How does something like the corn dole (annonae) in Rome, which was started by one of the Gracchi and continued for six hundred years, fit into this timeline? Several hundred years along, they even added free medical care. I understand, from an historical standpoint, how it happened, but why did the elite even consider such a solution, as opposed to letting the landless dispossessed die and decrease the surplus population? I would suppose it was because the senatorial class thought live voters were more useful than dead peasants. It does seem like an unusual approach, from the standpoint of the preceding and following millennia.
The elite did need the votes of the Roman citizens in Rome—up until Augustus. Giving a corn dole by taxing Sicily and then Egypt and Tunisia was much cheaper than redistributing Senator-engrossed land within Italy...
How does something like the corn dole (annonae) in Rome, which was started by one of the Gracchi and continued for six hundred years, fit into this timeline? Several hundred years along, they even added free medical care. I understand, from an historical standpoint, how it happened, but why did the elite even consider such a solution, as opposed to letting the landless dispossessed die and decrease the surplus population? I would suppose it was because the senatorial class thought live voters were more useful than dead peasants. It does seem like an unusual approach, from the standpoint of the preceding and following millennia.
The elite did need the votes of the Roman citizens in Rome—up until Augustus. Giving a corn dole by taxing Sicily and then Egypt and Tunisia was much cheaper than redistributing Senator-engrossed land within Italy...