vineyards above the forum Appii, Cœcuban fell into disrepute, and Setine was preferred for its various medicinal virtues. Amongst all the wines of Italy, the Falernian, so much celebrated by Horace, was in the greatest repute, and by Martial pronounced immortal, and justly so, when we consider that its praises have been sung by immortal bards. It was so very strong and rough, that Horace called it a fiery wine, and it was not drank till it had been kept ten years. Galen says it was in its best condition between the tenth and twentieth. To correct its roughness, it was either mixed with honey or wine of a weaker nature, by which it was rendered delicious-sometimes it was diluted with water to moderate its strength. Falernian may be said to have been amongst the ancients what Tokay is amongst the moderns. The Faustian wine, a species of the Falernian, was of so spirituous a nature, that it would burn with a pure and light flame. The Alban, or wines of Alba, made near the City of Rome, are ranked by Pliny as only a third rate wine, but praised by both Horace and Juvenal when new it was luscious and of a thick consistency; and in about fifteen years considered in its best state. The Surrentine wines, the produce of Aminean grapes, said by Tiberius Cæsar to be so much recommended by physicians, were, from their acidity, called by him generous vinegar-but those wines were liked by Caligula. The Massic is a wine described by Martial. The Fundanian, or wine of Signia, was so rough and astringent as to be mostly used for medicine. The Mamertine was a light wine from about Messina in Sicily, and that which was ordered by Julius Cæsar to be used in the feasts of the city; and the Potulane wines were so called, from the first planters of the vine from which they were produced. The wines of Tuscany, the Prætutian, the Ancona, the Palmesian, from the vines growing up the palm or date tree; Cesenation and Mecanatian wines; the Rhætian, within the territory of Verona, spoken of by Virgil, and ranked by him next to Falernian; the Lateniensian, the Graviscan, and Statonian wines; the wines made between the Pyrenean hills and the Alps, were with various others, celebrated, and many of them in great demand in Pliny's day. From the foregoing particulars, it may be inferred, that the abundance of wines amongst the Romans, rendered every other description of intoxicating drink unnecessary; and that the distillation of spirituous liquors was wholly unknown to them. Neither the ruins of Herculaneum nor Pompeii, afford any vestige of the knowledge of such an art, while the Amphora, which held the wine, are yet found in the cellars of several of the houses, after a lapse of nearly two thousand years.

Among the Greeks, wine was also the favourite beverage. Homer mentions a very famous wine of Maronea in Thrace, supposed to be the same as that carried by Ulysses when he visited the Cyclops; this wine, much celebrated by Pliny, was so strong as to bear mixing with twenty times its quantity of water; but it was common for the natives to drink it unmixed. The wines of Cyprus, Lesbós, (now Mytelene) and Chios, were much celebrated. Those of Lesbos, Chios, and Thasos have respectively claimed superiority. Corcyra, Crete, Cnidus, and Rhodes, yielded wines of the richest body, and most delicate flavour, with which a great portion of Europe was supplied. Those of Cyprus, as well as the wines of many other Greek islands, are, as will be noticed hereafter, in great esteem to this day. Horace often mentions the wines of Lesbos, and represents them as very wholesome and agreeable; they were said to have been less odorous than some other wines, but having so delicious a flavour as to deserve the name of ambrosia rather than wine; and when old, were denominated nectar, from their comparative excellence. Notwithstanding this character of the Lesbian wines, Pliny ranks them inferior to Chios or Thasos; and Strabo reckons the Chian the best of Greek wines, while Virgil calls the Phanæan, the king of all wines: so much did the wines of Chios surpass those of every other country, that the inhabitants of that island are thought to be the first who planted the vine, and taught the use of it to other nations.* The desert wines among the Greeks were the Thasian and Lesbian, and when the Romans became acquainted with the excellence of the Greek wines, the Chian and Lesbian were their favourite desert wines. Virgil praises the Argitis, a white wine, as capable of being preserved for an extraordinary length of years; besides which, we read of lighter kinds of wines, such as those of Naxos; the Mendean, a Thracian wine, and the Omphacites, procured from Lesbos and Thasos. The frequent mention of wine, the praises bestowed on it, the flowing goblets, and luxurious banquets, as described by Homer 1000 years before the Christian era, shew its value and the attachment of that great poet to the comforts of the table and to jovial society. Horace was of this opinion when he says,

Homer, in praise of the profuse,

No doubt loved well the balmy juice.†

All the wines already enumerated were in such esteem at Rome, according to Marcus Varro, quoted by Pliny, that in the year 675

after the foundation of that city, Publius Lucinius Crassus and Lucius Julius Cæsar, the then censors, published an edict, and proclaimed, “that no man should sell any Greek wine or Arminean, but after eight asses the amphora," or about a penny a gallon.* Thus it would appear that a duty was levied on wine amongst the Romans; and this is confirmed by Cicero, in his defence of M. Fonteius, as well as by other historical records still ex tant. The Rhodian wine was frequently used by the Romans in their libations, as is evident from Virgil―

The Rhodian, sacred to the solemn day,
In second services is poured to Jove,

And best accepted by the gods above.†

From the great price and estimation of Chios wine, no person was indulged with more than one draught of it at a meal; a proof of this is given by Varro in the instance of Lucius Lucullus, who, when a boy, never saw more than a cup served up at his father's table after dinner. After the return of this same Lucullus from Asia, in an entertainment, which he gave to the citizens of Rome, he distributed among the people more than 100,000 gallons of wine. Of Caius Sentius, the prætor, it is said that he never used Chian wine on account of its dearness, but because it was prescribed to him by the physicians as useful for the cardiaca passio, or palpitation of the heart, to which he was subject; on the contrary, such was the love of Hortensius, the famous orator, for it, that when he died, he left to his heir about 10,000 barrels, which had been stored in his cellar. The prevailing quality of this, as well as of the other wines already mentioned, was sweetness with delicacy of flavour.

Among the Greeks, it appears, sweet and odoriferous wines were always in great estimation. In many instances, when the wine was deficient in saccharine matter, they sweetened it by putting flour kneaded with honey into the vessels. This practice, is said, to have been first introduced by Aristæus, and was then denominated oinomeli, honied wine. Origanum, aromatics, fruits, and flowers, were also infused. The wine of Byblos, in Phoenicia, was much esteemed for the strength of the perfumes with which it was impregnated. But of all the mixtures and infusions, which were common among them, that of pouring salt-water into wine was the most singular. It was done, it would seem, with a view to promote digestion and prevent the wine from flying to the head. One measure of sea-water was considered

The amphora contained something less than 26 quarts. † Dryden's Virgil, Georg. ii.

Pliny, b. xiv. chap. 14.

sufficient for fifty of wine.

This mixture, which was called Biæon, was accidentally discovered by a servant in Greece, who, to deceive his master, poured sea-water into a vessel out of which he had stolen and drank some wine; and it was thought to have improved the flavour of the liquor. In Rhodes and Cos, a considerable quantity of this wine was made, which the Romans and others imitated; and in modern Greece, salt-water is used in the preparation of wine, on the grounds that where the Saccharine principle is superabundant in the must, the sea water assists fermentation, and improves the strength and flavour of the produce.

If we credit some authors, wine was not the only beverage known to the Greeks; for, although Homer is silent on the matter, they knew, from a remote period, how to compose, with water and barley, a liquor, which, for strength and goodness, approached near to wine.t Ovid, speaking of the meeting that Ceres, exhausted with weariness, had with an old woman, named Baubo, says, that the goddess, having demanded some water, the old woman presented her with a liquor manufactured from dried grain. Thus expressed in the translation:

"The goddess knocking at the little door,
'Twas open'd by a woman old and poor,

Who, when she begg'd for water, gave her ale,

Brewed long, but well preserved from being stale."‡

This was their oinos kristhinos cerevisia, or wine made from barley. They also understood the making of palm wine, called oinos epsetos, sometimes termed oxos epseton, for oxos was a general name for all made wines. The ease, however, with which the juice of the vine was obtained, rendered the use of these wines less common, and almost unnecessary.

The method of making wine among the Greeks was nearly as follows:-About the end of September, or early in October, when the fruit was deemed sufficiently ripe, the grapes were collected, and usually exposed for ten days to the sun and the coolness of the night, in order that they might become more luscious and juicy. With many it was a practice to make three gatherings of the fruit during the vintage, for the purpose of producing wines of different qualities, while other means were resorted to for improving the strength, taste, and flavour: a predominant one was that of twisting the tendrils in order to destroy vegetation, leaving the fruit, for about a month, exposed to

* Vide Travels of Anacharsis the younger, by the Abbé Barthelemi.

Vide Metam. 1. v. v. 449, &c. also Bayle, article § Archæologia Græca, vol. ii. p. 360.

† Diod. 1. iv. p. 248. Thesmophoria.

C

the full influence of the atmosphere. After this exposure, the grapes were put into the shade for five days, and, on the sixth, stamped or bruised in a vat; but as this process was found tedious and troublesome, the ripe grapes immediately from the vine itself were put into a cistern, in which was a hole, or vent near the bottom, with a vessel beneath to receive the liquor. In this cistern, a man with his bare feet and legs pressed out the juice,; but to relieve them from this labour, a piece of machinery was afterwards substituted. This was simply a beam, erected perpendicularly, having a cross acting as a lever, with a pressure of stones above, to give it greater weight or power, and which was worked by means of cordage.—The practice, however, of treading out the juice with the feet, seems still to prevail in most eastern countries.* The Greeks did not keep their wine in casks as we do, for the use of vessels of that sort was unknown to them, as appears from Herodotus, who informs us, that wine was exported from different parts of Greece to Egypt, in earthen jars, which, when emptied, were afterwards sent into the Syrian deserts to preserve the water of the Nile.† The Athenians were famous for making these and other great vessels of earthenware, of which they claimed the invention; but, according to Aulus Gellius, the Samians were the first potters. This seems more probable, as, in the island of Samos, a fine species of red earth is found, from which, with the assistance of linseed oil, iron may be extracted; and from this clay the ancient vases, so much celebrated, are supposed to have been manufactured. These vases were tastefully formed, exceedingly light, and varnished with scented bitumen, receiving a polish like our finest crockery ware, and imparting an aromatic flavour to whatever they contained. Sometimes they were coated on the inside with pitch, mastic, and oil, incorporated with various odoriferous ingredients. Many of these vessels were of enormous size, particularly those used by the Romans, and they were commonly hooped to prevent them from bursting. One is said to have contained one hundred and twenty amphoræ, or 810 gallons of wine, and another is known to have held 210 gallons: but the Greeks preferred jars or vases of much smaller magnitude. The skins of beasts were also used for the same purpose, a custom which continues to this day, where wood is not plenty. The leathern bags, or borachios, thus used, were generally made out of the skins of goats, stripped off without being cut, the places from which the legs, &c. had been extracted, sewed up, and the top either tied or sealed. The Arabians of the present day

* Chandlers' Travels, p. 2.

† Herodotus, b. III. chap. i. § 6.