[German version]

In the late Republic and in the early Principate frumentarii were soldiers possibly responsible for  logistics (providing food, escorting traders). From the 2nd cent. AD at the latest, however, they acted as imperial messengers, couriers, informers and policemen. Their name and activity is derived from the traders with whom they once collaborated, for these frumentarii were often also employed as spies. Military frumentarii were assigned to legions, but stationed in Rome in the castra peregrina and there under the command of the praefectus praetorio; frumentarii …