This project concerns an in-dept study of civic government and elite involvement in the urban food market in het cities of Roman imperial Asia Minor. Adopting the novel approach of studying both government market interventions and food-related elite benefactions (munificence) simultaneously, and employing important theoretical insights from the social sciences and comparative history on food markets and food distribution, we aim to move beyond the confines of old debates and present anew picture of the management of Roman urban food markets that will contribute to a better udnerstanding of the functioning of Greco-Roman cities and pre-modern urbanism more genreally.