Pompey, who held this office, possessed greater
power and privileges than his immediate predecessor, and in a time of great
scarcity. Augustus, himself, undertook the charge of providing the corn: it
was at the same time determined, that for the future, two men of the rank
of praetors should be annually elected for this purpose; four were
afterwards appointed. It would seem, however, that even their appointment
became an ordinary and regular thing: the emperors themselves superintended
the procuring of corn, for one of their titles was that of
commissary-general of corn.
Besides this magistrate, whose business was confined to the buying and
importing of corn, there were two aediles, first appointed by Julius
Caesar, whose duty it was to inspect the public stores of corn and other
provisions.
Till the time of Julius Caesar, the foreign corn for the supply of Rome was
imported into Puteoli, a town of Campania, between Baiae and Naples, about
seventy miles from the capital. As this was very inconvenient, Caesar
formed the plan of making an artificial harbour at the mouth of the Tiber,
at Ostia. This plan, however, was not at this time carried into execution:
Claudius, however, in consequence of a dreadful famine which raged at Rome,
A.D. 42, resolved to accomplish it. He accordingly dug a spacious basin in
the main land; the entrance to which was formed and protected by artificial
moles, which advanced far into the sea; there was likewise a little island
before the mouth of the harbour, on which a light-house was built, after
the model of the Pharos of Alexandria.
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