What would the 3rd century BC Romans have called a “bread basket” region in Latin?
I found this:
The paper focuses on one of the most productive wheat-growing regions in the entire Roman Empire, the Arsinoite nome (modern Fayum) in Egypt. Towards the end of the third century CE, multiple formerly thriving farming villages at the edges of the district went into decline and were eventually abandoned.
Or do you want a literal translation of the word? (which would be “canistrum” in Latin if Google translate is correct)
I wouldn’t trust Google translate to translate native Latin phrasing. I saw the word ‘canistrum’. It is a word. But doubt if it’s the word for a “bread basket region”
Canistrum, I think, is any kind of woven basket. But even if it meant “bread basket” (if, indeed, the Romans put their bread in a basket) I don’t think the English idiomatic use of the term for a grain-producing region would necessarily have been mirrored in Latin.
I want to say that the province of Africa, and later Egypt, was referred to by classical writers as granarium imperii, the granary of the empire, or possibly granarium urbis, the granary of the city. But I can’t immediately find a citation.
Thank you USD 1.
I think its a little unimportant, as the mediterranean climate leads to crop farming across most of the roman empire, they had difficulty expanding past the Mediterranean climate areas.
And there is that thing about having other empires, eg egyptians, having famine due to a few years of drought… Would they not realise that their empire was avoiding the problem of having only breadbasket ?
Pliny the Younger discusses whether Egypt / Africa is vital to the roman empire . What would Pliny the Younger have said ? (what words would he have used ? )
the panegyrick of Pliny, page 57 uses “Granary of the world”
But 300 BC ? They hadnt expanded outside of modern Italy by 200 BC…
If they were looking at France thinking “they have a large breadbasket”, would they not have said
“they have an area worth 20 of our Po valley !” Suggest that if needed a word or phrase, they would have coined a phrase like "granarium of the state " like Pliny had coined his
Sicily was a major granary for Italy from ancient times and became more so after its conquest by the Romans during the Punic Wars. The Roman seem to have specifically concentrated on more of a monoculture agricultural economy of wheat production there for just that reason. It’s importance (and relative prosperity) waxed and waned a bit over time, but often loomed large. Control of Sicilian grain was the key reason why the medieval kings of Sicily were so wealthy.
ETA: Cicero apparently referred to it as cellam penarium rei publicae nostrae, nutricem plebis Romanae Siciliam nominabat. Which, y’know, something about a larder of Rome - you’ll have to ask John Cleese to break it down better 
. I don’t really do Latin, just stuff like latinate binomials.
I don’t see this phrase in the Latin: I think the Early Modern translator is editorializing a bit.
Aegyptus alendis augendisque seminibus ita gloriata est, ut nihil imbribus coeloque deberet: siquidem proprio semper amne perfusa, nec alio genere aquarum solita pinguescere, quam quas ipse devexerat, tantis segetibus induebatur, ut cum feracissimis terris, quasi nunquam cessura, certaret. Haec inopina siccitate usque ad iniuriam sterilitatis exaruit: quia piger Nilus cunctanter alveo sese ac languide extulerat, ingentibus quoque tunc quidem ille fluminibus conferendus. Hinc pars magna terrarum, mergi palanti amne consueta, alto pulvere incanduit. Frustra tunc Aegyptus nubila optavit, coelumque respexit, quum ipse foecunditatis parens contractior et exilior, iisdem ubertatem eius anni angustiis, quibus abundantiam suam, cohibuisset. Neque enim solum vagus ille, quum expanditur, amnis intra usurpata semper collium substiterat atque haeserat; sed supino etiam ac detinenti solo placido se mollique lapsu refugum abstulerat, necdum satis humentes terras addiderat arentibus. Igitur inundatione, id est ubertate, regio fraudata, sic opem Caesaris invocavit, ut solet amnem suum: nec longius illi adversorum fuit spatium, quam dum nuntiat. Tam velox, Caesar, potentia tua est, tamque in omnia pariter intenta bonitas et accincta, ut tristius aliquid seculo tuo passis, ad remedium salutemque sufficiat, ut scias.