20 III: Noel Lenski (Yale), Feeding a Young Capital: The Food Supply of Constantinople in the Fourth Century

When he dedicated his new eastern capital in 330, Constantine gave clear signs that he intended it to be a ‘Second Rome.’ As such, he endowed Constantinople with distinct privileges including a fully funded supply of imperially subsidized bread to be baked from Egyptian wheat diverted from what had once helped feed the Urbs Roma. This paper will explore the development of this food supply scheme over the course of the fourth through sixth centuries laying particular emphasis on the traces it leaves in Egypt’s papyrological record.

Image credit: Byzantium 1200.