114 THE ROMAN EMPIRE
suppliers. But bulk suppliers were not necessarily contracted to the
government, especially in the formative stages of the development of the
imperial supply system. In the long term, governments intent on securing a
stable and regular food supply would try to increase the number of suppliers
operating within a contract system, with its attendant attractions and
constraints.
The army
The Roman army grew from a low at the death of Augustus of around
300,000 legionaries and auxiliaries to a high at the death of Septimius
Severus of around 400,000.^7 As a body of consumers, it was divided, unlike
the city of Rome. Numerous provinces had permanent contingents of either
legionary or auxiliary standing. This dispersal prevented the creation of an
integrated system of army supply. Strategies were arrived at that were
appropriate to particular localities and suffi ciently fl exible to cope with
changing circumstances, including military movements and fl uctuations in
the size of the resident garrisons. On the other hand, it is axiomatic that
Roman offi cials, the emperor and his military and civilian subordinates,
would take responsibility for organizing a system of supply, and that it
would be a comprehensive system and subjected to a high degree of control.
The army was the backbone of the imperial order. The necessity of preserving
its military effectiveness as well as loyalty to the political authorities explains
the attention paid by emperors to its requirements. In contrast, the
government supplied the people of Rome grudgingly and only partially, with
the end of preserving its political passivity, or, at most, general support for
the regime.
Quantifying the needs of the army is a formidable undertaking. To be
comprehensive, it would have to take in, among other things, raw materials
such as iron (a store of about a million nails, weighing around ten tons, was
found at the temporary Flavian fortress of Inchtuthil in Scotland), timber (at
Inchtuthil, around 5,000 cubic metres of sawn wood were used for about
28 km of barrack- walling alone), other building materials, animals for
cavalry, transport, meat and leather (around 54,000 calf- hides were required
merely to equip a legion with tents), products of the clothing industry, such
as cloaks, tunics and blankets, other equipment and weaponry, before we
come to basic food rations.^8
The content of normal rations will have varied with the region, but
soldiers received at least grain, vin piqué or vinegar consumed with water as
posca, and, normally, meat.^9 In round fi gures, 300,000 soldiers would have
consumed about 100,000 tonnes of wheat per year, or 15 million modii, at
one kg of grain per person/day. As the army grew over two and a half
centuries by a third, so did its cereal consumption, reaching around 150,000
tonnes, or 22½ million modii, under the Severans. These estimates might be