2. With regard to the food, it is probable that in Sparta much had been retained from ancient usage, and that the rest had been from its first origin peculiar to the nation. The profession of cook at Sparta was, as we have already remarked, hereditary,(1308) and consequently they had no inducement to vie with one another in the delicacy and luxury of their dishes: they cooked the black broth, as their ancestors had done before them. It was likewise more difficult to make dishes of various ingredients, on account of the division of the different departments of cookery; for instance, some cooks were only allowed to dress flesh, others to make broth,(1309) &c. The bakers, whose trade also was hereditary, generally baked nothing but barley-bread (ἄλφιτα);(1310) wheaten bread was only eaten at the dessert of the public tables, when presented by liberal individuals.(1311) The latter kind of bread was originally scarce in Greece, whither it was introduced chiefly from Sicily;(1312) in which country they had also a particular kind of Doric wheaten bread, of coarser meal than was common elsewhere.(1313) The chief dish of meat at the public tables was the black broth (μέλας ζωμὸς);(1314) also pork,(1315) the meat being subjected to stricter regulations than any other kind of food.(1316) Poultry and game were generally eaten after dinner: beef, pork, and kid, were chiefly supplied by the sacrifices, which upon the whole were an exception to the Phiditia.(1317) Their mode of drinking was also that of the ancient Greeks; which, as far as I am aware, is only mentioned in Homer. Before each person was placed a cup, which was filled by the cup-bearer with mixed wine, when it had been emptied; the wine was however never passed round, and no person drank to another; which were Lydian customs introduced by the Ionians.(1318) Both in Sparta and Crete it was forbidden by law to drink to intoxication;(1319) and no persons were lighted home except old men of sixty.(1320)