From 'Der kleine
Pauly, Lexikon der Antike' I want to add:
1. Hordeum, barley, was planted in Greek in the earliest time, because it was growing in this region better than the early wheat. In Attika f.e. there was in the 4th century ten times so much barley than wheat. Then peu a peu it was replaced by nude-wheat, for this has more proteins. Today in Attika there is only one third of barley and two third of wheat! Barley now ist often for feeding
animals.
2. Triticum, wheat, was the main grain in
Italy. There were two variants, nude-wheat and spelted(?)-wheat (with long hairs!),
lat. = far. The nude-wheat slowly replaced the spelted(?)-wheat, especially when the hexaploid form of wheat was cultivated. In the Imperial times this form, called
lat. siligo, was the main form for bread. So with the name
lat. frumentum =
corn, this hexaploid nude-wheat was meant. I think the famous 'corn-ears' hanging out of a
modius are from this form too!
3. Sicale, rye:
North of the Alpes mountains the weather and the climate was so cold and wet, that the growing conditions for wheat were too bad. Therefore from the North- and the Baltic Sea rye,
lat. sicale or secale, spread out southwards to the Alpes. Only when
winter resistent wheat forms were cultivated the
area under rye cultivation goes back again to the northern parts of Europe.
Please excuse my English, I
had to translate it from
German and many special words I couldn't find in my dictionary!
Regards,
Jochen
