Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 2 - Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire

Cash Distributions in Rome 91

theLogisticalInfrastructureoftheParthianWars,’’vanBerchem’sinterestin
theportwasnotsolelythatofanarchaeologist,butwasdirected,onceagain,
tothebetterunderstandingoftheorganicunityoftheEmpire.Hetookthe
occasion to associatewith his studyof the port a revision of the Latin in-
scriptionfromnearAntioch,whichrecordstheworkofcanalisationofthe
Orontes,alsocarriedoutunderVespasian.^7 Asaresult,itbecamepossibleto
bring ships up the riveras faras Antioch, and possibly further, to the lake
itself.^8 Itwasstrikingtoobservethattodaythereisabsolutelynotrafficon
theriverbetweenAntalyaandthesea;andittakessomeefforttoenvisage
themoderntownasasecondary‘‘capital’’oftheEmpireandasthestrategic
centreoftheRomanNearEast.
Thereadermightbegintoaskwhatpreciselyisthelinkbetweentheroads
and ports of the Roman Near East and the cash distributions, orcongiaria,
carried out by the emperor in Rome. One such link of course is provided
by another of the seminal works of van Berchem, on the distributions of
cornandcashtotheRomanplebs.^9 Butthislinkdoesnotmerelyconsistin
thesuccessiveworksofacontemporaryhistorian.Thereisamoreprofound
underlyingconception,whichconsistsinthewilltoenvisageinanabsolutely
concretewaytheactualfunctioningoftheimperialsystem.Asanexpression
ofthat,vanBerchemtendedalwaystoleaveasideabstractionsandtheories
ofgovernment,toofferusinsteada‘‘real’’RomanEmpire,ofpeasantsand
harvests, roads, ports, and soldiers, quartered in camps or marching along
theroadsoftheEmpire.Tomaintainthesesoldiers,thestatehadtofindthe
meanstoprovidethemeitherwithregularpayincash,orwithsuppliesof
foodinkind,orboth.Ineithercasethestatewasobligedtotransportacross
thevastexpansesoftheEmpireenormousquantitiesofcashorprovisions.^10
Letusleaveasidethequestionoftheprovisioningofthearmyinkind—
oftheannona militaris,ifonewishestousetheterm.Equally,whenwear-
rive finally at the city of Rome, let us leave aside the question of how it
wasprovisioned,whetherbycommercialmeansorbythefreedistributions
ofcornestablishedbythelegislationofClodiusin58b.c.,andmaintained
throughouttheimperialperiod.Letusconcentrateinsteadoncoin,thatim-
perialcoinofwhichtwoofthemostimportantfunctions,butnottheonly

7.Mus. Helv. 40 (1983): 185–96, revised inBonner Jahrbücher(n. 6), 85–87,whenceAE
1983,no.927.

8. Pausanias,DescriptionofGreece8,29,3,referstotheworkofcanalisationanditspur-
   pose,withoutactuallynamingtheemperorwhogaveordersforit.
   9.Lesdistributionsdebléetd’argentàlaplèberomaine(1939).


9. Iwillallowmyselftomentionalso,whilethinkingofspaceandmovement,D.van
   Berchem,Lesroutesetl’histoire.ÉtudessurlesHelvètesetleursvoisinsdansl’Empireromain(1982).