en the
kneading-troughs. It contains also a narrow and inconvenient
staircase.

Though corn-bread formed the principal article of nourishment among
the Italians, the use of bread itself was not of early date. For a
long time the Romans used their corn sodden into pap, and there were
no bakers in Rome antecedent to the war against Perseus, king of
Macedonia, about B.C. 580. Before this every house made its own bread,
and this was the task of the women, except in great houses, where
there were men-cooks. And even after the invention of bread it was
long before the use of mills was known, but the grain was bruised in
mortars. Hence the names _pistor_ and _pistrinum_, a baker and baker's
shop, which are derived from _pinsere_, to pound. The oven also was of
late introduction, as we have hinted in speaking of the goddess
Fornax, nor did it ever come into exclusive use. We hear of bread
baked under the ashes; baked in the bread-pan, which was probably of
the nature of a Dutch oven; and other sorts, named either from the
nature of their preparation or the purpose to which they were to be
applied. The finest sort was called _siligineus_, and was prepared
from the best and whitest sort of wheaten flour. A bushel of the best
wheat of Campania, which was of the first quality, containing sixteen
sextarii, yielded four sextarii of siligo, here seemingly used for the
finest flour; half a bushel of _flos_, bolted flour; four sextarii of
_cibarium_, seconds; and four sextarii of bran; thus giving an excess
of four sextarii. Their loaves appear to have been very often baked in
moulds, several of which have been found; these may possibly be
artoptae, and the loaves thus baked, artopticii. Several of these
loaves have been found entire. They are flat, and about eight inches
in diameter. One in the Neapolitan Museum has a stamp on the top:--

SILIGO . CRANII
E . CICER

This has been interpreted to mean that cicer (vetch) was mixed with
the flour. We know from Pliny that the Romans used several sorts of
grain. The cut below gives an idea of their form.

[Illustration: BREAD DISCOVERED IN POMPEII.]

In front of the house, one on each side the doorway, there are two
shops. Neither of these has any communication with the house; it is
inferred, therefore, that they were let out to others, like the shops
belonging to more distinguished persons. This supposition is the more
probable because none of the bakeries found ha