Famine in Antioch 362–363

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The famine in Antioch from 362 to 363 is the best-documented famine in the ancient world.

The causes of the famine in Antioch on the Orontes and its surroundings are not exactly known, but crop failures may have played a role. In addition, Emperor Julian went to Antioch with his army in July 362 for a planned Persian campaign in 363 and probably caused another food shortage.

At the request of the starving population, Emperor Julian spoke to the wealthy citizens of the city and asked them to take care of the supplies for the population. These had hoarded grain and thus kept the grain prices high in order to increase their own profit when selling the grain or at least to offset the loss caused by the poor harvests.

When after several months nothing more happened, the emperor set a low price for grain. The result was that most of the grain disappeared from the market and was sold on the black market at continued inflated prices. Thereupon the emperor sent grain from Chalkis , Hierapolis and even from Egypt , which apparently only improved the situation for a short time. The wealthy seem to have bought some of this and continued to sell it on the black market at inflated prices to the starving population. Both the rural and urban populations seem to have suffered. Julian describes how people poured into the city from the countryside, hoping to get something to eat there.

The events are described by various late antique authors and are apparently particularly well documented because of the emperor's involvement. Libanios and Ammianus Marcellinus , who were otherwise positive about the emperor, condemned his pricing policy. The events led to resentment between the emperor and the upper class of Antioch, to which he took a position in his book Der Barthasser .

literature

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  • Julian: Der Barthasser (Misopogon), 368D – 370A
  • Ammianus Marcellinus: Res gestae , XXII, XIV, 1-2

Secondary literature

  • Dionysios Stathakopoulos: Famine and Pestilence in the Late Roman and early Byzantine Empire . Aldershot 2004, pp. 193-197.
  • Glanville Downey: The Economic Crisis at Antioch under Julian . In Studies in Roman Economic and Social History in Honor of AC Johnson , ed. PP Coleman-Norton, Princeton 1951, pp. 312–321.
  • Klaus Rosen : Julian. Emperor, God and haters of Christians . Stuttgart 2006, p. 282ff.
  • Geoffrey de Ste Croix : The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World from the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests , Duckworth, London 1982, ISBN 071561701X , pp. 219-220.