In the early days of the Roman Empire, the government faced a massive logistical challenge to feed its sprawling army and the city of Rome itself. To manage this, they created the Frumentarii, a group of soldiers whose primary job was to collect and distribute grain. Because these men traveled constantly between the provinces and the capital, they possessed a unique advantage. They knew the roads, the local leaders, and the whispers of the common people. What began as a mundane task of moving wheat slowly transformed into a sophisticated system of information gathering that the emperors found too useful to ignore.
full article: https://thoughtframe.org/article/BrQnC98rl7BAhtzOAE5N
by thoughtframeorg