A man needs to eat

Lucius flips the coin and studies it thoroughly. The ears of grain catch his eye first, and then the vessel on the altar above it. He recognizes that this is a modius, a vessel in which grain is measured .1 modius = 16 sextarii = about 8.7 liters The coin depicts the distribution of grain, also called Annona. He remembers that he still has to collect his ration.

The Annona was available only to 150,000 citizens of Rome during the first century AD, and was distributed free of charge from the reign of emperor Augustus onwards.The Annona constituted around a fifth of the total amount of grain transported to Rome. B. Sirks, Qui Annonae Urbis Serviunt (Amsterdam 1988) 21-23. All you had to do was to be on one of the lists. Lucius, who has Roman citizenship, is on the list. At the end of the day he should go to the Porticus Minucia on the Campus Martius, where the grain distribution takes place. He hopes he will not have to wait too long this time.Five times the amount of the modius vessel mentioned above was distributed per person every month. G.E. Rickmann, ‘The Grain Trade under the Roman Empire’, Source: Memories of the American Academy in Rome (1980) 261-275, 262