It is enough to mention milk and various kinds of cheese, of which the Alpine was the most famous (smoked cheese being also in demand), and honey.
17. Markets and retail dealers. — The various kinds of food were to be obtained in the large /ora, or markets, but probably most of the business done in them was wholesale, at least in the great cities. From the fora retail dealers in all kinds of food obtained their supplies. Marquardt (Privatlcben der Homer, p. 44811".) divides these retail dealers into ten classes : («) corn-dealers, bakers, and mil- lers ; (6) greengrocers; (c) fruiterers; (d) butchers, game-dealers, and poulterers ; (e) fishmongers ; (/) wine-merchants; (<;) oil-dealers; (A) honey-dealers; (i) salt-merchants ; {j) cooks and innkeepers.
18. Textile fabrics. — (a) Production of wool. — We pass now to textile fabrics. By far the most important were those made from the wool
of sheep, the earliest use of which is prehistoric, like the arts of s])inning and weaving. Great care was shown in the breeding of sheep, and the varieties of wool, which was in .some cases pre- pared on the spot, and in others exported as rough material, were very numerous. Diflerent breeds of sheep were valued according to the fineness or thickness of their w'ool, or according to their colour. Cross-breeding was freely employed to improve the quality of any particular wool. The best Italian wool was that from Tarentum, and the epithet Tarentine thus became a trade description for fine wool. On being obtained, commonly by shearing, sometimes by plucking, the wool was prepared for the spinner. Almost all the processes connected with wool were carried out by the women of the household from the beginning down to the Middle Ages. It was the Roman matron's proudest boast that she lanaiii fecit. In fact, a very large amount of the clothing used bj' the Romans and the ancients generally was made in the house. Costly carpets, hangings, coverlets, etc., were naturally manufactured by experts in factories. With the progress of time factories got more and more of the manufacture of clothing also to do. The wool was washed in hot water with soap, then spread out to dry, then picked and carded. All these jjrocesses were a necessary preparation for spinning and weaving.
(b) Fidling. — Fulling (cf. Mk 9^) was a very important trade in ancient times, both in the pre- paration of a new fabric and in the cleaning of soiled clothes. Only the simplest washing was done at home, except in very large houses. A number of gilds of fullers, as of other trades, are meiftioned. It appears that water, for which they paid speci- ally, was a necessary part of their equipment, and that they did not employ ' dry-cleaning,' at least exclu.sively. Soap, ' fuller's earth,' and sulphur were also used. Cutting and pressing concluded their work.
(c) Preparation of stuffs. — The same processes essentially were employed with flax (linen, Rev 15«; cf. Ac 10", Lk 24'^ Jn W\ etc.), cotton, hemp, and other vegetable stuffs, as also with silk, etc. Flax was treated much as it is to-day. Rough linen was used for bath-towels, ordinary towels, etc., while it is generally believed that tine linen is indicated by the word ^iauos. Cotton, or tree- wool, as the Greeks, like the Germans, call it, came from a plant which Avas in ancient times indigenous only in East India and Upper Egypt, and it seems to have been prepared specially on the spot. Of its preparation we in consequence know almost nothing. Greeks and Romans did not use hemp for weaving, hut the Thracians are recorded by Herodotus to have done so. The fibres of the wild mallow were woven into garments probably only on the banks of the Indus, but these garments were known to the Romans for a long period. Silk as a material for clothing has been referred to above (13 (c)). Of skins used by the ancients, goat- skin was the most important. Especially in Spain, Africa (near the Syrtes), Phrygia, and Cilicia it was the custom to shear the long-haired goats and to weave rough material out of the hair. From the chief place of manufacture (Cilicia) fabrics of such material were known among the Romans as cilicia (St. Paul's 'tents' may have been made of this stuff, Ac IS'), while the Greeks gave them the name of aaKKo^. Out of it were made cloaks, towels, bed-covers, hangings, shoes, and sacks.
19. Sewing. — Sewing did not in ancient times play the part with which we are now familiar. It was mostly in the addition of extra parts to a garment already woven practically complete that sewing was employed. The modern practice of weaving a whole bale of cloth, out of which a
TKADK AND COJBIEKCE
TRADE AND CO.MMERCE 607
number of dill'erent garments are to be cut, was not known to tlie imcionts. Among tbo Kouians the use of the needle woulil appear to have been eomnioni'sl with leather; otherwise it is ditlieult to uiulerstand how .v»y()r (' sewer ') came to mean ' shoeniaUor.' Needles of various sizes and thiiubles were in use. An important part of ancient industry was the manufacture of cushions and bolsters, wliich were more extensively used than among ourselves, not only for sofas and beds, but also for seats of all kinds. The covers were of linen, wool, or leather, and tlie stuthng, which was in early times, and later also anu)ng humble iieo|)le, straw, consisted at a later period also of rushes, seaweed, tufts of reeds, and soft leaves of plants, the com- monest being Hocks of wool, cotton, and feathers. Horsehair was never used. Embroidery of various kinds was practised, especially in I'hrygia. For the making of felt, .sheep-wool in particular was used.