ARINCA, AND OTHER KINDS OF GRAIN THAT ARE GROWN IN THE EAST

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Frumenti genera non eadem ubique nec, ubi eadem sunt, isdem nominibus. volgatissima ex his atque pollentissima far, quod adoreum veteres appellavere, siligo, triticum. haec plurimis terris communia. arinca Galliarum propria, copiosa et Italiae est, Aegypto autem ac Syriae Ciliciaeque et Asiae ac Graeciae peculiares zea, oryza, tiphe. Aegyptus similaginem conficit e tritico suo nequaquam Italicae parem. qui zea utuntur non habent far. est et haec ltaliae, in Campania maxime, semenque appellatur. hoc habet nomen res praeclara, ut mox docebimus, propter quam Homerusζείδωρος ἄρουρα dixit, non, ut aliqui arbitrantur, quoniam vitam donaret. amylum quoque ex ea fit priore crassius; haec sola differentia est. ex omni genere durissimum far et contra hiemes firmissimum. patitur frigidissimos locos et minus subactos vel aestuosos sitientesque. primus antiquis Latii cibus, magno argumento in adoriae donis, sicuti diximus. pulte autem, non pane, vixisse longo tempore Romanos manifestum, quoniam et pulmentaria hodieque dicuntur et Ennius, antiquissimus vates, obsidionis famem exprimens offam eripuisse plorantibus liberis patres commemorat. et hodie sacra prisca atque natalium pulte fitilla conficiuntur, videturque tam puls ignota Graeciae fuisse quam Italiae polenta.

<1> Tritici semine avidius nullum est nec quod plus alimenti trahat. siliginem proprie dixerim tritici delicias candore sive virtute sive pondere. conveniens umidis tractibus, quales Italiae sunt et Galliae Comatae, sed trans Alpes in Allobrogum tantum Remorumque agro pertinax, in ceteris ibi partibus biennio in triticum transit. remedium, ut gravissima quaeque grana eius serantur.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

The several kinds of corn are not everywhere the same; and even where they are the same, they do not always bear a similar name. The kinds most universally grown are spelt, by the ancients known as “adorea,” winter wheat, and wheat; all these being common to many countries. Arinca was originally peculiar to Gaul, though now it is widely diffused over Italy as well. Egypt, too, Syria, Cilicia, Asia, and Greece, have their own peculiar kinds, known by the names of zea, olyra, and tiphe. In Egypt, they make a fine flour from wheat of their own growth, but it is by no means equal to that of Italy. Those countries which employ zea, have no spelt. Zea, however, is to be found in Italy, and in Campania more particularly, where it is known by the name of “seed.” The grain that bears this name enjoys a very considerable celebrity, as we shall have occasion to state on another occasion; and it is in honour of this that Homer uses the expression, ζείδωρος ἄρουρα, and not, as some suppose, from the fact of the earth giving life. Amylum is made, too, from this grain, but of a coarser quality than the kind already mentioned; this, however, is the only difference that is perceptible.

The most hardy kind, however, of all the grains is spelt, and the best to stand the severity of the weather; it will grow in the very coldest places, as also in localities that are but half tilled, or soils that are extremely hot, and destitute of water. This was the earliest food of the ancient inhabitants of Latium; a strong proof of which is the distributions of adorea that were made in those times, as already stated. It is evident, too, that the Romans subsisted for a long time upon pottage, and not bread; for we find that from its name of “puls,” certain kinds of food are known, even at the present day, as “pulmentaria.” Ennius, too, the most ancient of our poets, in describing the famine in a siege, relates how that the parents snatched away the messes of pottage from their weeping children. At the present day, even, the sacrifices in conformity with the ancient rites, as well as those offered upon birthdays, are made with parched pottage. This food appears to have been as much unknown in those days in Greece as polenta was in Italy.

There is no grain that displays a greater avidity than wheat, and none that absorbs a greater quantity of nutriment. With all propriety I may justly call winter wheat the very choicest of all the varieties of wheat. It is white, destitute of all flavour, and not oppressive to the stomach. It suits moist localities particularly well, such as we find in Italy and Gallia Comata; but beyond the Alps it is found to maintain its character only in the territory of the Allobroges and that of the Memini; for in the other parts of those countries it degenerates at the end of two years into common wheat. The only method of preventing this is to take care and sow the heaviest grains only.