a very low price; but by the Clodian law it was to be distributed gratis:  the granaries in which this corn was kept were called Horrea Sempronia.  The number of citizens who received corn by public distribution, in the time of Augustus, amounted to 200,000.  Julius Caesar had reduced the number from 320,000 to 150,000.  It is doubtful whether five bushels were the allowance of each individual or of each family; but if Dr. Arbuthnot be correct in estimating the modius at fourteen pounds, the allowance must have been for each family, amounting to one quarter seven bushels, and one peck per annum.

We have dwelt on these particulars for the purpose of pointing out the extreme importance of a regular and full supply of corn to Rome; and this importance is still further proved by the special appointment of magistrates to superintend this article.  The prefect, or governor of the market, was an ancient establishment in the Roman republic; his duty was to procure corn:  on extraordinary occasions, this magistrate was created for this express purpose, and the powers granted him seem to have been increased in the latter periods of the republic, and still more, after the republic was destroyed.  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.  By the formation of this harbour, the largest vessel could securely ride at anchor, within three deep and capacious basins, which received the northern branch of the Tiber, about two miles from the ancient colony of Ostia.