Research questions asked about Pompeius’ cura annonae – often termed “grain command” – dwell mainly on what made it more like any other promagistracy. Scholars tend to approach this office as if it were a kind of military command, albeit innovative. However, unlike promagistrates before him, Pompeius was endowed with the task which concerned the sphere domi. While not neglected, this aspect of Pompeius’ power becomes even more significant if appreciated through the lens of a more general problem of late-republican (...) promagistrates’ interference in the sphere of domestic politics. This paper aims to supplement scholarly observations on the cura annonae, including F. Vervaet’s recent findings, by reconsidering especially the evidence on Pompeius’ making or revising a list of grain recipients. (shrink)

In his Bellum Ciuile, Caesar reports the events of 1 January 49 with these words : misso ad uesperum senatu omnes qui sunt eius ordinis a Pompeio euocantur. laudat Pompeius atque in posterum confirmat, segniores castigat atque incitat.When the Senate had been dismissed towards dusk, all who belonged to that order were summoned by Pompeius. He praised the determined and encouraged them for the future while criticizing and stirring up those who were less eager to act.This meeting has not attracted (...) much scholarly attention and admittedly for a good reason: other circumstances of the outbreak of the Civil War are, perhaps, more significant for understanding the events as well as the intentions and decisions of the political actors. The importance of this gathering lies, however, not so much in what its role might have been in the developments of the year 49 but rather in the context of the phenomenon of the promagistrates’ interference in the domestic politics of Late Republican Rome. (shrink)