It is no small task to provide grain for so huge a city, and that, too, without the aid of railways or steamships. Even a top-lofty Emperor like Domitian can fear the howls of the crowds in the circus if the price of wheat becomes high and the customary free distributions are not forthcoming. Hence these horrea must be large enough to supply a large margin against possible delay in the annual arrival of the “Alexandrian” or “African” fleets on which the provisioning of the capital depends. =215. The Public Grain Doles.=--All the world knows that one of the most precious prerogatives of a plebeian in Rome is the right to receive about 5 _modii_ (about 10 gallons dry measure) of grain every month at government charges. Is it not only right that the wearers of the toga should live on the bounty of the subject world? In the past there have been, indeed, efforts to make the populace pay _part_ of the price of their grain, with the government simply discharging the balance. This half measure has broken down because of unpopularity. All that the authorities can do now is to see that the list of recipients is limited to genuine citizens, and that the alien riffraff of the great city is strictly excluded. [Illustration: DISTRIBUTING BREAD.] There are now, as since the time of Augustus, about 200,000 citizens upon the precious “Frumentary Lists.” The recipients are not paupers, but include very many “small citizens” of the worthier kind. It is an honor in many circles to win the precious _tessera_ (metal or bone ticket) entitling one to stand in line at the numerous grain dispensaries all over the city and get the monthly allowance.[131] Every adult male Roman in the city receives this privilege, but under some circumstances the tessera can be alienated. You hear of persons selling theirs or even bequeathing them by will; and some of the holders are thus not merely freedmen but even ex-criminals. =216. Distribution of the Free Bread: Extraordinary Bonuses (_Congiaria_ and _Donativa_).=--For a long time this food has simply been portioned out unbaked at the numerous grain stations all over the city; after which it has to be made into bread at home, or to be handed over to private bakers who will return so many loaves per measure, deducting a commission in kind. There is a growing tendency, however, towards government bakeshops as a new means of pampering the “Sovereign People” and towards passing out the food in the form of handsomely baked bread. The custom nevertheless is not yet universal.[132] The private bakeries continue to flourish, and since each baker must grind his own flour, no sound is more common all over the city than the rasping of the millstones worked either by long-suffering donkeys, blindfolded to keep them from eating, or by the most recalcitrant and sodden class of slaves.