26 PLINY's >'ATC11AL UISTOIIY. [Book XYIIL 



Of the various kiuds of wlieat wliich are imported at the 

 present day into Home, the lightest in weight are those which 

 come from Gaul and Chersonuesus ; for, upon weighing them, 

 it will be found that they do not yield more than twenty 

 pounds to the modius. The grain of Sardinia weighs half a 

 pound more, and that of Alexandria one-third of a pound more 

 than that of Sardinia; the Sicilian wheat is the same in 

 weight as the Alexandrian. The Boeotian wheat, again, weighs 

 a whole pound more than these last, and that of Africa a pound 

 and three quarters. In Italy beyond the Padus, the spelt, to 

 my knowledge, weiglis twenty-five pounds to the modius, and, 

 in' the vicinity of Clusium, six-and-twenty. AVe find it a 

 rule, universally established by JS'ature, that in every kind of 

 commissariat bread^" that is made, the bread exceeds the weight 

 of the grain by one-third ; and in the same way it is generally 

 considered that that is the best kind of wheat, which, in 

 kneading, will absorb one congius of water.^^ There are some 

 kinds of wheat which give, when nsed by themselves, an ad- 

 ditional weight equal to this : the Balearic wheat, for instance, 

 which to a modius of grain yields thirty-five pounds weight of 

 bread. Others, again, will only give this additional weight 

 by being mixed with other kinds, the Cyprian wheat and the 

 Ak'xandrian, for example; which, if nsed by themselves, will 

 yield no more than twenty pounds to tlie modius. The wheat 

 of Cyprus is swarthj', and produces a dark bread ; for which 

 reason it is generally mixed with the white wheat of Alexan- 

 dria ; the mixture yielding twenty-five pounds of bread to the 

 modius of grain. The wheat of Thebais, in Egypt, when 

 made into bread, yields twenty-six pounds to the modius. To 

 knead tlie meal with sea- water, as is mostly done in the mari- 

 time districts, for the purpose of saving the salt, is extremely 

 pernicious ; there is nothing, in fact, that will more readily 

 predispose the human body to disease. In Gaul and Spain, 

 where they make a drink^- by steeping corn in the Avay that 

 lias been already described— they employ the foam'^ which 

 lliickens upon the surface as a leaven : hence it is that 

 the bread in those countries is lighter than that made else- 

 "where. 



Z j;-'"'" '"jl't^ris. 31 To the modius of wheat. 



■-= J 1 1' alludes to l)cor, or sweet-wort. Sec B. xiv. c. 29. 

 " lie ulludos to yeast. See B. xxii. c. 82. 



