This is Volume 4 of Pliny the Elder's Natural History in Bohn's Classical Library, an encyclopedic survey of ancient agriculture and grain. Translated by John Bostock and H. T. Riley, it covers cereals, bread-making, land management, and farm practices. It is worth reading for a window into Roman practical knowledge and daily life.
For teachers and schools: paste the code into your site or blog.
Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
BOHN’S CLASSICAL LIBRARY. NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY. VOL. IV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY. TRANSLATED, WITH COPIOUS NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE LATE JOHN BOSTOCK, M.D., F.R.S., AND H. T. RILEY, EǪǟ., B.A., LATE SCHOLAR OF CLARE HALL, CAMBRIDGE. VOL. IV. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCLVI.
CONTENTS OF THE FOURTH VOLUME.
BOOK XVIII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF GRAIN. CƒĵǙ. Page 1. Taste of the ancients for agriculture 1 2. When the first wreaths of corn were used at Rome 3 3. The jugerum of land 4 4. How often and on what occasions corn has sold at a remarkably low price 7 5. Illustrious men who have written upon agriculture 9 6. Points to be observed in buying land 11 7. The proper arrangements for a farm-house 13 8. Maxims of the ancients on agriculture 16 9. The different kinds of grain 19 10. The history of the various kinds of grain ib. 11. Spelt 24 12. Wheat 25 13. Barley: rice 27 14. Polenta 28 15. Ptisan 29 16. Tragum ib. 17. Amylum ib. 18. The nature of barley 30 19. Arinca, and other kinds of grain that are grown in the East 31 20. Winter wheat. Similago, or fine flour 32 21. The fruitfulness of Africa in wheat 35 22. Sesame. Erysimum or irio. Horminum 36 23. The mode of grinding corn ib. 24. Millet 38 25. Panic ib. 26. The various kinds of leaven ib. 27. The method of making bread: origin of the art 39
Readnara
