40 PLINY'S NATUEAL HISTOET. [BookXVIIL 



prepared, such as the " speusticus," 25 or " hurry-bread." Other 

 varieties receive their names from the peculiar method of 

 baking them, such as oven-bread, 26 tin-bread, 27 and mould- 

 bread. 28 It is not so very long since that we had a bread in- 

 troduced from Parthia, known as water-bread, 29 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 in- 

 vent, alica 30 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 31 soaked, which is mostly done 

 \ in milk mixed with honey. 



CHAP. 28. WHEN BAKERS WERE FIRST INTRODUCED AT ROME. 



There were no bakers at Eome until 32 the war with King 

 Perseus, more than five hundred and eighty years after the 

 building of the City. The ancient llomans used to make their 

 own bread, it being an occupation which belonged to the wo- 

 men, 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 Aulularia, 33 though there has been considerable 

 ision lor that very reason among the learned, whether or 

 From <T7T^u>, to hasten. A sort of crumpet, probably 

 2! nrl aCe P' 2? Artopticeus. 



WaS a P rtable oven *l Broader at 



See cc ' 10 and 29 of MB Book. 



our rusks - 



It VthourfAl' ' " g ^ inc art P tam ex proxumo utendam peto " 



