Dottorato in FILOLOGIA E STORIA DEL MONDO ANTICO

Titolo della tesi: La prefettura dell'annona da Augusto a Costantino

This dissertation offers an updated prosopographical and institutional study of the praefectura annonae, the imperial administrative office responsible for managing the supply of grain and other foodstuffs to Rome, from the age of Augustus to Constantine. Building upon Henriette Pavis d’Escurac’s seminal 1976 monograph La préfecture de l’annone, this research re-examines the bureaucratic and hierarchical organization of the annona system, incorporating new epigraphic, papyrological, and historiographical evidence that has emerged over the past five decades. The study is divided into two main parts. The first analyzes the personnel hierarchically subordinate to the prefect—adiutores, subpraefecti, procuratores annonae, procuratores portuum annonariorum, and officials entrusted with extraordinary missions—through systematic prosopographical catalogues distinguishing between freedmen and equestrians. The second part reassesses categories of provincial procurators previously included among the subordinates of the praefectus annonae—notably the procuratores a frumentis Numidiae and the Alexandrian procuratores ad Mercurium and Neaspoleos—arguing, on methodological and documentary grounds, for their exclusion from the central annona hierarchy. By revising, updating, and expanding Pavis d’Escurac’s lists, this work not only refines our understanding of the administrative structure of the Roman annona, but also contributes to broader discussions on the evolution of imperial bureaucracy, the role of equestrian and freedmen officials, and the integration of local and provincial administrations into the logistics of Rome’s food supply. Keywords: praefectura annonae, Roman administration, prosopography, equestrian order, imperial bureaucracy, Ostia, Portus, food supply to Rome.