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i'208

VINUM.

e.) to the Privernatinum and Rheginum, but richer (AnrapcoTe/K)s), and ripening quickly.

The fourth rank contained the Mamertinum, from the neighbourhood of Messana, first brought into fashion by Julius Caesar. The finest, called Potalanum ('IcoraATros, Athen. i. p. 27., d.), from the fields nearest to the main land, was sound (?}3i)s), light, and at the same time not without body. The Tauromenitanum was frequently sub­stituted fraudulently for the Mamertinum, which it resembled. (Athen. i. p. 27, d.; Piln. /. c.)

Of the wines in Southern Gaul, that of Baeter-rao alone bore a high character. The rest were looked upon with suspicion, in consequence of the notorious frauds of the dealers in the Province, who carried on the business of adulteration to a great extent, and did not scruple to have recourse to noxious drugs. Among other things, it was known that they purchased aloes, to heighten the flavour and improve the colour of their merchandise, and conducted the process of artificial ripening so un­skilfully, as to impart a taste of smoke, which called forth, as we have seen above, the maledic­tion of Martial on the fiunaria of Marseilles. (Plin. H. N. xiv. 8.-§5.)

The produce of the Balearic isles was compared to the first growths of Italy, and the same praise was shared by the vineyards of Tarraeo and Lau-ron, while those of the Laidani were not so much famed for the quality as for the abundance of their supply. (Plin. //. A7, xiv. 8. § 6 ; Mart. xiii. 118; Silius, in. 370.)

' Pvettirning to the East, several districts of Pon-tus, Paphlngonia, and Bithyn-ia, Lampsacus on the Hellespont, Telmessus in Caria, Cyprus, Tripolis, Berytus, and Tyre, all claimed distinction, and above all the Chalybonium, originally from Beroea, but afterwards grown in the neighbourhood of Da­mascus also, was the chosen and only drink of the Great King (Plin. //. -N. xiv. 9; Geopon. v. 2.; Athen. i. p. 28, d.), to which we may join the 33abylonium^ called nectar by Chaereus (Athen. i. p. 29, f.), and the bu'§/\u'os from Phoenicia, which found many admirers. (Athen. i. p. 29, b.) The last is spoken of elsewhere as'Thracian, or -Grecian, or Sicilian, which may have arisen from the same grape having been disseminated through these countries. (Compare Herod, ii. 35 ; A then, i. p. 31, a.)

Passing on, in the last place, to Egypt, where, according to Hellanicus, the vine was first dis­covered, the Mareoticum, from near Alexandria, de­mands our attention. It is highly extolled by Athenaeus, being white, sweet, fragrant, light (AeTTTos), circulating quickly through the frame, and not flying to the 'head ; but superior even to this was the 'Taenioticzim, so named from a long-narrow sandy ridge (jaivia) near the western ex­tremity of the Delta; it was aromatic, slightly astringent, and of an oily consistency, which dis-rippeared when it was mixed with water: besides these we hear of the Sebennyticum^ and the wine of Antylla, a town not far from Alexandria. Ad­vancing up the valley, the wine of the Thebais, and especially of Coptos, was so thin and easily thrown off that it could be given without injury to fever patients ; and ascending through Nubia, to the confluence of the Nile with the Astapus, we reach J\ferae, whose wine has been immortalized by Luram. (Athen. i. p. 33, f. ; Strab. xvii. p. 799 ; hot* Carm. i. 37. 10 ; Virg. Georg. ii. 91 j Lucan,

VINUM."

x. 161 ; Plin. H. N. xiv. 9.) Martial appears to have held them all very cheap, since he pronounces the vinegar of Egypt better than its wine. (xiii. 112.)

We read of several wines which received their designation, not from the region to which they be­longed, but from the particular kind of grape from which they were made, or from some circumstance connected with their history or qualities. Names belonging to the former class were in all likelihood bestowed before the most favoured districts were generally known, and before the effects produced u-pon the vine, by change of soil and climate, had been accurately observed and studied. After these matters were better understood, habit and mercan­tile usage would tend to perpetuate the ancient appellation. Tims, down to a late period, we hear of the Amineum ('AfuraTos o?z>os, Hesych.), from the Aminea Vitis, which held the first place among vines, and embraced many varieties, carefully dis­criminated and cultivated according to different methods. (Plin. //.- N. xiv. 4. § 1 ; Cato, ft. R. 6 and 7 ; Colum. iii. 2. § 7 ; 9. § 3.) It was of Grecian origin, having been conveyed by a Thes-salian tribe to Italy (a story which would seem to refer to some Pelasgian migration), and reared chiefly in Campania around Naples, and in the Falernus ager. Its characteristic excellence was the great body and consequent durability of its wine. (Firmissima vina, Virg. Georg. ii. 97 j Galen, AMJi. mciL xii. 4 ; Geopon. viii. 22 ; Cels. iv. 2 ; Macrob. ii. 16; Auson. Ep. xviii. 32; Seren, Samm. xxix. 544.) So, in like manner, th0 tyiOios ulvos (Athen. i. p. 28, f.), from the $i8ia auTreAos (Colum. iii. 2. § 24), which Virgil tells us (Georg. ii. 93) was particularly suitable for passum, and the icatrvias (smoke-wine) of Plato the comic poet (Athen. i. p. 31, e.), prepared in greatest perfec­tion near Beneventum, from the K«7n/eos d'/xTreAos1, so named in consequence of the clusters being neither white nor black, but of an intermediate dusky or smoky hue. {Theophr. //. P. ii. 4, C. P. v. 3 ; Amtot. de Gcner. iv. 4 ; Plin. 77. N. xiv. 4, § 7 ; compare xxxvi. 36, on the gem CapniasJ)

On the other hand, the 5-aTrpias, on whose di­vine fragrance Hermippus descants in such glow­ing language (Athen. i. p. 29, e.), is simply some rich wine of great age, "toothless, and sere, and wondrous old." (dooVras owe exwz/, ij$r) <ra,Trpos. . . yep&v 76 $ai[.iovi&)s, Alhen. x. p. 441, d. ; see Eustath. ad Horn. OtL ii. 340 ; Casaub. ad Athen. i. p. 29.) The origin of the title dvGoo-pias is some­what more doubtful: some will have it to denote wine from a sweet-smelling spot (Suid. s. ^'.) ; others more reasonably refer it to the " bouquet " of the wine itself (Hesych. s. v.} ; according to Phanias of Eresus, in one passage, it was a compound, formed by adding one part of sea-water to fifty of must, although, in another place, he seems to say, that it was wine obtained from grapes gathered before they were ripe, in which case it might resemble Cham­pagne. (Athen. i. p. 32, a. ; compare p. 462, e.)

Those who desire more minute details upon this very extensive subject may consult the Geoponic Collection, books iii. to viii. inclusive ; the whole of the 14th book of Pliny's Natural Histor}r, to­gether with the first thirty chapters of the 23d ; the 12th book of Columella, with the commentary of Schneider and others ; the 2d book of Virgil's Gcorgics, with the remarks of Heyne, Voss, and the old grammarians; Galen, i. 9? and xii. 4 j