, No. 1.
  3. Cassiodorus addressed a letter to him. He is probably not the same man as the vir spectabilis involved in a property dispute in 507/511. See Martindale, John R., ed. (1992). The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume III, AD 527–641. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 969. ISBN 0-521-20160-8. and Martindale, John R., ed. (1980). The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume II, AD 395–527. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 835. ISBN 0-521-20159-4.

References

  1. Livy, iv.12; Niebuhr, History of Rome, vol. ii, p. 418.
  2. Cassius Dio, lii. 24; Digesta, 1 tit. 2 s. 2 §33; 14 tit. 1 s. 1 §18, tit. 5 s. 8; 48 tit. 2 s. 13.
  3. AE 2000, 267
  4. Added from Magioncalda, "La carriera di l. Iulius Ursus e le alte prefetture equestri nel I sec. D.C."

Bibliography

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