Alica is prepared from the grain called zea, which we have already mentioned[237] as being known to us as “seed” wheat. The grain is cleansed in a wooden mortar, for fear lest stone, from its hardness, should have the effect of grating it. The motive power for raising the pestle, as is generally known, is supplied by slaves working in chains, the end of it being enclosed in a case of iron. After the husks have been removed by this process, the pure grain is broken to pieces, the same implements being employed. In this way, there are three different kinds of alica made, the finest, the seconds, and the coarse, which last is known as “aphærema.”[238] Still, however, these various kinds have none of them that whiteness as yet for which they are so distinguished, though even now they are preferable to the Alexandrian alica. With this view—a most singular fact—chalk[239] is mixed with the meal, which, upon becoming well incorporated with it, adds very materially to both the whiteness and the shortness[240] of the mixture. This chalk is found between Puteoli and Neapolis, upon a hill called Leucogæum;[241] and there is still in existence a decree of the late Emperor Augustus, (who established a colony at Capua), which orders a sum of twenty thousand sesterces to be paid annually from his exchequer to the people of Neapolis, for the lease of this hill. His motive for paying this rent, he stated, was the fact that the people of Campania had alleged that it was impossible to make their alica without the help of this mineral. In the same hill, sulphur is found as well, and the springs of Araxus issue from its declivities, the waters of which are particularly efficacious for strengthening the sight, healing wounds, and preventing the teeth from becoming loose. A spurious kind of alica is made, more particularly of a degenerate kind of zea grown in Africa; the ears of it are larger and blacker than those of the genuine kind, and the straw is short. This grain is pounded with sand, and even then it is with the greatest difficulty that the outer coats are removed; when stripped, the grain fills one half only of the original measure. Gypsum, in the proportion of one fourth, is then sprinkled[242] over it, and after the mixture has been well incorporated, it is bolted through a meal-sieve. The portion that remains behind, after this is done, is known as “excepticia,”[243] and consists of the coarser parts; while that which has passed through is submitted to a second process, with a finer sieve; and that which then refuses to pass has the name of “secundaria.”[244] That, again, which, in a similar manner, is submitted to a third sifting, with a sieve of the greatest fineness, which will only admit of sand passing through it, is known as “cribraria,”[245] when it remains on the top of the sieve.