"There was a famine in Greece in the forties and fifties and one can be dated to A.D. 51.

Tacitus declared that A.D. 51 was an "ominous year"" B.W. Winter, Seek the Welfare of the City,

p53.

"Paul’s time in Corinth seems to have coincided with a period of food shortage in the Roman

world. This is attested at Corinth by inscriptions erected by several Corinthian tribes and

honoring Tiberius Claudius Dinippus for his service as curator annonae, probably c. A.D.

51. Such food shortages often led to unrest, especially in the urban communities, and this

may have contributed to the circumstances which allowed the Jews to bring Paul before the

proconsul Gallio (Acts 18:12)." D.W.J. Gill, Achaia, The Book of Acts in its Graeco-Roman Setting

p451-2.

"In the fifth consulship of Tiberius Claudius with Sextius Cornelius Orfitus for his colleague,

Nero was prematurely invested with the dress of manhood …..

Several prodigies occurred in that year. Birds of evil omen perched on the Capitol; houses

were thrown down by frequent shocks of earthquake, and as the panic spread, all the weak

were trodden down in the hurry and confusion of the crowd. Scanty crops too, and

consequent famine were regarded as a token of calamity. Nor were there merely

whispered complaints; while Claudius was administering justice, the populace crowded

round him with a boisterous clamour and drove him to a corner of the forum, where they

violently pressed on him till he broke through the furious mob with a body of soldiers. It was

ascertained that Rome had provisions for no more than fifteen days, and it was through the

signal bounty of heaven and the mildness of the winter that its desperate plight was relieved.

And yet in past days Italy used to send supplies for the legions into distant provinces, and

even now it is not a barren soil which causes distress. But we prefer to cultivate Africa and

Egypt, and trust the life of the Roman people to ships and all their risks." Tacitus Ann. XII

"When there was a scarcity of grain because of long-continued droughts, he was once

stopped in the middle of the Forum by a mob and so pelted with abuse and at the same

time with pieces of bread, that he was barely able to make his escape to the Palace by a

back door; and after this experience he resorted to every possible means to bring grain to

Rome, even in the winter season. To the merchants he held out the certainty of profit by

assuming the expense of any loss that they might suffer from storms, and offered to those

who would build merchant ships large bounties, adapted to the condition of each: to a

citizen exemption from the lex Papia Poppaea; to a Latin the rights of Roman citizenship; to

women the privileges allowed the mothers of four children. And all these provisions are in

force to-day." Suetonius Claud.18

"Any shortfall in the harvest aggravated the problem for cities elsewhere, for Rome of

necessity had first calim on existing supplies." B.W. Winter, "Acts and Food Shortages", The Book

of Acts in its Graeco-Roman Setting p61.

Update: Barry Danylak has carefully argued that there was indeed a severe food shortage in

Corinth in 51 ("Tiberius Claudius Dinippus and the food shortages in Corinth", Tyn Bul 59.2

(2008).

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