Annōna
(from
annus, like
pomona from
pomum). A name used
1.
for the produce of the year, and hence
2.
for provisions in general, especially for the corn which in the latter years of the
Republic was collected in the storehouses of the State, and sold to the poor at a cheap rate
in times of scarcity; and which under the emperors was distributed to the people
gratuitously or given as pay and rewards. (See
Frumentariae Leges.)
3.
For the price of provisions.
4.
For a soldier's allowance of provisions for a certain time. It is used also in the plural
for yearly or monthly distributions of pay in corn, etc. Similar distributions in money were
called
annonae aerariae. In the plural it also signifies provisions
given as the wages of labour.
5.
Annona was anciently worshipped as the goddess who prospered the year's increase. She was
represented on an altar in the Capitol as a female with the right arm and shoulder bare, and
the rest of the body clothed, holding ears of corn in her right hand, and the cornucopia in
her left.
