It appears that great attention was paid to the kneeding and the boulting: unboulted meal was called _Syncomista_, and when finely boulted in a woollen cloth, _Semidalis_. The most approved method of baking was in the _Cribanus_ or _Clibanus_, an earthen or iron vessel, which they surrounded with charcoal. Bread according to its superior or inferior quality was consecrated to various divinities. Thus the goddesses used the _Homoros_, and Hecate was served with the _Hemiantium_, but we are unacquainted with the preparation of these varieties. The flour of barley was used by the _Canephorae_, or virgins that bore the sacred baskets in the festivals of Ceres, to sprinkle themselves. Bread according to its particular kind was served up in various ways; wheaten bread was brought to table upon fresh leaves; barley bread upon a layer of reeds. At the feasts of Ceres and Proserpine, a large loaf was kneeded and baked by the ladies of Delos, called _Achainas_ which gave the name to the festival, instituted most probably in Achaia, to commemorate the invention of bread, which Ceres taught to Eumelus, a citizen of Patrae. Barley for the preparation of bread was used long before wheat or any other sort of corn, and hence Artemidorus calls it _Antiquissimum in cibis_. It was also given to the athletae who were thence called _Hordearii_. In latter times it was chiefly given to cattle, although used by the poorer classes. Barley bread was also issued to soldiers as a punishment, the loss of wheaten bread being considered a great privation. Vegetius tells us that soldiers who had been guilty of any offence were thus punished--"_hordeum pro frumentuo cogebantur accipere_." In the second Punic war we find Marcellus sentencing the cohorts that had lost their standards to this infliction. Suetonius also informs us that Augustus only allowed barley to the troops that had misbehaved in action. _Cohortes, si quae cepissent, loco, decimatas hordeo pavit._ But there is reason to believe that under the head of bread were included various kinds of cakes, many of which were prepared with honey, some of them were called _Placentae omnigenae_, and were prepared by bakers who bore the name of _pistores dulciarii_. This honied bread or cake it appears, was frequently resorted to, as in the present day, to quiet troublesome children as well as to please the taste of fastidious patients. Thus Martial: Leniat ut fauces medicus, quas aspera vexat Assidue tussis, Parthenopae tibi Mella dari, nucleosque jubet dulcesque placentas. Est quidquid pueros non sinit esse truces, At tu non cessas totis tussire diebus Non est haec tussis, Parthenopae gula est. The bread made of spring wheat was called _Collabus_, and the Athenians considered a toasted _Collabus_ eaten with a slice of a pig's belly, the very best cure for a surfeit occasioned by an excess in anchovies, especially the Phalerian ones, which were deemed fit for the gods.