Very often leaven was procured from dough just made. A piece was taken from the mass previous to salt being added; it was then left to turn sour, and might be used the next day. The celebrated naturalist who supplies these details, tells us that, in his time, the Gauls and Spaniards, after having made a drink from wheat, saved the scum to raise the dough, and that their bread was the lightest of all.[IV-58] It would be difficult to form an idea of the prodigious luxury which Rome introduced into an aliment so common, and of such universal use as bread. Its name, its form, and flavour indicated the various ranks of society to which it belonged.[IV-59] There was the senator’s bread, that of the knights, of the citizens, of the people, and that of the peasants.[IV-60] Let us go together under the vast galleries supported by those magnificent arcades.[IV-61] The _ediles_ have preceded us; they are visiting the shops;[IV-62] it is the _Forum Pistrinum_, or bread-market. The year is good: a _septier_ (five bushels) of wheat is only twenty-five shillings,[IV-63] and provisions of all kinds abound in Rome. Foreigners, also, are here, attracted by curiosity; for Vespasian is preparing to deposit with solemnity the spoils of Jerusalem in the temple of Peace.[IV-64] In the middle of the inclosure you see the statue of Vesta, the goddess worshipped by bakers.[IV-65] In the front, and round the gallery, those open stalls are loaded with a number of round loaves of the same form and weight: they are all five inches in thickness; the top is divided by eight notches--that is to say, they are first divided across, and the four parts are again subdivided.[IV-66] These lines are made in the dough, so that they may be more easily broken. The Roman gentry and shopkeepers give the preference to this sort of household bread, simply composed of flour, water, and salt.[IV-67] You perceive, here and there, several baskets, full of heavy biscuits; they are called _autopyron_; it is a coarse, black food, composed of bran mixed with a little flour, and made expressly for the dogs and slaves.[IV-68] Do you see that colossal-looking man, with enormous limbs, who is walking about with an air of stupidity, and whose small head is covered with scars? The dealers know his profession, and one of them offers him the _athletæ’s_ bread; it is kneaded, without leaven, with soft, white curd cheese, and is a coarse, heavy food, which that class of people seem to partake of with great delight.[IV-69] That stout baker before us occupies two of the most spacious shops in the market, on the left of the statue; he is one of the richest members of the corporation, and is the principal purveyor for the camp and army. Those large sacks, placed before him with so much symmetry, contain the _buccellatum_ biscuit, or dried bread for the troops.[IV-70]