Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  Some persons add to the list of these sweet wines that known as “diachyton.” It is made by drying grapes in the sun, and then placing them for seven days in a closed place upon hurdles, some seven Feet from the ground, care being taken to protect them at night from the dews: on the eighth day they are trodden out: this method, it is said, produces a liquor of exquisite bouquet and flavour. The liquor known as melitites is also one of the sweet wines: it differs from mulsum, in being made of must; to five congii of rough-fla- voured must they put one congius of honey, and one cyathus of salt, and they are then brought to a gentle boil: this mixture is of a rough flavour. Among these varieties, I ought to place what is known as “protropum;” such being the name given by some to the must that runs spontaneously from the grapes before they are trodden out. Directly it flows it is put into flaggons, and allowed to ferment; after which it is left to ripen for forty days in a summer sun, about the rising of the Dog-star.

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  CHAP. 12. (10.)

  THREE VARIETIES OF SECOND-RATE WINE.

  Those cannot properly be termed wines, which by the Greeks are known under the name of “deuteria,” and to which, in common with Cato, we in Italy give the name of “lora,” being made from the husks of grapes steeped in water. Still, however, this beverage is reckoned as making one of the “labourers’” wines. There are three varieties of it: the first is made in the following manner: — After the must is drawn off, one-tenth of its amount in water is added to the husks, which are then left to soak a day and a night, and then are again subjected to pressure. A second kind, that which the Greeks are in the habit of making, is prepared by adding one-third in water of the quantity of must that has been drawn off, and after submitting the pulp to pressure, the result is reduced by boiling to one-third of its original quantity. A third kind, again, is pressed out from the wine-lees; Cato gives it the name of “fæcatum.” None of these beverages, however, will keep for more than a single year.

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  CHAP. 13. (11.)

  AT WHAT PERIOD GENEROUS WINES WERE FIRST COMMONLY MADE IN ITALY.

  While treating of these various details, it occurs to me to mention that of the eighty different kinds throughout the whole earth, which may with propriety be reckoned in the class of generous wines, fully two-thirds are the produce of Italy, which consequently in this respect far surpasses any other country: and on tracing this subject somewhat higher up, the fact suggests itself, that the wines of Italy have not been in any great favour from an early period, their high repute having only been acquired since the six hundredth year of the City.

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  CHAP. 14. (12.)

  THE INSPECTION OF WINE ORDERED BY KING ROMULUS.

  Romulus made libations, not with wine but with milk; a fact which is fully established by the religious rites which owe their foundation to him, and are observed even to the present day. The Posthumian Law, promulgated by King Numa, has an injunction to the following effect:—” Sprinkle not the funeral pyre with wine;” a law to which he gave his sanction, no doubt, in consequence of the remarkable scarcity of that commodity in those days. By the same law, he also pronounced it illegal to make a libation to the gods of wine that was the produce of an unpruned vine, his object being to compel the husbandmen to prune their vines; a duty which they showed themselves reluctant to perform, in consequence of the danger which attended climbing the trees. M. Varro informs us, that Mezentius, the king of Etruria, succoured the Rutuli against the Latini, upon condition that he should receive all the wine that was then in the territory of Latium.

  (13.) At Rome it was not lawful for women to drink wine. Among the various anecdotes connected with this subject, we find that the wife of Egnatius Mecenius was slain by her husband with a stick, because she had drunk some wine from the vat, and that he was absolved from the murder by Romulus. Fabius Pictor, in his Book of Annals, has stated that a certain lady, for having opened a purse in which the keys of the wine-cellar were kept, was starved to death by her family: and Cato tells us, that it was the usage for the male relatives to give the females a kiss, in order to ascertain whether they smelt of “temetum;” for it was by that name that wine was then known, whence our word “temulentia,” signifying drunkenness. Cn. Domitius, the judge, once gave it as his opinion, that a certain woman appeared to him to have drunk more wine than was requisite for her health, and without the knowledge of her husband, for which reason he condemned her to lose her dower. For a very long time there was the greatest economy manifested at Rome in the use of this article. L. Papirius, the general, who, on one occasion, commanded against the Samnites, when about to engage, vowed an offering to Jupiter of a small cupfull of wine, if he should gain the victory. In fact, among the gifts presented to the gods, we find mention made of offerings of sextarii of milk, but never of wine.

  The same Cato, while on his voyage to Spain, from which he afterwards returned triumphant, would drink of no other wine but that which was served out to the rowers — very different, indeed, to the conduct of those who are in the habit of giving to their guests even inferior wine to that which they drink themselves, or else contrive to substitute inferior in the course of the repast.

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  CHAP. 15.

  WINES DRUNK BY THE ANCIENT ROMANS.

  The wines that were the most esteemed among the ancient Romans were those perfumed with myrrh, as mentioned in the play of Plautus, entitled the “Persian,” though we find it there stated that calamus ought to be added to it. Hence it is, that some persons are of opinion that they were particularly fond of aromatites: but Fabius Dossennus quite decides the question, in the following line:— “I sent them good wine, myrrh-wine;” and in his play called “Acharistio,” we find these words-” Bread and pearled barley, myrrh — wine too.” I find, too, that Scævola and L. Ælius, and Ateius Capito, were of the same opinion; and then we read in the play known as the “Pseudolus:”—” But if it is requisite for him to draw forth what is sweet from the place, has he aught of that?” to which Charinus makes answer,” Do you ask the question? He has myrrh wine, raisin wine, defrutum, and honey;” from which it would appear that myrrh wine was not only reckoned among the wines, but among the sweet wines too.

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  CHAP. 16. (14.)

  SOME REMARKABLE FACTS CONNECTED WITH WINE-LOFTS. THE OPIMIAN WINE.

  The fact of the existence of the Opimian wine gives undoubted proof that there were wine-lofts, and that wine was racked off in the year of Rome 633, Italy being already alive to the blessings she enjoyed. Still, however, the several varieties that are now so celebrated were not so in those days; and hence it is that all the wines that were grown at that period have only the one general name of “Opimian” wines, from the then consul Opimius. So, too, for a long time afterwards, and, indeed, so late as the times of our grandfathers, the wines from beyond sea were held in the highest esteem, even though Falernian was already known, a fact which we learn from the line of the Comic writer, “I shall draw five cups of Thasian and two of Falernian.”

  P. Licinius Crassus, and L. Julius Cæsar, who were Censors in the year from the Building of the City 665, issued an edict forbidding the sale of either Greek or Aminean wine at a higher price than eight asses the quadrantal — for such, in fact, are the exact words of the edict. Indeed, the Greek wines were so highly valued, that not more than a single cup was served to a guest during the repast.

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  CHAP. 17.

  AT WHAT PERIOD FOUR KINDS OF WINE WERE FIRST SERVED AT TABLE.

  M. Varro gives us the following statement as to the wines that were held in the highest esteem at table in his day: “L. Lucullus, when a boy, never saw an entertainment at his father’s house, however sumptuous it might be, at which Greek wine was handed round more than once during the repast: whereas he himself, when he returned from Asia, distributed as a largess amo
ng the people more than a hundred thousand congiaria of the same wine. C. Sentius, whom we have seen Prætor, used to say that Chian wine never entered his house until his physician prescribed it to him for the cardiac disease. On the other hand, Hortensius left ten thousand casks of it to his heir.” Such is the statement made by Varro.

  (15.) And besides, is it not a well-known fact that Cæsar, when Dictator, at the banquet given on the occasion of his triumph, allotted to each table an amphora of Falernian and a cadus of Chian? On the occasion, too, of his triumph for his victories in Spain, he put before the guests both Chian as well as Falernian; and again, at the banquet given on his third consulship, he gave Falernian, Chian, Lesbian, and Marmertine; indeed, it is generally agreed that this was the first occasion on which four different kinds of wine were served at table. It was after this, then, that all the other sorts came into such very high repute, somewhere about the year of the City 700.

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  CHAP. 18. (16.)

  THE USES OF THE WILD VINE. WHAT JUICES ARE NATURALLY THE COLDEST OF ALL.

  I am not surprised, then, that for these many ages there have been invented almost innumerable varieties of artificial wines, of which I shall now make some mention; they are all of them employed for medicinal purposes. We have already stated in a former Book how omphacium, which is used for unguents, is made. The liquor known as “œnanthinum” is made from the wild vine, two pounds of the flowers of which are steeped in a cadus of must, and are then changed at the end of thirty days. In addition to this, the root and the husks of the grapes are employed in dressing leather. The grapes, too, a little after the blossom has gone off, are singularly efficacious as a specific for cooling the feverish heat of the body in certain maladies, being, it is said, of a nature remarkable for extreme coldness. A portion of these grapes wither away, in consequence of the heat, before the rest, which are thence called solstitial grapes; indeed, the whole of them never attain maturity; if one of these grapes, in an unripe state, is given to a barn-door fowl to eat, it is productive of a dislike to grapes for the future.

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  CHAP. 19.

  SIXTY-SIX VARIETIES OF ARTIFICIAL WINE.

  The first of the artificial wines has wine for its basis; it is called “adynamon,” and is made in the following manner. Twenty sextarii of white must are boiled down with half that quantity of water, until the amount of the water is lost by evaporation. Some persons mix with the must ten sextarii of sea-water and an equal quantity of rain-water, and leave the whole to evaporate in the sun for forty days. This beverage is given to invalids to whom it is apprehended that wine may prove injurious.

  The next kind of artificial wine is that made of the ripe grain of millet; a pound and a quarter of it with the straw is steeped in two congii of must, and the mixture is poured off at the end of six months. We have already stated how various kinds of wine are made from the tree, the shrub, and the herb, respectively known as the lotus.

  From fruit, too, the following wines are made, to the list of which we shall only add some necessary explanations: — First of all, we find the fruit of the palm employed for this pur- pose by the Parthians as well as the Indians, and, indeed. throughout all the countries of the East. A modius of the kind of ripe date called “chyd” is added to three congii of water, and after being steeped for some time, they are subjected to pressure. Sycites is a preparation similarly made from figs: some persons call it “palmiprimum,” others, again, “catorchites:” if sweetness is not the maker’s object, instead of water there is added the same quantity of husk juice of grapes. Of the Cyprian fig a very excellent vinegar, too, is made, and of that of Alexandria a still superior.

  A wine is made, too, of the pods of the Syrian carob, of pears, and of all kinds of apples. That known as” rhoites” is made from pomegranates, and other varieties are prepared from cornels, medlars, sorb apples, dried mulberries, and pinenuts; these last are left to steep in must, and are then pressed; the others produce a sweet liquor of themselves. We shall have occasion before long to show how Cato has pointed out the method of making myrtites: the Greeks, however, adopt a different method in making it. They first boil tender sprigs of myrtle with the leaves on in white must, and after pounding them, boil down one pound of the mixture in three congii of must, until it is reduced to a couple of congii. The beverage that is prepared in this manner with the berries of wild myrtle is known as “myrtidanum;” it will stain the hands.

  Among the garden plants we find wines made of the following kinds: the radish, asparagus, cunila, origanum, parsley- seed, abrotonum, wild mint, rue, catmint, wild thyme, and horehound. A couple of handfuls of these ingredients are put into a cadus of must, as also one sextarius of sapa, and half a sextarius of sea-water. A wine is made of the naphew turnip by adding two drachms of naphew to two sextarii of must. A wine is made also from the roots of squills. Among the flowers, that of the rose furnishes a wine: the leaves are put in a linen cloth and then pounded, after which they are thrown into must with a small weight attached to make them sink to the bottom, the proportion being forty drachms of leaves to twenty sextarii of must; the vessel in which it is kept must not be opened before the end of three months. A wine, too, is made of Gallic nard, and another kind of the wild variety of that plant.

  I find, also, that various kinds of aromatites are prepared, differing but very little in their mode of composition from that of the unguents, being made in the first instance, as I have already stated, of myrrh, and then at a later period of Celtic nard, calamus, and aspalathus, of which cakes are made, and are then thrown into either must or sweet wine. Others, again, make these wines of calamus, scented rush, costus, Syrian nard, amomum, cassia, cinnamon, saffron, palm-dates, and foal-foot, all of which are made up into cakes in a similar manner. Other persons, again, put half a pound of nard and malobathrum to two congii of must; and it is in this manner that at the present day, with the addition of pepper and honey, the wines are made by some known as confection wines, and by others as peppered wines. We find mention made of nectarites also, a beverage extracted from a herb known to some as “helenion,” to others as “Medica,” and to others, again, as symphyton, Idea, Orestion, or nectaria, the root of which is added in the proportion of forty drachms to six sextarii of must, being first similarly placed in a linen cloth.

  As to other kinds of herbs, we find wormwood wine, made of Pontic wormwood in the proportion of one pound to forty sextarii of must, which is then boiled down until it is reduced to one third, or else of slips of wormwood put in wine. In a similar manner, hyssop wine is made of Cilician hyssop, by adding three ounces of it to two congii of must, or else by pounding three ounces of hyssop, and adding them to one congius of must. Both of these wines may be made also in another method, by sowing these plants around the roots of vines. It is in this manner, too, that Cato tells us how to make hellebore wine from black hellebore; and a similar method is used for making scammony wine. The vine has a remarkable propensity of contracting the flavour of any plant that may happen to be growing near it; and hence it is that in the marshy lands of Patavium, the grape has the peculiar flavour of the willow. So, in like manner, we find at Thasos hellebore planted among the vines, or else wild cucumber, or scammony; the wine that is produced from these vines is known by the name of “phthorium,” it being productive of abortion.

  Wines are made, too, of other herbs, the nature of which will be mentioned in their respective places, the stœchas for instance, the root of gentian, tragoriganum, dittany, foal-foot, daucus, elelisphacus, panax, acorus, conyza, thyme, mandragore, and sweet rush. We find the names mentioned, also, of scyzinum, itæomelis, and lectisphagites, compounds of which the receipt is now lost.

  The wines that are made from the shrubs are mostly extracted from the two kinds of cedar, the cypress, the laurel, the juniper, the terebinth, and in Gaul the lentisk. To make these wines, they boil either the berries or the new wood of the shrub in must. They employ,
also, the wood of the dwarf olive, the ground-pine, and the germander for a similar purpose, adding at the same time ten drachms of the flower to a congius of must.

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  CHAP. 20. (1 7.)

  HYDROMELI, OR MELICRATON.

  There is a wine also made solely of honey and water. For this purpose it is recommended that rain-water should be kept for a period of five years. Those who shew greater skill, content themselves with taking the water just after it has fallen, and boiling it down to one third, to which they then add one third in quantity of old honey, and keep the mixture exposed to the rays of a hot sun for forty days after the rising of the Dog-star; others, however, rack it off in the course of ten days, and tightly cork the vessels in which it is kept. This beverage is known as “hydromeli,” and with age acquires the flavour of wine. It is nowhere more highly esteemed than in Phrygia.