II  THE    LOWER   POPULATION  49

grain  in  a  mortar  {^j^incere)^  soon  became  a  very
important  and  flourishing  section  of  the  plebs,  though
never  held  in  high  repute  ;  and  in  connexion  with
the  distributions  of  corn  some  of  them  probably  rose
above  the  level  of  the  small  tradesman,  like  the  'pistor
redemptor,  Marcus  Vergilius  Eurysaces,  whose  monu-
ment has  come  down  to  us.^  It  should  be  noted
that  the  trade  of  the  baker  included  the  grinding  of
the  corn ;  there  were  no  millers  at  Rome.  This  can
be  well  illustrated  from  the  numerous  bakers'  shops
which  have  been  excavated  at  Pompeii.^  In  one  of
these,  for  example,  we  find  the  four  mills  in  a  large
apartment  at  the  rear  of  the  building,  and  close
by  is  the  stall  for  the  donkeys  that  turned  them,
and  also  the  kneading- room,  oven,  and  store-room.
Small  bakeries  may  have  had  only  hand-mills,  like
the  one  with  which  we  saw  the  peasant  in  the
Moretum  grinding  his  corn ;  but  the  donkey  was
from  quite  early  times  associated  with  the  business,
as  we  know  from  the  fact  that  at  the  festival  of
Vesta,  the  patron  deity  of  all  bakers,  they  were
decorated  with  wreaths  and  cakes.^

The  baking  trade  must  have  given  employment
to  a  large  number  of  persons.  So  beyond  doubt  did
the  supply  of  vegetables,  which  were  brought  into
the  city  from  gardens  outside,  and  formed,  after  the
corn,  the  staple  food  of  the  lower  classes.     We  have

^  C.I.L.  i.  1013.     The  date  is  possibly  pre- Augustan.
2  Mau's  Povipcii,  p.  380.
*  See  Rovfian  Festivals,  p.  148.     For  the  mills  of  various  kiuds  see  also
Marquardt,  Privathben,  p.  405.
