order to reassure the population of Rome (and warn them about the extent of his power) Aurelian ordered the construction of a massive 19km circuit of walls to surround the city. A redefinition of the city of Rome would have had to accompany this, not just in terms of its topography but also in terms of how the city was managed. Tactical efficacy may have been the necessary pretext for the wall, although this is subject to debate, but its construction required the topographical and administrative restructuring of the urban landscape. The Wall’s construction was therefore contemporaneous with the City’s largest programme of administrative reforms until the reign of Constantine. As a result of this, Aurelian, like Severus, made substantial changes to the annonae, the subsidised food supply of Rome. Most notably was his introduction of a free pork ration and subsidised wine. His administrative reforms also included a reform of the free bread ration from the distribution of grain to a ration of baked bread. His Temple of Sol served as one of the many gradus scattered across the city, stepped buildings from which people could collect (and observed the collection) of their portion of the annona. He also enacted a reform of the olive oil ration which was distributed from the mensae oleriae (state olive oil shops), which are listed in the appendices of the Regionary Catalogues. It cannot be over-stressed how important the food supply was to the city of Rome and how much of a concern it was to the emperors and their Urban Prefects. At the mere prospect of a grain shortage in AD 360, an angry mob marched to the Urban Prefect’s Tertullus’s house and he only narrowly avoided death by presenting his two baby sons to the mercy of the people. However the statistics and buildings concerned with food supply in the Regionary Catalogues do not make sense outside of the third-century context of Aurelian’s reforms. These reforms, whilst not novel, greatly added to the administrative
order to reassure the population of Rome (and warn them about the extent of his power) Aurelian ordered the construction of a massive 19km circuit of walls to surround the city. A redefinition of the city of Rome would have had to accompany this, not just in terms of its topography but also in terms of how the city was managed. Tactical efficacy may have been the necessary pretext for the wall, although this is subject to debate, but its construction required the topographical and administrative restructuring of the urban landscape. The Wall’s construction was therefore contemporaneous with the City’s largest programme of administrative reforms until the reign of Constantine. As a result of this, Aurelian, like Severus, made substantial changes to the annonae, the subsidised food supply of Rome. Most notably was his introduction of a free pork ration and subsidised wine. His administrative reforms also included a reform of the free bread ration from the distribution of grain to a ration of baked bread. His Temple of Sol served as one of the many gradus scattered across the city, stepped buildings from which people could collect (and observed the collection) of their portion of the annona. He also enacted a reform of the olive oil ration which was distributed from the mensae oleriae (state olive oil shops), which are listed in the appendices of the Regionary Catalogues. It cannot be over-stressed how important the food supply was to the city of Rome and how much of a concern it was to the emperors and their Urban Prefects. At the mere prospect of a grain shortage in AD 360, an angry mob marched to the Urban Prefect’s Tertullus’s house and he only narrowly avoided death by presenting his two baby sons to the mercy of the people. However the statistics and buildings concerned with food supply in the Regionary Catalogues do not make sense outside of the third-century context of Aurelian’s reforms. These reforms, whilst not novel, greatly added to the administrative
Simon%20Hosie%20MPhil%20Thesis%20130117087.docx