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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   31375 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023

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besides converting the dole to bread from the more perishable grain

since when grain is more perishable than bread?

Maybe it was a type of unleavened bread? Those are usually shelf stable for a long time, and if they could make anything akin to hardtack, I could see that lasting longer than unbaked grains.

I looked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura_Annonae

a government program which gave out subsidized grain, then free grain, and later bread

given that basically everyone stored grain, not bread, for long term keeping it is just another glaring low quality part of that paper

Read the whole Wikipedia article, lol.

The recipients of subsidised bread paid the baker a small fee for milling and baking; the grain itself was still free. The change from a grain supply to a flour supply would have carried with it a host of problems, some of which can only be guessed at. Flour is much more perishable than grain, and it would therefore have required more frequent distribution. The Emperor Aurelian (270–275 AD) is usually credited with changing or completing the change from doles of grain or flour to bread, and for adding olive oil, salt, and pork to the products regularly distributed; these products had been distributed sporadically before that. Aurelian is also credited with increasing the weight of loaves but not their price, a measure that was undoubtedly popular with the Romans who were not receiving free bread and other products through the dole.[58] In the 4th century AD, Rome had 290 granaries and warehouses and 254 bakeries, regulated and monitored by the state and given privileges to ensure their cooperation.[59][60]

It's explained in your own link.

So "to bread from the more perishable grain" remain nonsense, right?

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