STATIO ANNONAE
the headquarters of the praefectus annonae, who was
charged with the administration of the food supply of the city of Rome.
In the fourth century A.D. a structure was erected in front of the temple
of
HERCULES POMPEIANUS (?) (q.v.)-a rectangular porticus, some
30 metres long and 15 wide, with columns supporting arches on three sides
and a brick wall at the back. Traces of what may have been another
hall connected with it have been found to the north-east.
The discovery of various inscriptions connected with the annona
(
CIL vi. 1151, 31856;
xv. 7941-7951) in the neighbourhood
1 and of an
inscription of the older Symmachus on the opposite bank of the Tiber
(
NS 1886, 362;
BC 1887, 16; cf. Ann. d.
Inst. 1885, 223-236;
BC 1889, 358-360;
Mitt. 1891, 107) has led to the identification of this portico
with the statio. Into it was built the original diaconia, which was later
on enlarged by Pope Hadrian I (Rom.
Quartalschr. 1893, 11-31; Giovenale,
La Basilica di S. Maria in Cosmedin
(Rome, 1927), 334-350; DAP 2. vi.
231-235; LR 522;
LS iii. 43; HJ 146-147;
JRS 1919, 183; P1. 402;
HCh 327-328. The arguments to the contrary in
BC 1924, 135-150, are
not convincing; see YW 1925-6, 113, 114).
