Hordeum, barley.[II_4] The flour of this corn was the food of the Jewish soldiers.[II_5] It was, with the Athenians, a favourite dish, but among the Romans an ignominious food. Augustus threatened the cohorts that, should they not fight bravely, he would punish every tenth man with death, and give the remainder barley for food.[II_6] This corn was certainly in use among the Egyptians in the time of Moses, since one of the plagues which afflicted that people was the loss of the barley in the ear before it came to maturity.[II_7]
Panicum, panic grass.[II_8] Certain inhabitants of Thrace and of the borders of the Euxine, or Black Sea, preferred this to all other food.[II_9]
Millium, millet, was used for making excellent cakes.[II_10]
Secale, rye.[II_11] Pliny thinks this grain detestable, and only good to appease extreme hunger.[II_12]
Avena, oats.[II_13] Virgil had but very little esteem for this grain.[II_14] The Romans cut it in the spring for the cattle to eat green; and the Germans, in the time of Pliny, took great care in its cultivation, and made a pulp of it which they thought excellent.[II_15]
Oryza, rice. Pliny[II_16] and Dioscorides[II_17] class it with the wheats; whereas Galen, on the contrary, places it among vegetables.
Rice was rather scarce in Greece at the time when Theophrastus lived: it had lately been brought from India, 286 years before Christ.
The ancients considered it most nutritious and fattening.[II_18]
Zea, spelt, or rice wheat,[II_19] equally esteemed by Greeks and Latins.[II_20]
Sesamum, sesame. Pliny classes this among the seeds sown in March,[II_21] and Columella places it among the vegetables.[II_22] The Romans knew how to prepare this corn in a manner at once wholesome and agreeable. They made it into very dainty cakes, which were served at dessert,[II_23] whence sprang the saying sesame cakes, which was applied to those sweet and flattering expressions called honied words (in French, paroles sucrées).[II_24]