PISTOR
PISTOR (
ἀπτοποιός), a baker.
Both with the Greeks and Romans the bread was originally prepared and baked
at home. In large households this practice was long continued. In the
Hellenistic period and under the Roman Empire there were numerous slaves
skilled as bakers and confectioners (cf.
Ath.
3.112 c); and several of the private houses at Pompeii have
baking-rooms on the premises (see Overbeck-Mau,
Pompeii, 4th ed., pp. 301, 385, Casa di Sallustio; pp. 328 f.,
386, Casa di Paus.; p. 343, Casa del Laberinto) There is no mention of the
baker's trade in Homer. The flour mentioned in the Homeric poems is of two
kinds: coarse barley-flour (
ἄλφιτα) and
wheat-flour (
ἀλείατα =
ἄλευρα). It was from the latter that bread was
generally made (see Buchholz,
Die hom. Realien, ii. pt. 1, p.
108 f.; ii. pt. 2, p. 168 f.; cp. Riedenauer,
Handwerk in den horn.
Zeiten, § 5). Schliemann (
Troja, p. 44;
Ilios, pp. 234, 235)
appears to assert that grain could not have been made into bread into
Homeric times, but it is difficult to see the grounds for such a view. The
Homeric words for bread are
σῖτος, ἄρτος,
and
πύρνον (specially wheaten-bread).
Ἄρτος seems to signify the baked
loaves;
σῖτος is a more general term, used
e. g. for food in opposition to drink.
At Athens as early as the 5th century B.C. we find working-bakers (
ἀρτοκόποι) who sold their wares in the market
and streets through female vendors (
ἀρτοπώλιδες), who enjoyed a reputation for abusive language
(
Aristoph. Frogs 858;
Vesp. 1389, &c.). At Rome (according to Pliny,
Plin. Nat. 18.107) there was no baker's
trade till about B.C. 172. Many freedmen are found engaged in the trade, and
under the Republic it was one of the duties of the aediles to see that the
bread was properly prepared and correct in weight. A bakers' guild (
corpus or
collegium
pistorum), which long existed, was organised by Trajan, and this
body, through its connexion with the
cura
annonae, became of much importance and enjoyed various privileges.
There were guilds of
pistores and
clibanarii at Pompeii (Overbeck-Mau,
Pompeii, 4th ed., p. 470). A great increase in the
number of bakeries (
pistrinae, officinae pistoriae）
afterwards took place at Rome, owing probably to the action of Aurelian in
introducing a daily distribution of bread instead of the old monthly
distribution of grain that had been usual since the time of the Gracchi.
This daily distribution also took place at Constantinople. The businesses of
the miller and baker were usually combined: cf.
Serv. ad Aen. 1.179 (
pistores, pinsores, from
pinsere, to
pound the grain); and authorities in Blümner,
Technol. i. p. 16, note.
Confectioners and makers of the finer kinds of bread-stuff are distinguished
by various names, as
πλακουντοποιός, πεμματουργός,
ποπανοποιός,
pistores candidarii (Orelli, 4263),
siliqutiarii (
C. I. L. 6.22),
clibanarii (
C. I. L. 4.677),
(
pistor)
Persianus (Orelli, 4264; cf.
Plin.
Nat. 18.105),
dulciarii (
Mart. 14.222, &c.),
libcarii, crustularii (Senec.
Ep. 56, 2),
fictores (makers of sacrificial cakes), &c.
The cakes and confectionery of the pastrycooks had already a literature of
their own in antiquity, and are described in Athenaeus,
14.643 e, f, and Pollux, 6.75 if. Some were made
specially for religious festivals and sacrifices (see Lobeck,
De Graecorum placentis sacris).
A Pompeian painting (Jahn,
Abh. der Sächs. Ges. der
Wissensch. v. pl. 3 = Baumeister,
Denkhmäler,
“Bäckerei,” fig. 225) shows us a baker's shop-table or
counter, and shelves behind piled with loaves of circular form. The shopman
[p. 2.431]sits raised up behind the counter, giving a
loaf to a customer. A baker's shop at Pompeii has as its sign a relief of a
mill turned by a mule (Overbeck-Mau,
op. cit., p.
379, fig. 186). The plan of a bakery at Pompeii is given in Overbeck-Mau,
op. cit., p. 386, fig. 189 (cf. also the view,
ib. p. 385, fig. 188). The working-rooms are there situated in the back part
of a tolerably large building. Four large mills have been found there, and
on the right is the oven, connected with two rooms, in one of which the
kneading of the dough probably took place. Other rooms in the house are
shops, sleeping-apartments, &c.
Wheat was the grain chiefly used for bread by the Greeks and Romans. Barley
was also used, but at Rome barley-bread (
pants
hordeaceus) was the food only of slaves, soldiers, and barbarians (cf.
Plin. Nat. 18.74). Spelt (
ζειά,
far) was also sometimes used for bread,
especially by the Romans at an early period A coarse bread was made from
alica, a kind of spelt (corresponding to
the Greek
χόνδρος), which was grown in
Verona, Campania, and many parts of Italy (cf.
Plin. Nat. 18.106). Rye (
secale）
was considered unwholesome by the Romans.
As with us, several kinds of flour were produced from the same grain,
differing according to the action of the mill and the use of sieves
(
κύσκινα, κρησέραι, ξριβρα of greater
or less fineness. Bread made of pure and finely sifted wheat-flour was,
called by the Greeks
ἀλευρίτης, γυρίτης,
κρησερίτης, &c., and was described as
“white” bread (
λευκός,
καθαρός). By the Romans the bread made of pure wheat-flour (
simila, similago) was called
panis siligineus. If the bran was mixed with the wheat-flour,
the bread was called by the Greeks
συγκομιστός,
αὐτόπυρος, πύρνον (or
πιτυρίας = bread of bran only), and was spoken of as
ἀκάθαρτος, ῥυπαρός &c. By the Romans,
bread made of coarse flour or of flour with the bran was called
panis cibarius, plebeius, castrensis, sordidus, rusticus,
secundus, furfureus, &c.
The dough was prepared by moistening the flour with water (Senec.
Ep. 90, &c.), by adding salt, and by careful kneading
(
μάττω, φυράω,
subigo, depso) in a kneading-trough (
μάκτρα, μαγίς σκάφη, κάρδοπος,
alveus), which was generally made of wood, but
sometimes of stone or pottery (Phot. p. 243, 17, s. v.
μακτρα). The kneading seems usually to have been done with
the hand, though from some monumental representations (see Blümner,
Technol. i. p. 63) it would appear that a simple machine
worked by men or by an animal was sometimes used for the work.
Both fermented and unfermented bread were known to the ancients, but the
fermented was the kind usually made. The leaven (
ζύμη, ζύμωμα,
fermentum) for mixing with the dough was
produced in several ways (see
Plin. Nat.
18.102, &c.). If required in small quantities for immediate
use, it was prepared from cakes of barley and water which were roasted on
the hearth, and then put in covered vessels till the fermentation took
place; or, the baked dough from the previous day's baking was taken and
kneaded with salt, and a decoction made from it, which was allowed to stand
till it became fermented, Leaven in large quantities, which could be kept
for a year, was made during the vintage time by kneading millet with must,
or by kneading wheat-bran with must and drying it in the sun. The dough when
prepared was placed on a board and shaped, generally with the hand, but
sometimes in moulds (
artoptae). It was then by
means of a shovel (
pala) placed in the oven
(
ἰπνός,
furnus: for the shape cf. an oven at Pompeii,
Overbeck-Maun, 4th ed., fig. 192; Blümner,
Technol.
1.65, 66). The dough was occasionally baked on the hearth among the embers,
or on a spit; or it was sometimes placed in a vessel (
κλίβανος or
κρίβανος),
usually of pottery, provided with a cover and pierced with small holes. Hot
embers were then heaped up round it till the heat penetrated.
The loaves of the Greeks and Romans were usually flat, circular, and indented
into four or more parts (
ἄτρος βλωμιαῖος,
τετράτρνφος,
 |
|
Loaves found at Pompeii.
|
panis qsuadratus). Loaves were also made in other
forms, such as cubes (
κύβοι). The shape of
the Roman loaf is well known to us from the Pompeian paintings, and from
actual specimens discovered at Pompeii (Baumeister,
Denkmäler,
“Bäckerei,” fig. 225; Overbeck-Mau,
op. cit., p. 385).
A representation of the bread-making processes is to be found on the relief
of the tombstone of Eurysaces, a large baker at Rome of the Augustan period
or earlier (
Monum. d. Inst. 2.58; 0. Jahn,
Annali, x. p. 231 if.;
C. I. L. i. n.
1013-1017). Here is shown the grinding of the corn, the sifting of the
flour, the kneading and shaping of the dough, the depositing of the dough in
the oven, and finally the bringing out of the loaves in baskets to be
weighed.
（
Authorities.--Full references to the ancient authorities are
given in an excellent chapter of Blümner's
Technologie, 1.1 if.; see also Mommsen-Marquardt,
Handbuch der röm. Alt. vii. p. 398 ff, and
Blümner, art. “Bäckerei” in Baumeister's
Denkmäler.）
[W--K W--H.]
