Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 7. (5.)

  THE NATURE OF WINES.

  It is the property of wine, when drunk, to cause a Feeling of warmth in the interior of the viscera, and, when poured upon the exterior of the body, to be cool and refreshing. It will not be foreign to my purpose on the present occasion to state the advice which Androcydes, a man famous for his wisdom, wrote to Alexander the Great, with the view of putting a check on his intemperance: “When you are about to drink wine, O king!” said he, “remember that you are about to drink the blood of the earth: hemlock is a poison to man, wine a poison to hemlock.” And if Alexander had only followed this advice, he certainly would not have had to answer for slaying his friends in his drunken fits. In fact, we may Feel ourselves quite justified in saying that there is nothing more useful than wine for strengthening the body, while, at the same time, there is nothing more pernicious as a luxury, if we are not on our guard against excess.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 8. (6.)

  FIFTY KINDS OF GENEROUS WINES.

  Who can entertain a doubt that some kinds of wine are more agreeable to the palate than others, or that even out of the very same vat there are occasionally produced wines that are by no means of equal goodness, the one being much superior to the other, whether it is that it is owing to the cask, or to some other fortuitous circumstance? Let each person, therefore, constitute himself his own judge as to which kind it is that occupies the pre-eminence. Livia Augusta, who lived to her eighty-second year, attributed her longevity to the wine of Pucinum, as she never drank any other. This wine is grown near a bay of the Adriatic, not far from Mount Timavus, upon a piece of elevated rocky ground, where the sea-breeze ripens a few grapes, the produce of which supplies a few amphoræ: there is not a wine that is deemed superior to this for medicinal purposes. I am strongly of opinion that this is the same wine, the produce of the Adriatic Gulf, upon which the Greeks have bestowed such wonderful encomiums, under the name of Prætetianum.

  The late Emperor Augustus preferred the Setinum to all others, and nearly all the emperors that have succeeded him have followed his example, having learnt from actual experience that there is no danger of indigestion and flatulence resulting from the use of this liquor: this wine is grown in the country that lies just above Forum Appii. In former times the Cæcubum enjoyed the reputation of being the most generous of all the wines; it was grown in some marshy swamps, planted with poplars, in the vicinity of the Gulf of Amyclæ. This vineyard has, however, now disappeared, the result of the carelessness of the cultivator, combined with its own limited extent, and the works on the canal which Nero commenced, in order to provide a navigation from Lake Avernus to Ostia.

  The second rank belonged to the wine of the Falernian territory, of which the Faustianum was the most choice variety; the result of the care and skill employed upon its cultivation. This, however, has also degenerated very considerably, in consequence of the growers being more solicitous about quantity than quality. The Falernian vineyards begin at the bridge of Campania, on the left-hand as you journey towards the Urbana Colonia of Sylla, which was lately a township of the city of Capua. As to the Faustian vineyards, they extend about four miles from a village near Cædicix, the same village being six miles from Sinuessa. There is now no wine known that ranks higher than the Falernian; it is the only one, too, among all the wines that takes fire on the application of flame. There are three varieties of it — the rough, the sweet, and the thin. Some persons make the following distinctions: the Caucinum, they say, grows on the summit of this range of hills, the Faustianum on the middle slopes, and the Falernum at the foot: the fact, too, should not be omitted, that none of the grapes that produce these more famous wines have by any means an agreeable flavour.

  To the third rank belonged the various wines of Alba, in the vicinity of the City, remarkable for their sweetness, and some- times, though rarely, rough as well: the Surrentine wines, also, the growth of only stayed vines, which are especially recommended to invalids for their thinness and their wholesomeness. Tiberius Cæsar used to say that the physicians had conspired thus to dignify the Surrentinum, which was, in fact, only another name for generous vinegar; while Caius Cæsar, who succeeded him, gave it the name of “noble vappa.” Vying in reputation with these are the Massic wines, from the spots which look from Mount Gaurus towards Puteoli and Baiæ. As to the wines of Stata, in the vicinity of Falernum, there is no doubt that they formerly held the very highest rank, a fact which proves very clearly that every district has its own peculiar epochs, just as all other things have their rise and their decadence. The Calenian wines, too, from the same neighbourhood, used to be preferred to those last mentioned, as also the Fundanian, the produce of vines grown on stays, or else attached to shrubs. The wines, too, of Veliternum and Priverna, which were grown in the vicinity of the City, used to be highly esteemed. As to that produced at Signia, it is by far too rough to be used as a wine, but is very useful as an astringent, and is consequently reckoned among the medicines for that purpose.

  The fourth rank, at the public banquets, was given by the late Emperor Julius-he was the first, in fact, that brought them into favour, as we find stated in his Letters — to the Mamertine wines, the produce of the country in the vicinity of Messana, in Sicily. The finest of these was the Potulanum, so called from its original cultivator, and grown on the spots that lie nearest to the mainland of Italy. The Tauromenitanum also, a wine of Sicily, enjoys a high repute, and fiaggons of it are occasionally passed off for Mamertinum.

  Among the other wines, we find mentioned upon the Upper Sea those of Prætutia and Ancona, as also those known as the “Palmensia,” not improbably because the cluster springs from a single shoot. In the interior we find the wines of Cæsena and that known as the Mæcenatian, while in the territory of Verona there are the Rhætian wines, only inferior, in the estimation of Virgil, to the Falernian. Then, too, at the bottom of the Gulf we find the wines of Adria. On the shores of the Lower Sea there are the Latiniensian wines, the Graviscan, and the Statonian: in Etruria, the wines of Luna bear away the palm, and those of Genua in Liguria. Massilia, which lies between the Pyrenees and the Alps, produces two varieties of wine, one of which is richer and thicker than the other, and is used for seasoning other wines, being generally known as “succosum.” The repu- tation of the wine of Beterræ does not extend beyond the Gallic territories; and as for the others that are produced in Gallia Narbonensis, nothing can be positively stated, for the growers of that country have absolutely established manufactories for the purposes of adulteration, where they give a dark hue to their wines by the agency of smoke; I only wish I could say, too, that they do not employ various herbs and noxious drugs for the same purpose; indeed, these dealers are even known to use aloes for the purpose of heightening the flavour and improving the colour of their wines.

  The regions of Italy that are at a greater distance from the Ausonian Sea, are not without their wines of note, such as those of Tarentum, Servitia, and Consentia, and those, again, of Tempsa, Babia, and Lucania, among which the wines of Thurii hold the pre-eminence. But the most celebrated of all of them, owing to the fact that Messala used to drink it, and was indebted to it for his excellent health, was the wine of Lagara, which was grown not far from Grumentum. In Campania, more recently, new growths under new names have gained considerable credit, either owing to careful cultivation, or else to some other fortuitous circumstances: thus, for instance, we find four miles from Neapolis the Trebellian, near Capua the Cauline, wine, and the wine of Trebula grown in the territory so called, though but of a common sort: Campania boasts of all these, as well as of her Trifoline wines. As to the wines of Pompeii, they have arrived at their full perfection in ten years, after which they gain nothing by age: they are found also to be productive of headache, which often lasts so long as the sixth hour of the next day.

  These illustrations, if I am not greatly mistaken, will go far to prove that it i
s the land and the soil that is of primary importance, and not the grape, and that it is quite superfluous to attempt to enumerate all the varieties of every kind, seeing that the same vine, transplanted to several places, is productive of features and characteristics of quite opposite natures. The vineyards of Laletanum in Spain are remarkable for the abundance of wine they produce, while those of Tarraco and of Lauron are esteemed for the choice qualities of their wines: those, too, of the Balearic Isles are often put in comparison with the very choicest growths of Italy.

  I am by no means unaware that most of my readers will be of opinion that I have omitted a vast number of wines, seeing that every one has his own peculiar choice; so much so, that wherever we go, we hear the same story told, to the effect that one of the freedmen of the late Emperor Augustus, who was remarkable for his judgment and his refined taste in wines, while employed in tasting for his master’s table, made this observation to the master of the house where the emperor was staying, in reference to some wine the growth of that particular country: “The taste of this wine,” said he, “is new to me, and it is by no means of first-rate quality; the emperor, however, you will see, will drink of no other.” Indeed I have no wish to deny that there may be other wines deserving of a very high reputation, but those which I have already enumerated are the varieties upon the excellence of which the world is at present agreed.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 9. (7.)

  THIRTY-EIGHT VARIETIES OF FOREIGN WINES.

  We will now, in a similar manner, give a description of the varieties found in the parts beyond sea. After the wines mentioned by Homer, and of which we have already spoken, those held in the highest esteem were the wines of Thasos and Chios, and of the latter more particularly the sort known as “Arvisium.” By the side of these has been placed the wine of Lesbos, upon the authority of Erasistratus, a famous physician, who flourished about the year of the City of Rome 450. At the present day, the most esteemed of all is the wine of Clazomenæ, since they have learned to season it more sparingly with sea-water. The wine of Lesbos has naturally a taste of sea-water. That from Mount Tmolus is not so much esteemed by itself for its qualities as a wine, as for its peculiar sweetness. It is on account of this that it is mixed with other wines, for the purpose of modifying their harsh flavour, by imparting to them a portion of its own sweetness; while at the same time it gives them age, for immediately after the mixture they appear to be much older than they really are. Next in esteem after these are the wines of Sicyon, Cyprus, Telmessus, Tripolis, Berytus, Tyre, and Sebennys, this last is grown in Egypt, being the produce of three varieties of grape of the very highest quality, known as the Thasian, the æthalus, and the peuce. Next in rank are the hippodamantian wine, the Mystic, the cantharite, the protropum of Cnidos, the wine of the catacecaumene, the Petritan, and the Myconian; as to the Mesogitic, it has been found to give head-ache, while that of Ephesus is far from wholesome, being seasoned with sea-water and defrutum. It is said that the wine of Apamea is remarkably well adapted for making mulsum, like that of Præ- tutia in Italy: for this is a quality peculiar to only certain kinds of wine, the mixture of two sweet liquids being in general not attended with good results. The protagion is quite gone out of date, a wine which the school of Asclepiades has reckoned as next in merit to those of Italy. The physician Apollodorus, in the work which he wrote recommending King Ptolemy what wines in particular to drink — for in his time the wines of Italy were not generally known — has spoken in high terms of that of Naspercene in Pontus, next to which he places the Oretic, and then the Æneatian, the Leucadian, the Ambraciotic, and the Peparethian, to which last he gives the preference over all the rest, though he states that it enjoyed an inferior reputation, from the fact of its not being considered fit for drinking until it had been kept six years.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 10. (8.)

  SEVEN KINDS OF SALTED WINES.

  Thus far we have treated of wines, the goodness of which is due to the country of their growth. In Greece the wine that is known by the name of “bion,” and which is administered for its curative qualities in several maladies (as we shall have occasion to remark when we come to speak on the subject of Medicine), has been justly held in the very highest esteem. This wine is made in the following manner: the grapes are plucked before they are quite ripe, and then dried in a hot sun: for three days they are turned three times a day, and on the fourth day they are pressed, after which the juice is put in casks, and left to acquire age in the heat of the sun.

  The people of Cos mix sea-water in large quantities with their wines, an invention which they first learned from a slave, who adopted this method of supplying the deficiency that had been caused by his thievish propensities. When this is mixed with white must, the mixture receives the name of “leu- cocoum.” In other countries again, they follow a similar plan in making a wine called “tethalassomenon.” They make a wine also known as “thalassites,” by placing vessels full of must in the sea, a method which quickly imparts to the wine all the qualities of old age. In our own country too, Cato has shown the method of making Italian wine into Coan: in addition to the modes of preparation above stated, he tells us that it must be left exposed four years to the heat of the sun, in order to bring it to maturity. The Rhodian wine is similar to that of Cos, and the Phorinean is of a still salter flavour. It is generally thought that all the wines from beyond sea arrive at their middle state of maturity in the course of six or seven years.

  Detailed table of contents

  CHAP. 11. (9.)

  EIGHTEEN VARIETEIS OF SWEET WINE. RAISIN-WINE AND HEPSEMA.

  All the luscious wines have but little aroma: the thinner the wine the more aroma it has. The colours of wines are four, white, brown, blood-coloured, and black. Psythium and melampsythium are varieties of raisin-wine which have the peculiar flavour of the grape, and not that of wine. Seybelites is a wine grown in Galatia, and Aluntium is a wine of Sicily, both of which have the flavour of mulsum. As to siræum, by some known as “hepsema,” and which in our language is called “sapa,” it is a product of art and not of Nature, being prepared from must boiled down to one-third: when must is boiled down to one-half only, we give it the name of “ defrutum.” All these mixtures have been devised for the adulteration of honey. As to those varieties which we have previously mentioned, their merits depend upon the grape, and the soil in which it is grown. Next after the raisin-wine of Crete, those of Cilicia and Africa are held in the highest esteem, both in Italy as well as the adjoining provinces. It is well known that it is made of a grape to which the Greeks have given the name of “stica,” and which by us is called “apiana:” it is also made of the scirpula. The grapes are left on the vine to dry in the sun, or else are boiled in the dolium. Some persons make this wine of the sweet and early white grape: they leave the grapes to dry in the sun, until they have lost pretty nearly half their weight, after which they crush them and subject them to a gentle pressure. They then draw off the juice, and add to the pulp that is left an equal quantity of well-water, the product of which is raisin-wine of second quality. The more careful makers not only do this, but take care also after drying the grapes to remove the stalks, and then steep the raisins in wine of good quality until they swell, after which they press them. This kind of raisin-wine is preferred to all others: with the addition of water, they follow the same plan in making the wine of second quality.

  The liquor to which the Greeks give the name of” aigleucos,” is of middle quality, between the sirops and what is properly called wine; with us it is called “semper mustum.” It is only made by using great precaution, and taking care that the must does not ferment; such being the state of the must in its transformation into wine. To attain this object, the must is taken from the vat and put into casks, which are immediately plunged into water, and there left to remain until the winter solstice is past, and frosty weather has made its appearance. There is another kind, again, of natural aigleucos, wh
ich is known in the province of Narbonensis by the name of “dulce,” and more particularly in the district of the Vocontii. In order to make it, they keep the grape hanging on the tree for a considerable time, taking care to twist the stalk. Some, again, make an incision in the bearing shoot, as deep as the pith, while others leave the grapes to dry on tiles. The only grape, however, that is used in these various processes is that of the vine known as the “helvennaca.”