Horrea Galbae

Servius Sulpicius Galba (praetor 187 B.C.) owned a large private estate which later became an imperial property. Over time, the area was occupied by large warehouses for the storage of the public grain supply, wine, oil, food, and other goods.

Horrea Galbae

From Samuel Ball Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, rev. Thomas Ashby. Oxford: 1929, p. 261-262.

Warehouses in the district known as Praedia Galbana (q.v.) between the south-west side of the Aventine and the Tiber. Here was the tomb of Ser. Sulpicius Galba, consul in 144 or 108 B.C. (CIL I².695 = VI.31617; cf. NS 1885, 527; BC 1885, 165; Mitt. 1886, 62), and about that time, or before the end of the republic, the horrea were built and called Sulpicia (Hor. Carm. IV.12.18) or Galbae (Porphyr. ad loc.; Chron. p146; CIL VI.9801, 33743; XIV.20; cf. Galbeses, VI.30901; Galbienses, VI.710 = 30817; Not. Reg. XIII: Galbes, 33886; IG XIV.956 A. 29: ἐπὶ τῷ Γἁλβη). Other forms of the name are horrea Galbana (Not. dign. occ. IV.15 Seeck; CIL VI.338 = 30740) and Galbiana (VI.236, 30855, 33906). They were enlarged or restored by the Emperor Galba and therefore, in later times, their erection seems to have been ascribed to him (Chron. 146: (Galba) domum suum deposuit et horrea Galbae instituit (cf. CIL VI.8680=33743 [Bonae Deae vel Tutelae] horriorum (sic) Servii Galbae Imp. Aug.). These warehouses were not only the earliest of the many in this and other parts of the city, but apparently always the most important (cf. Not. Reg. XIII; Not. dign. loc. cit.: curator horreorum Galbae), and were depots not only for grain, but for goods of all kinds (Porphyr. loc. cit.: Sulpicii Galbae horrea dicit hodieque autem Galbae horrea vino et oleo et similibus aliis referta sunt; CIL VI.980: piscatrix de horreis Galbae, 33906: sagarius; 33886: negotiator marmorarius; cf. BC 1885, 110-112; DE III.967-986).

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