Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 27.

  THE METHOD OF MAKING BREAD: ORIGIN OF THE ART.

  It seems to me quite unnecessary to enter into an account of the various kinds of bread that are made. Some kinds, we find, receive their names from the dishes with which they are eaten, the oyster-bread, for instance: others, again, from their peculiar delicacy, the artolaganus, or cake-bread, for example; and others from the expedition with which they are prepared, such as the “speusticus,” or “hurry-bread.” Other varieties receive their names from the peculiar method of baking them, such as oven-bread, tin-bread, and mould-bread. It is not so very long since that we had a bread introduced from Parthia, known as water-bread, from a method in kneading it, of drawing out the dough by the aid of water, a process which renders it remarkably light, and full of holes. like a sponge: some call this Parthian bread. The excellence of the finest kinds of bread depends principally on the goodness of the wheat, and the fineness of the bolter. Some persons knead the dough with eggs or milk, and butter even has been employed for the purpose by nations that have had leisure to cultivate the arts of peace, and to give their attention to the art of making pastry. Picenum still maintains its ancient reputation for making the bread which it was the first to invent, alica being the grain employed. The flour is kept in soak for nine days, and is kneaded on the tenth with raisin juice, in the shape of long rolls; after which it is baked in an oven in earthen pots, till they break. This bread, however, is never eaten till it has been well soaked, which is mostly done in milk mixed with honey.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 28.

  WHEN BAKERS WERE FIRST INTRODUCED AT ROME.

  There were no bakers at Rome until the war with King Perseus, more than five hundred and eighty years after the building of the City. The ancient Romans used to make their own bread, it being an occupation which belonged to the women, as we see the case in many nations even at the present day. Plautus speaks of the artopta, or bread-tin, in his Comedy of the Alularia, though there has been considerable discussion for that very reason among the learned, whether or not that line really belongs to him. We have the fact, too, well ascertained, in the opinion of Ateius Capito, that the cooks in those days were in the habit of making the bread for persons of affluence, while the name of “pistor” was only given to the person who pounded, or “pisebat,” the spelt. In those times, they had no cooks in the number of their slaves but used to hire them for the occasion from the market. The Gauls were the first to employ the bolter that is made of horse-hair; while the people of Spain make their sieves and meal-dressers of flax, and the Egyptians of papyrus and rushes.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 29.

  ALTCA.

  But among the very first things of all, we ought to speak of the method employed in preparing alica, a most delightful and most wholesome food, and which incontestably confers upon Italy the highest rank among the countries that produce the cereals. This delicacy is prepared, no doubt, in Egypt as well, but of a very inferior quality, and not worth our notice. In Italy, however, it is prepared in numerous places, the territories of Verona and Pisæ, for example; but that of Campania is the most highly esteemed. There, at the foot of mountains capped with clouds, runs a plain, not less in all than forty miles in extent. The land here — to give a description first of the nature of the soil — is dusty on the surface, but spongy below, and as porous as pumice. The inconveniences that generally arise from the close vicinity of mountains are here converted into so many advantages: for the soil, acting on it as a sort of filter, absorbs the water of the abundant rains that fall; the consequence of which is, that the water not being left to soak or form mud on the surface, the cultivation is greatly facilitated thereby. This land does not return, by the aid of any springs, the moisture it has thus absorbed, but thoroughly digests it, by warming it in its bosom, in a heated oven as it were. The ground is kept cropped the whole year through, once with panic, and twice with spelt; and yet in the spring, when the soil is allowed to have a moment’s repose, it will produce roses more odoriferous by far than the cultivated rose: for the earth here is never tired of producing, a circumstance in which originated the common saying, that Campania produces more unguents than other countries do oil.

  In the same degree, however, that the Campanian soil excels that of all other countries, so does that part of it which is known to us as Laboriæ, and to the Greeks as Phlegræum, surpass all the rest. This district is bounded on two sides by the consular high road, which leads from Puteoli to Capua on the one side, and from Cumæ on the other.

  Alica is prepared from the grain called zea, which we have already mentioned as being known to us as “seed” wheat. The grain is cleansed in a wooden mortar, for fear lest stone, from its hardness, should have the effect of grating it. The motive power for raising the pestle, as is generally known, is supplied by slaves working in chains, the end of it being enclosed in a case of iron. After the husks have been removed by this process, the pure grain is broken to pieces, the same implements being employed. In this way, there are three different kinds of alica made, the finest, the seconds, and the coarse, which last is known as “aphærema.” Still, however, these various kinds have none of them that whiteness as yet for which they are so distinguished, though even now they are preferable to the Alexandrian alica. With this view — a most singular fact — chalk is mixed with the meal, which, upon becoming well incorporated with it, adds very materially to both the whiteness and the shortness of the mixture. This chalk is found between Puteoli and Neapolis, upon a hill called Leucogæum; and there is still in existence a decree of the late Emperor Augustus, (who established a colony at Capua), which orders a sum of twenty thousand sesterces to be paid annually from his exchequer to the people of Neapolis, for the lease of this hill. His motive for paying this rent, he stated, was the fact that the people of Campania had alleged that it was impossible to make their alica without the help of this mineral. In the same hill, sulphur is found as well, and the springs of Araxus issue from its declivities, the waters of which are particularly efficacious for strengthening the sight, healing wounds, and preventing the teeth from becoming loose.

  A spurious kind of alica is made, more particularly of a degenerate kind of zea grown in Africa; the ears of it are larger and blacker than those of the genuine kind, and the straw is short. This grain is pounded with sand, and even then it is with the greatest difficulty that the outer coats are removed; when stripped, the grain fills one half only of the original measure. Gypsum, in the proportion of one fourth, is then sprinkled over it, and after the mixture has been well incorporated, it is bolted through a meal-sieve. The portion that remains behind, after this is done, is known as “excepticia,” and consists of the coarser parts; while that which has passed through is submitted to a second process, with a finer sieve; and that which then refuses to pass has the name of “secun- daria.” That, again, which, in a similar manner, is submitted to a third sifting, with a sieve of the greatest fineness, which will only admit of sand passing through it, is known as “cribraria,” when it remains on the top of the sieve.

  There is another method, again, that is employed every where for adulterating it. They pick out the whitest and largest grains of wheat, and parboil them in earthen pots; these are then dried in the sun till they have regained their original size, after which they are lightly sprinkled with water, and then ground in a mill. A better granæum is made from zea than from wheat, although it is nothing else, in fact, but a spurious alica: it is whitened by the addition of boiled milk, in place of chalk.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 30. (12.)

  THE LEGUMINOUS PLANTS: THE BEAN.

  We now come to the history of the leguminous plants, among which the place of honour must be awarded to the bean; indeed, some attempts have even been made to use it for bread. Bean meal is known as “lomentum;” and, as is the case with the meal of all leguminous
plants, it adds considerably, when mixed with flour, to the weight of the bread. Beans are on sale at the present day for numerous purposes, and are employed for feeding cattle, and man more particu- larly. They are mixed, also, among most nations, with wheat, and panic more particularly, either whole or lightly broken. In our ancient ceremonials, too, bean pottage occupies its place in the religious services of the gods. Beans are mostly eaten together with other food, but it is generally thought that they dull the senses, and cause sleepless nights attended with dreams. Hence it is that the bean has been condemned by Pythagoras; though, according to some, the reason for this denunciation was the belief which he entertained that the souls of the dead are enclosed in the bean: it is for this reason, too, that beans are used in the funereal banquets of the Parentalia. According to Varro, it is for a similar cause that the Flamen abstains from eating beans: in addition to which, on the blossom of the bean, there are certain letters of ill omen to be found.

  There are some peculiar religious usages connected with the bean. It is the custom to bring home from the harvest a bean by way of auspice, which, from that circumstance, has the name of “referiva.” In sales by public auction, too, it is thought lucky to include a bean in the lot for sale. It is a fact, too, that the bean is the only one among all the grains that fills out at the increase of the moon, however much it may have been eaten away: it can never be thoroughly boiled in sea-water, or indeed any other water that is salt.

  The bean is the first leguminous plant that is sown; that being done before the setting of the Vergiliæ, in order that it may pass the winter in the ground. Virgil recommends that it should be sown in spring, according to the usage of the parts of Italy near the Padus: but most people prefer the bean that has been sown early to that of only three months’ growth; for, in the former case, the pods as well as the stalk afford a most agreeable fodder for cattle. When in blossom more particularly, the bean requires water; but after the blossom has passed off, it stands in need of but very little. It fertilizes the ground in which it has been sown as well as any manure hence it is that in the neighbourhood of Thessaly and Macedonia, as soon as it begins to blossom, they turn up the ground.

  The bean, too, grows wild in most countries, as in those islands of the Northern Ocean, for instance, which for that reason have been called by us the “Fabariæ.” In Mauritania, also, it is found in a wild state in various parts, but so remarkably hard that it will never become soft by boiling.

  In Egypt there is a kind of bean which grows upon a thorny stalk; for which reason the crocodiles avoid it, being apprehensive of danger to their eyes. This stalk is four cubits in length, and its thickness, at the very most, that of the finger: were it not for the absence of articulations in it, it would resemble a soft reed in appearance. The head is similar to that of the poppy, being of a rose colour: the beans enclosed in this head are not above thirty in number; the leaves are large, and the fruit is bitter and odoriferous. The root, however, is highly esteemed by the natives as a food, whether eaten raw or well boiled; it bears a strong resemblance to that of the reed. This plant grows also in Syria and Cilicia, and upon the banks of Lake Torone in Chalcidice.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 31.

  LENTILS. PEASE.

  Among the leguminous plants the lentil is sown in the month of November, and the pea, among the Greeks. The lentil thrives best in a soil that is rather thin than rich, and mostly stands in need of dry weather. There are two kinds of lentil grown in Egypt; one of which is rounder and blacker than the other, which has a peculiar shape of its own. The name of this plant has been applied to various uses, and among others has given origin to our word “lenticula.” I find it stated in some authors that a lentil diet is productive of evenness of temper. The pea requires to be sown in a warm, sunny spot, and is ill able to endure cold; hence in Italy and the more rigorous climates, it is sown in the spring only, a light, loose soil being chosen for the purpose.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 32.

  THE SEVERAL KINDS OF CHICK-PEASE.

  The chick-pea is naturally salt, for which reason it is apt to scorch the ground, and should only be sown after it has been steeped a day in water. This plant presents considerable differences in reference to size, colour, form, and taste. One variety resembles in shape a ram’s head, from which circumstance it has received the name of “arietinum;” there are both the white and the black arietinum. There is also the columbine chick-pea, by some known as the “pea of Venus;” it is white, round, and smooth, being smaller than the arietinum, and is employed in the observances of the night festivals or vigils. The chicheling vetch, too, is a diminutive kind of chick-pea, unequal and angular, like the pea. The chickpea that is the sweetest in flavour is the one that bears the closest resemblance to the fitch; the pod in the black and the red kinds is more firmly closed than in the white ones.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 33.

  THE KIDNEY-BEAN.

  The pod of the chick-pea is rounded, while in other legu- minous plants it is long and broad, like the seed which it contains; in the pea, again, it is of a cylindrical form. In the case of the kidney-bean it is usual to eat the pod together with the seed. This last may be sown in all kinds of soils indifferently, between the ides of October and the calends of November. As soon as ever the leguminous plants begin to ripen, they ought to be plucked, for the pods will very soon open and the seed fall out, in which case it is very difficult to find: the same is the case, too, with the lupine. But before we pass on to the lupine, it will be as well to make some mention of the rape.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 34. (13.)

  THE RAPE.

  The Latin writers have only treated of this plant in a cursory manner, while those of Greece have considered it a little more attentively; though even they have ranked it among the garden plants. If, however, a methodical arrangement is to be strictly observed, it should be spoken of immediately after corn, or the bean, at all events; for next to these two produc- tions, there is no plant that is of more extensive use. For, in the first place, all animals will feed upon it as it grows; and it is far from being the least nutritious plant in the fields for various kinds of birds, when boiled in water more particularly. Cattle, too, are remarkably fond of the leaves of rape; and the stalks and leaves, when in season, are no less esteemed as a food for man than the sprouts of the cabbage; these, too, when turned yellow and left to die in the barn, are even more highly esteemed than when green. As to the rape itself, it will keep all the better if left in its mould, aftær which it should be dried in the open air till the next crop is nearly ripe, as a resource in case of scarcity. Next to those of the grape and corn, this is the most profitable harvest of all for the countries that lie beyond the Padus. The rape is by no means difficult to please in soil, for it will grow almost anywhere, indeed where nothing else can be sown. It readily derives nutriment from fogs and hoar-frosts, and grows to a marvellous size; I have seen them weighing upwards of forty pounds. It is prepared for table among us in several ways, and is made to keep till the next crop, its Fermentation being prevented by preserving it in mustard. It is also tinted with no less than six colours in addition to its own, and with purple even; in- deed, that which is used by us as food ought to bæ of no other colour.

  The Greeks have distinguished two principal species of rape, the male and the female, and have discovered a method of obtaining them both from the same seed; for when it is sown thick, or in a hard, cloggy soil, the produce will be male. The smaller the seed the better it is in quality. There are three kinds of rape in all; the first is broad and flat, the second of a spherical shape, and tile third, to which the name of “wild” rape has been given, throws out a long root, similar in appearance to a radish, with an angular, rough leaf, and an acrid juice, which, if extracted about harvest, and mixed with a woman’s milk, is good for cleansing the eves and improving defective sight. The colder the weat
her the sweeter they are, and the larger, it is generally thought; heat makes them run to leaf. The finest rape of all is that grown in the district of Nurslia: it is valued at as much as one sesterce per pound, and, in times of scarcity, two even. That of the next best quality is produced on Mount Algidus.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 35.

  THE TURNIP.

  The turnip of Amiternum, which is pretty nearly of the same nature as the rape, thrives equally well in a cold soil. It is sown just before the calends of March, four sextarii of seed to the jugerum. The more careful growers recommend that the ground should be turned up five times before putting in the turnip, and four for rape, care being taken, in both cases, to manure it well. Rape, they say, will thrive all the better, if it is sown together with some chaff. They will have it, too, that the sower ought to be stripped, and that he should offer up a prayer while sowing, and say: “I sow this for myself and for my neighbours.” The proper time for sowing both kinds is the period that intervenes between the festivals of the two divinities, Neptune and Vulcan. It is said, too — and it is the result of very careful observation — that these plants will thrive wonderfully well, if they are sown as many days after the festival of Neptune as the moon was old when the first snow fell the previous winter. They are sown in spring as well, in warm and humid localities.