Analyzing the Annona: a Source of Imperial Power

Adams, Joseph P.

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Analyzing the Annona: a Source of Imperial Power

Adams, Joseph P.

Abstract

One of the earliest forms of social welfare could be found in Ancient Imperial Rome, known as the grain dole, it featured a state-run allotment of grain to every adult male citizen in the city of Rome. The successes of the dole encouraged the emperors to expand their roles in managing bureaucratic affairs as the empire expanded and reacted positively to their influence. Previously, the dominant research conducted on the grain trade and dole of Ancient Rome focused primarily on the scale of the economy and the processes in which grain was distributed to the various neighborhoods of Rome. In this thesis, I will examine how the grain dole became integral to the idea of the empire from the rule of Augustus to emperor Trajan – and why the decades-long facilitation of the grain dole became a legitimizing factor in proving each emperor’s link to divinity and their competence in ruling the empire. This study will utilize a combination of analysis of the dominant secondary literature, evidence of archaeological remains, and examination of primary literature in order to demonstrate the key factors of the grain dole and to tease out the dole’s role in Imperial statecraft. Overall, the analysis will demonstrate how the first emperor, Augustus, established a lasting bureaucratic system for the facilitation of the grain dole, followed by his successors who adapted his system in order to better their own political position and to assuage the fear of famine. Therefore, by the time of emperor Trajan, the grain dole had become a sure sign of a civilized state due to its continual success in spite of its scale of production and distribution and through its abilities to calm the populace of Rome.