food from the land. For those in the country, hunger was episodic rather than epidemic.10 Those who dwelled in the cities, though, did not have easy access to land. Cities were, by and large, overpopulated. The city of Rome was the first Western city to reach a population of one million. Food was scarce for these urban dwellers. The Roman government provided a grain dole to about one-fifth of the citizen population of the city of Rome, but the grain distribution was only for citizen males. This left