The Roman emperor Julian (332–363 CE) called bread the food that “among us is thought to be the most nourishing”.

Bread and other cereal-based foods were indeed central to ancient Mediterranean diets. This was supplemented by pulses, oil, wine and whatever seasonal produce people could obtain.

This is not quite the “Mediterranean diet” we think of today, with its vegetables, olive oil and grilled fish.

Although bread was fundamental to Julian’s Roman world, it wasn’t universally appealing. The Ethiopians, who lived on meat and milk, thought bread was terrible food that lacked nourishment.

They wondered how the Mediterraneans could live on this “diet of dung”.

The physician Galen (129–216 CE), provides our fullest account of the ancient Mediterranean diet.

In his book On the Properties of Foodstuffs, he first discusses cereals and pulses, then plants, and finally animal foods and fish. Wheat was, he says, the most widely used and “valuable” food.

Bread was not merely an accompaniment. For many people it supplied the bulk of a meal. Galen distinguishes between different types of bread. The finest white bread was “the most nourishing”. Bran bread ranked lowest, though Galen suggested it emptied the bowels more effectively.

Preparation mattered too. The best bread was “most leavened and very well kneaded” and baked “with moderate heat”.

An excessively hot oven produced a crust that was “dry and like pottery” while leaving the centre raw. Completely unleavened bread, Galen........

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