Most of these regulations were soon introduced among the Gauls ; but it was long before they found their way into the more northern countries of Europe.' Borrichius informs us, that in Sweden and Norway, the only bread known, so late as the middle of the 16th cen tury, was unleavened cakes kneaded by the women. At Is hat period in our own history the art of baking be came a separate profession, we have not been able to ascertain ; but this profession is now common to all the countries in Europe, and the process of baking is nearly the same in all.
Before we proceed to describe the method of ma king bread now generally practised, it may not be im proper to give some account of the various kinds of bread made use of by the ancients. The Romans dis tinguished their bread by various denominations, accor ding to its various qualities. 1. The finest kind, like our white bread, was made of the purest flour, from a species of wheat called siligo, held in very high estima tion. The siligo of Italy was superior to all others, and the best bread was made of a mixture of siligo of Cam pania, the colour of which inclined to yellow, with the siligo of Pisa in Etruria, whose colour was exceedingly white. This bread was called pants siligineus, and some times panis nzundus, athleticus, isungla, coliphius, and robys. As its price was high, it was used only by the richest class of citizens. 2. Next in purity to this, was the panis secundus, called also smilaceus or smilagineus, which was made of the finest flour, with a slight admix ture of bran. 3. The next kind was the autopyras, some times named syncomastus, and confusaneus, made, like our household bread, of the whole substance of the wheat, without retrenching either the finer flour, or coarser bran. 4. The worst kind of all, was that called penis sordidils, or cacabaccus, so wretchedly bad as to be fit only for dogs; it consisted chiefly of bran, from which circumstance it was called fuiluraceus, .furfureus, or filrfurativus; in the middle ages it was called bissus, on account of its brownness ; and sometimes also lribo.
Other kinds of bread were distinguished by particular names, derived either from the uses to which they were applied, or the manner in which they were made. Such were, 1. Panis militaris, or soldiers bread, which was in general very coarse and ill-baked. The state merely furnished the soldiers with corn, and left them to pre pare it as they pleased. For this purpose, they were generally provided with handmills, in which having ground their corn very coarsely, or in the want of hand mills, having bruised it in a mortar, or between two large stones, they kneaded it with their own hands, and baked it upon the coals We are told by Herodian, that the emperor Caracalla, when along with his army, ate no other bread than that which he himself had baked.
4‘ Triticum enim sua manu molens, quod ipsi satis es set, massamque ex eo conficiens, et in carbonibus co quells, eo vcscebatur." 2. Panis civilis was the bread which, in the latter days of the empire, was distributed to the people, in lieu of the corn which they had former ly been accustomed to receive. This custom seems to have been first introduced by Aurelian. The loaves which he caused to be baked in this manner weighed 25 ounces, and each of the citizens received one of these loaves daily. Succeeding emperors increased their weight to thirty-six ounces ; and under Theodore they were made of six ounces each, six of which were given instead of a large one as formerly, so that the allowance to the people continued the same. From their round shape, these loaves were sometimes called corona', crowns. This bread was likewise called penis fiscalis, because it was paid out of the treasury ; and panis dis f.ensatorius et gradilis, either because it was distributed from an elevated place, or because the people were ranged on the steps of the amphitheatre, or on steps raised on purpose in the market place at Rome, as Con stantine the Great caused to be done at Constantinople. 3. Clibanites, bread baked in an oven, by way of contra to the, 4. Subcineritius, or sub cinerr coccus, that baked under the embers, which was somctimes.also called revcrsatus, because it was necessary to turn it in baking. There was likewise, 5. The penis nauticus, or naval bread, which answered to our sea biscuit, and was called also bis coccus, twice baked, whence the modern word biscuit is derived. 6. Panis inadidus, was a kind of bread which the Romans used as a cosmetic for pre serving the freshness of their complexion, and which they put upon their faces in the form of a mask. This bread was made of the flour of beans and the purest wheat. 7. Panis acidus was a sour bread acidulated with vinegar. 8. Panis az-ymus was bread without leaven, which Celsus has pronounced very good for the sto mach. Two entire loaves, which are still preserved, were found in Herculaneum. Each of these loaves is about a palm and a half in diameter, and about five inches thick. They have both eight cuts or lines on the back ; that is to say, they are first divided into a cross, the four parts of which are intersected by other lines. The ancient Greeks marked flick loaves in the same manner, and hence they are called by Hesiod with eight lines, but sometimes the loaves were divided only in the form of a cross, and they were then denomi nated guadra, a square, and among the Greeks rafaTfvpac, divided into four pieces. Hence the phrase, aliens vi were quadra, to live at another's table. The reason of marking them in this manner seems to have been, that they might be the more easily broken and divided.