Pistor
The Roman word for a baker, the Greek terms being
ἀρτοποιός, “bread-maker,” and
ἀρτοπώλης, “bread-seller.” The Latin term is from
pinso, and means literally “pounder.” Bakers are first
mentioned in Greece in the fifth century B.C., but do not appear in Rome before the early part
of the second century. They were usually freedmen or citizens of the lower class; but, owing
to the importance attached by the State to the trade, it became one of some standing. There
was a
collegium or guild of bakers under Augustus, which
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Baker's Sign found at Pompeii. (Overbeck.)
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served the State, and underTrajan it was formally organized with 100 members and
special privileges. It was under the supervision of the
praefectus
annonae. (See
Annona.) Bread was distributed at
Rome at the public expense, at first monthly, but in the third century daily; and at the
beginning of the fourth century there were 254 public bakeries in the city. These made only
the coarser kinds of bread, the finer sorts being produced at the private establishments.
Baking was sometimes done in furnaces, as in the bake-shop (
pistrina)
excavated at Pompeii; or in the
clibanus, a clay vessel, in which the
dough was placed and then buried in hot ashes (Pet<*>. 35; see
Clibanus). Wheat-bread (
panis
silig<*>eus) was the most common variety, as the ancients thoughtrye (
secale) unfit to eat; and the quality of the flour determined the quality of
the bread. Barley-bread (
panis hordeaceus) was regarded as fit only for
soldiers and slaves (Pliny ,
Pliny H. N. xviii.
74). Spelt (
ζειά,
far) was
sometimes used for making a coarse bread.
The dough for bread was prepared by moistening the flour with water, by adding salt, and
then by kneading (
μάττειν,
subigere,
depsere) in a trough of wood or pottery. In large bakeries it appears to have been done
by a sort of machine, the motive-power of which was supplied by an animal.
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Baker selling Bread. (Pompeian Painting.)
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The leaven (
ζύμη,
fermentum) was
prepared from cakes of barley and water, or from the surplus dough of the preceding day's
batch, which was kneaded with salt, put into water, and kept till it fermented. The dough was
shaped either by hand or in moulds (
artoptae), and then placed in the
oven (
ἰπνός,
furnus) on a shovel (
pala); but was sometimes baked on the hearth in the embers.
Cake and fancy-bread were made in various forms by special confectioners (
πλακουντοποιοί, πεμματουργοί,
clibanarii, dulciarii,
crustularii, etc.), and were much used for sacrificial purposes. On these sweet
preparations, see Athen. xiv. 643 e and f, and Pollux, vi. 75 foll. The sweetening was done
with honey. See Blümner,
Technologie, i. 1 foll.; and id. s. v.
“Bäckerei” in Baumeister's
Denkmäler.