A scandalous history:

I just finished reading A Scandalous History of the Roman Emperors, and I wasn't really scandalised at all. I mean, Tiberius liked little boys, Augustus was sort of a hypocrite, Caligula didn't actually name his horse consul... Maybe it would have been more scandalising if I hadn't already heard it before.

The book did have an interesting section on Roman daily life. It included a discussion of cooking and specifically baked goods, which was had been talking about at mah jongg about a week before. Apparently, the Romans baked bread before discovering yeast, so was it just a flat bread? It's actually called maza, is that related to matzah? How were cakes baked before the use of baking soda? I know that the Romans made filo dough-type pastries, but did they make other cakes?

I don't know why I find the history of baked goods so fascinating, but if anyone knows any of this (or any other interesting tidbits about ancient baking), I'd love to hear it.