Chapter 458

1254See B. iii. c. 22, and B. xvii. c.3. Pucinum was in Istria, and the district is said still to produce good wine; according to Dalechamps, the place is called Pizzino d’Istria.

1255The hills of Setia, looking down on the Pomptine Marshes: now Sezza, the wine of which is of no repute.

1256See B. iii. c. 9.

1257See B. iii. c. 9. Between Fundi and Setia; a locality now of no repute for its wines. In B. xxiii. c. 19, Pliny says, that the Cæcuban vine was extinct: but in B. xvii. c.3, he says that in the Pomptine Marshes it was to be found.

1258This was the case, it has been remarked, with Madeira some years ago.

1259This is the most celebrated of all the ancient wines, as being more especially the theme of the poets.

1260See B. xi. c.97. The wines of the Falernian district are no longer held in any esteem; indeed, all the Campanian wines are sour, and of a disagreeable flavour.

1261It appears to have been exceedingly rich in alcohol.

1262But in B. xxiii. c. 20, he assigns the first rank to the Albanum; possibly, however, as a medicinal wine. The wines of Latium are no longer held in esteem.

1263See B. xxiii. c. 21.

1264From Surrentum, the promontory forming the southern horn of the Bay of Naples. Ovid and Martial speak in praise of these wines; they were destitute of richness and very dry, in consequence of which they required twenty-five years to ripen.

1265Or “dead vinegar.” “Vappa” was vinegar exposed to the air, and so destitute of its properties, and quite insipid.

1266Excellent wines are still produced in the vicinity of this place. Massicum was one of the perfumed wines. Gaurus itself produced the “Gauranum,” in small quantity, but of high quality, full-bodied and thick.

1267For the Calenian Hills, see B. iii. c. 9; see also B. xxiii. c. 12, for some further account of the wines of Stata. The wines of that district are now held in no esteem.

1268From Fundi. See B. iii. c. 9.

1269Now Castel del Volturno: although covered with vineyards, its wines are of no account. This wine always tasted as if mixed with some foreign substance.

1270Now Piperno. It was a thin and pleasant wine.

1271Now Segni, in the States of the Church.

1272Written to the Senate, also to Cicero. We learn from Suetonius that they were partly written in cipher.

1273Messina, at the present day, exports wines of very good quality, and which attain a great age.

1274It was sound, light, and not without body.

1275“Lagenæ.” The same spot, now Taormina in Sicily, between Catania and Messina, still produces excellent wines.

1276See B. iii. c. 18. Fée says that this is thought to have been the wine of Syrol, of last century, grown near Ancona.

1277“Palma.” Notwithstanding this suggestion, it is more generally supposed that they had their name from the place called Palma, near Marano, on the Adriatic. Its wines are still considered of agreeable flavour.

1278The wines of modern Cezena enjoy no repute, owing, probably, to the mode of making them.

1279Probably so called because it was brought into fashion by Mæcenas.

1280See Georg. ii. 95. The wines of the Tyrol, the ancient Rhætia, are still considered as of excellent quality.

1281Of Adria, or the Adriatic Sea.

1282See B. iii. c. 20. These wines are of little repute.

1283In Latium. See B. iii. c. 9.

1284From Graviscæ. See B. iii. c. 8.

1285See B. ii. c. 96, B. iii. c. 9, and B. xxxvi. c. 49.

1286The wines of Genoa are of middling quality only, and but little known.

1287Or “juicy” wine.

1288Now Beziers, in the south of France. The wines of this part are considered excellent at the present day. That of Frontignan grows in its vicinity. Fée is inclined to think, from Pliny’s remarks here, that the ancients and the moderns differed entirely in their notions as to what constitutes good or bad wine.

1289He means, beyond modern Provence, and Languedoc: districts famous for their excellent wines, more particularly the latter.

1290Fée deems all this quite incredible. Our English experience, however, tells us that it is by no means so; much of the wine that is drunk in this country is indebted for flavour as well as colour to anything but the grape.

1291The wines of modern Otranto are ordinarily of good quality.

1292Baccius reads “Seberiniana,” but is probably wrong. If he is not, it might allude to the place now known as San Severino, and which produces excellent wine. Fée thinks that these wines were grown in the territory of Salerno, which still enjoys celebrity for its muscatel wines.

1293See B. iii. c. 10. The wines of modern Cosenza still enjoy a high reputation.

1294M. Valerius Messala Corvinus, the writer and partisan of Augustus. See end of B. ix.

1295A place supposed to have been situated near Thurii.

1296See B. iii. c. 15.

1297Said by Galen to be very wholesome, as well as pleasant. The wines of the vicinity of Naples are still held in high esteem.

1298Galen says that it was very similar to the Falernian.

1299See B. iii. c. 9.

1300The Trifoline territory was in the vicinity of Cumæ. It is possible that the wine may have had its name from taking three years to come to maturity; or possibly it was owing to some peculiarity in the vine.

1301They have been already mentioned in c.4. See B. iii. c. 9.

1302Twelve o’clock in the day.

1303See B. iii. c. 4.

1304In Catalonia, which still produces abundance of wine, but in general of inferior repute.

1305The wines of Tarragona are still considered good.

1306A place in the province of Hispania Tarraconensis, destroyed by Sertorius.

1307They still enjoy a high repute. The fame of their Malvoisie has extended all over the world.

1308He means to illustrate the capricious tastes that existed as to the merits of wines.

1309In c.6of this Book.

1310The Chian held the first rank, the Thasian the second.

1311From Arvisium, or Ariusium, a hilly district in the centre of the island. The wine of Chios still retains its ancient celebrity.

1312It was remarkable for its sweetness, and aromatics were sometimes mixed with it. Homer calls it harmless. Lesbos still produces choice wines.

1313Near Smyrna. Probably similar to the Pramnian wine, mentioned in c.6.

1314See B. v. c. 30. This wine is mentioned again in the next page; it is generally thought, that he is wrong in making the Tmolites and the Mesogites distinct wines, for they are supposed to have been identical.

1315If drunk by itself, and not as a flavouring for other wines.

1316Bacchus had a temple there.

1317The wines of Cyprus are the most choice of all the Grecian wines at the present day.

1318In Lycia.

1319In Syria. Wine is no longer made there, but the grapes are excellent, and are dried for raisins.

1320Now Beyrout. It does not seem that wine is made there now. The Mahometan religion may have tended to the extinction of many of these wines.

1321At the village of Sour, on the site of ancient Tyre, the grape is only cultivated for raisins.

1322See also c.22: probably introduced from Thasos.

1323The “smoky” grape.

1324The “pitchy” grape.

1325A strong wine, Hardouin thinks, from whence its name—“strong enough to subdue a horse.”

1326From the small island of Mystus, near Cephallenia.

1327So called from the vine the name of which was “canthareus.”

1328Made, as already stated, from the juice that flowed spontaneously from the grapes. See also p.250.

1329Or the “burnt up” country, a volcanic district of Mysia, which still retains its ancient fame for its wine. Virgil alludes to this wine in Georg. iv. l. 380:——Cape Mæonii carchesia Bacchi.

1329Or the “burnt up” country, a volcanic district of Mysia, which still retains its ancient fame for its wine. Virgil alludes to this wine in Georg. iv. l. 380:—

—Cape Mæonii carchesia Bacchi.

1330Perhaps from Petra in Arabia: though Fée suggests Petra in the Balearic Islands.

1331See B. iv. c. 22. In the island of Myconos in the Archipelago an excellent wine is still grown.

1332From Mount Mesogis, which divides the tributaries of the Caÿster from those of the Meander. It is generally considered the same as the Tmolites.

1333Must or grape-juice boiled down to one half.

1334See B. v. c. 29.

1335“Mulsum,” or honied wine, was of two kinds; honey mixed with wine, and honey mixed with must or grape-juice.

1336From its Greek name, it would seem to mean “of first quality.”

1337So called from a place in Eubœa, the modern Negropont. See. B. iv. c. 20. Negropont produces good wines at the present day.

1338The locality is unknown.

1339From Leucadia, or Leucate; see B. iv. c. 2; the vine was very abundant there.

1340From Ambracia. See B. iv. c. 2.

1341From the island of Peparethus. See B. iv. c. 23, where he says that from its abundance of vines it was calledεὐοινὸς, or “Evenus.”

1342B. xxiii. c. 1, and c. 26.

1343“Cadis.”

1344Fée remarks that this method is still adopted in making several of the liqueurs.

1345White wine of Cos. Fée thinks that Pliny means to say that the sea water turns the must of a white or pale straw colour, and is of opinion that he has been wrongly informed.

1346“Sea-water” wine.

1347“Sea-seasoned” wine.

1348Fée says, that if the vessels were closed hermetically this would have little or no appreciable effect; if not, it would tend to spoil the wine.

1349Athenæus says that the Rhodian wine will not mix so well with sea-water as the Coan. Fée remarks that if Cato’s plan were followed, the wine would become vinegar long before the end of the four years.

1350Sillig thinks that the proper reading is “in six” only.

1351The sweet wines, in modern times, have the most bouquet or aroma.

1352“Albus,” pale straw-colour.

1353“Fulvus,” amber-colour.

1354Bright and glowing, like Tent and Burgundy.

1355“Niger,” the colour of our port.

1356Supposed to be a species of Pramnian wine, mentioned in c.6. This was used, as also the Aminean, for making omphacium, as mentioned in B. xii. c.60. See also c.18of this Book.

1357“Black psythian.”

1358Mentioned by Galen among the sweet wines.

1359See B. iii. c. 14. Now Solana in Sicily, which produces excellent wine.

1360Honied wine.

1361This was evidently a kind of grape sirop, or grape jelly. “Rob” is perhaps, as Hardouin suggests, a not inappropriate name for it.

1362When cold, they would have nearly the same consistency.

1363The raisin wine of Crete was the most prized of all as a class.

1364Mentioned in c.4. Probably a muscatel grape.

1365See c.4of this Book.

1366Or “vat.” The common reading was “oleo,” which would imply that they were plunged into boiling oil. Columella favours the latter reading, B. xii. c. 16.

1367The reading is probably defective here.

1368Passum secundarium.

1369Or “always sweet.”

1370“Always must.”

1371Fervere, “boil,” or “effervesce.”

1372“Sweet” drink. Fée seems to think that this sweet wine must have been something similar to champagne. Hardouin says that it corresponds to the vin doux de Limoux, or blanquette de Limoux, and the vin Muscat d’Azile.

1373See c.3of this Book.

1374“Poured,” or “strained through.”

1375“Honey wine.” A disagreeable medicament, Fée thinks, rather than a wine.

1376Somewhat similar to the vin de premiere goutte of the French. It would seem to have been more of a liqueur than a wine. Tokay is made in a somewhat similar manner.

1377Or “second” press wines.

1378De Re Rust. c. 153.

1379Vinum operarium.

1380This method is still adopted, Fée says, in making “piquette,” or “small wine,” throughout most of the countries of Europe.

1381Or “wine-lee drink.” It would make an acid beverage, of disagreeable taste.

1382“Nobilia.” In c.29he speaks of 195 kinds, and, reckoning all the varieties, double that number.

1383Fée observes that the varieties of the modern wines are quite innumerable. He remarks also that Pliny does not speak of the Asiatic wines mentioned by Athenæus, which were kept in large bottles, hung in the chimney corner; where the liquid, by evaporation, acquired the consistency of salt. The wines of other countries evidently were little known to Pliny.

1384“Circa pericula arbusti.” This is probably the meaning of this very elliptical passage. See p.218.

1385Called Metellus, by Valerius Maximus, B. vi. c. 3.

1386See B. xvii. c.11.

1387Over the Celtiberi.

1388The younger Pliny, B. ii. Ep. 2, censures this stingy practice. See also Martial, B. iii. Epig. 60.

1389That this, however, was not uncommonly done, we may judge from the remark made by the governor of the feast, John ii. 10, to the bridegroom.

1390Called “myrrhina.” Fée remarks that the flavour of myrrh is acrid and bitter, its odour strong and disagreeable, and says that it is difficult to conceive how the ancients could drink wine with this substance in solution.

1391As the “Persa” has come down to us, we find no mention of myrrh in the passage alluded to.

1392See B. xii. c.49. This is mentioned in the Persa, A. i. sc. 3, l. 7.

1393Aromatic or perfumed wines.

1394Murrhinam.

1395The Cheat or Impostor: a play of Plautus. See A. ii. sc. 4, l. 51,et seq.

1396Must boiled down to half its original quantity.

1397Apothecas. The “apothecæ” were rooms at the top of the house, in which the wines were placed for the purpose of seasoning. Sometimes a current of smoke was directed through them. They were quite distinct from the “cella vinaria,” or “wine-cellar.” The Opimian wine is mentioned in c.4.

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