Chaps. 5-8.

Chap. 5. (4.)—Remarkable Facts Connected with the Culture of the Vine.

The elder Cato, who was rendered more particularly illustrious by his triumph [In B.C. 194, for his successes in Spain.] and the censorship, and even more so by his literary fame, and the precepts which he has given to the Roman people upon every subject of utility, and the proper methods of cultivation in particular; a man who, by the universal confession, was the first husbandman of his age and without a rival—has mentioned a few varieties only of the vine, the very names of some of which are by this utterly forgotten. [Mode of culture, locality, climate, and other extraneous circumstances, work, no doubt, an entire change in the nature of the vine.] His statement on this subject deserves our separate consideration, and requires to be quoted at length, in order that we may make ourselves acquainted with the different varieties of this tree that were held in the highest esteem in the year of the City of Rome 600, about the time of the capture of Carthage and Corinth, the period of his death: it will show too, what great advances civilization has made in the last two hundred and thirty years. The following are the remarks which he has made on the subject of the vine and the grape.

“Where the site is considered to be most favourable to the growth of the vine, and exposed to the warmth of the sun, you will do well to plant the small [Probably the first of the five that he has mentioned in c. 4.] Aminean, as well as the two eugenia, [He has only mentioned one sort in c..] and the smaller helvia. [See c..] On the other hand, where the soil is of a denser nature or more exposed to fogs, the greater Aminean should be planted, or else the Murgentine, [See c..] or the Apician of Lucania. The other varieties of the grape are, for the most part, adapted to any kind of soil; they are best preserved in a lora. [We have no corresponding word for this beverage in the English language—a thin, poor liquor, made by pouring water on the husks and stalks after being fully pressed, allowing them to soak, pressing them again, and then fermenting the liquor. It was also called “vinum operarium,” or “labourer’s wine.” As stated in the present instance, grapes were sometimes stored in it for keeping.] The best for keeping by hanging, are the duracinus kind, the greater Aminean, and the Scantian; [A variety of the Aminean, as stated below.] these, too, will make excellent raisins for keeping if dried at the blacksmith’s forge.” There are no precepts in the Latin language on this subject more ancient than these, so near are we to the very commencement of all our practical knowledge! The Aminean grape, of which mention has been made above, is by Varro called the “Scantian.”

In our own times we have but few instances of any consummate skill that has been manifested in reference to this subject: the less excuse then should we have for omitting any particular which may tend to throw a light upon the profits that may be derived from the culture of the vine, a point which on all occasions is regarded as one of primary importance. Acilius Sthenelus, a man of plebeian rank, and the son of a freedman, acquired very considerable repute from the cultivation of a vineyard in the territory of Nomentum, not more than sixty jugera in extent, and which he finally sold for four hundred thousand sesterces. Vetulenus Ægialus too, a freedman as well, acquired very considerable note in the district of Liternum, [See B. iii. c. 9.] in Campania, and, indeed, received a more extensive share of the public favour, from the fact that he cultivated the spot which had been the place of exile of Scipio Africanus. [The elder Africanus. He retired in voluntary exile to his country-seat at Liternum, where he died.] The greatest celebrity of all, however, was that which, by the agency of the same Sthenelus, was accorded to Rhemmius Palæmon, who was also equally famous as a learned grammarian. This person bought, some twenty years ago, an estate at the price of six hundred thousand sesterces in the same district of Nomentum, about ten miles distant from the City of Rome. The low price of property [Mercis.] in the suburbs, on every side of the City, is well known; but in that quarter in particular, it had declined to a most remarkable extent; for the estate which he purchased had become deteriorated by long-continued neglect, in addition to which it was situate in the very worst part of a by no means favourite locality. [The suggestion of Sillig has been adopted, for the ordinary reading is evidently corrupt, and absurd as well—“not in the very worst part of a favourite locality”—just the converse of the whole tenor of the story.] Such was the nature of the property of which he thus undertook the cultivation, not, indeed, with any commendable views or intentions at first, but merely in that spirit of vanity for which he was notorious in so remarkable a degree. The vineyards were all duly dressed afresh, and hoed, under the superintendence of Sthenelus; the result of which was that Palæmon, while thus playing the husbandman, brought this estate to such an almost incredible pitch of perfection, that at the end of eight years the vintage, as it hung on the trees, was knocked down to a purchaser for the sum of four hundred thousand sesterces; while all the world was running to behold the heaps upon heaps of grapes to be seen in these vineyards. The neighbours, by way of finding some excuse for their own indolence, gave all the credit of this remarkable success to Palæmon’s profound erudition; and at last Annæus Seneca, [The philosopher, and tutor of Nero.] who both held the highest rank in the learned world, and an amount of power and influence which at last proved too much for him—this same Seneca, who was far from being an admirer of frivolity, was seized with such vast admiration of this estate, as not to feel ashamed at conceding this victory to a man who was otherwise the object of his hatred, and who would be sure to make the very most of it, by giving him four times the original cost for those very vineyards, and that within ten years from the time that he had taken them under his management. This was an example of good husbandry worthy to be put in practice upon the lands of Cæcuba and of Setia; for since then these same lands have many a time produced as much as seven culei to the jugerum, or in other words, one hundred and forty amphoræ of must. That no one, however, may entertain the belief that ancient times were surpassed on this occasion, I would remark that the same Cato has stated in his writings, that the proper return was seven culei to the jugerum: all of them so many instances only tending most convincingly to prove that the sea, which in our rashness we trespass upon, does not make a more bounteous return to the merchant, no, not even the merchandize that we seek on the shores of the Red and the Indian Seas, than does a well-tilled homestead to the agriculturist.

Chap. 6.—The Most Ancient Wines.

The wine of Maronea, [Said to have been so called from Maron, a king of Thrace, who dwelt in the vicinity of the Thracian Ismarus. See B. iv. c. 18. Homer mentions this wine in the Odyssey, B. ix. c. 197, et seq. It was red, honey-sweet, fragrant. The place is still called Marogna, in Roumelia, a country the wines of which are still much esteemed.] on the coast of Thrace, appears to have been the most celebrated in ancient times, as we learn from the writings of Homer. I dismiss, however, all the fabulous stories and various traditions which we find relative to its origin, except, indeed, the one which states that Aristæus, [See B. vii. c. 57.] a native of the same country, was the first person that mixed honey [Thus making “mulsum.”] with wine, natural productions, both of them, of the highest degree of excellence. Homer [B. ix. c. 208.] has stated that the Maronean wine was mixed with water in the proportion of twenty measures of water to one of wine. The wine that is still produced in the same district retains all its former strength, and a degree of vigour that is quite insuperable. [Indomitus.] Mucianus, who thrice held the consulship, and one of our most recent authors, when in that part of the world was witness himself to the fact, that with one sextarius of this wine it was the custom to mix no less than eighty sextarii of water: he states, also, that this wine is black, [By “black” wines he means those that had the same colour as our port.] has a strong bouquet, and is all the richer for being old.

The Pramnian wine, too, which Homer [Il. xi. 638. Od. x. 234.] has also similarly eulogized, still retains its ancient fame: it is grown in the territory of Smyrna, in the vicinity of the shrine of the Mother [Cybele. A wine called “Pramnian” was also grown in the island of Icaria, in Lesbos, and in the territory of Ephesus. The scholiast on Nicander says that the grape of the psythia was used in making it. Dioscorides says that it was a “protropum,” first-class wine, made of the juice that voluntarily flowed from the grapes, in consequence of their own pressure.] of the Gods.

Among the other wines now known, we do not find any that enjoyed a high reputation in ancient times. In the year of the consulship of L. Opimius, when C. Gracchus, [B.C. 121.] the tribune of the people, engaging in sedition, was slain, the growth of every wine was of the very highest quality. In that year, the weather was remarkable for its sereneness, and the ripening of the grape, the “coctura,” [“Cooking,” literally, or “boiling.”] as they call it, was fully effected by the heat of the sun. This was in the year of the City 633. There are wines still preserved of this year’s growth, nearly two hundred years ago; they have assumed the consistency of honey, with a rough taste; for such, in fact, is the nature of wines, that, when extremely old, it is impossible to drink them in a pure state; and they require to be mixed with water, as long keeping renders them intolerably bitter. [The wines of Burgundy, in particular, become bitter when extremely old.] A very small quantity of the Opimian wine, mixed with them, will suffice for the seasoning of other wines. Let us suppose, according to the estimated value of these wines in those days, that the original price of them was one hundred sesterces per amphora: if we add to this six per cent. per annum, a legal and moderate interest, we shall then be able to ascertain what was the exact price of the twelfth part of an amphora at the beginning of the reign of Caius Cæsar, the son of Germanicus, one hundred and sixty years after that consulship. In relation to this fact, we have a remarkable instance, [See B. vii. c. 18.] when we call to mind the life of Pomponius Secundus, the poet, and the banquet which he gave to that prince [Caligula.] —so enormous is the capital that lies buried in our cellars of wine! Indeed, there is no one thing, the value of which more sensibly increases up to the twentieth year, or which decreases with greater rapidity after that period, supposing that the value of it is not by that time greatly enhanced. [By some remarkable and peculiar quality, such as in the Opimian wine.] Very rarely, indeed, up to the present day, has it been known for a single [“Testa,” meaning the amphora.] piece of wine to cost a thousand sesterces, except, indeed, when such a sum may have been paid in a fit of extravagance and debauchery. The people of Vienne, it is said, are the only ones who have set a higher price than this upon their “picata,” wines, the various kinds of which we have already mentioned; [See c. of the present Book, where these “picata,” or “pitched-wines,” have been further described.] and this, it is thought, they only do, vying with each other, and influenced by a sort of national self-esteem. This wine, drunk in a cool state, is generally thought to be of a colder [On the contrary, Fée says, the coldest wines are those that contain the least alcohol, whereas those of Vienne (in modern Dauphiné) contain more than the majority of wines.] temperature than any other.

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 [He implies that wine is an antidote to the poisonous effects of hemlock. This is not the case, but it is said by some that vinegar is. It is the plant hemlock (cicuta) that is meant, and not the fatal draught that was drunk by Socrates and Philopœmen. See further in B. xxiii. c. 23, and B. xxv. c. 95.] to hemlock.” And if Alexander had only followed this advice, he certainly would not have had to answer for slaying his friends [Clitus and Callisthenes.] 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.

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 [Lacus.] 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, [The testa or amphora, made of earth.] 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 [As the wife of Augustus is meant, this reading appears preferable to “Julia.”] Augusta, who lived to her eighty-second year, [Dion Cassius says “eighty-sixth.”] attributed her longevity to the wine of Pucinum, [See B. iii. c. 22, and B. xvii. c.. Pucinum was in Istria, and the district is said still to produce good wine; according to Dalechamps, the place is called Pizzino d’Istria.] 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 [The hills of Setia, looking down on the Pomptine Marshes: now Sezza, the wine of which is of no repute.] that lies just above Forum Appii. [See B. iii. c. 9.] 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 [See 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., he says that in the Pomptine Marshes it was to be found.] 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 [This was the case, it has been remarked, with Madeira some years ago.] than quality. The Falernian [This is the most celebrated of all the ancient wines, as being more especially the theme of the poets.] 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 Cædiciæ, [See B. xi. c.. 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.] 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. [It appears to have been exceedingly rich in alcohol.] 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 [But 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.] rank belonged the various wines of Alba, in the vicinity of the City, remarkable for their sweetness, and sometimes, though rarely, rough [See B. xxiii. c. 21.] as well: the Surrentine [From 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.] 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.” [Or “dead vinegar.” “Vappa” was vinegar exposed to the air, and so destitute of its properties, and quite insipid.] Vying in reputation with these are the Massic wines, from the spots which look from Mount Gaurus towards Puteoli and Baiæ. [Excellent 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.] 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 [For 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.] wines, too, from the same neighbourhood, used to be preferred to those last mentioned, as also the Fundanian, [From Fundi. See B. iii. c. 9.] the produce of vines grown on stays, or else attached to shrubs. The wines, too, of Veliternum [Now Castel del Volturno: although covered with vineyards, its wines are of no account. This wine always tasted as if mixed with some foreign substance.] and Priverna, [Now Piperno. It was a thin and pleasant wine.] which were grown in the vicinity of the City, used to be highly esteemed. As to that produced at Signia, [Now Segni, in the States of the Church.] 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 [Written to the Senate, also to Cicero. We learn from Suetonius that they were partly written in cipher.] —to the Mamertine wines, the produce of the country in the vicinity of Messana, [Messina, at the present day, exports wines of very good quality, and which attain a great age.] in Sicily. The finest of these was the Potulanum, [It was sound, light, and not without body.] 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 flaggons [“Lagenæ.” The same spot, now Taormina in Sicily, between Catania and Messina, still produces excellent wines.] 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,” [See B. iii. c. 18. Fée says that this is thought to have been the wine of Syrol, of last century, grown near Ancona.] not improbably because the cluster springs from a single shoot. [“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.] In the interior we find the wines of Cæsena [The wines of modern Cezena enjoy no repute, owing, probably, to the mode of making them.] and that known as the Mæcenatian, [Probably so called because it was brought into fashion by Mæcenas.] while in the territory of Verona there are the Rhætian wines, only inferior, in the estimation of Virgil, to the Falernian. [See Georg. ii. 95. The wines of the Tyrol, the ancient Rhætia, are still considered as of excellent quality.] Then, too, at the bottom of the Gulf [Of Adria, or the Adriatic Sea.] we find the wines of Adria. [See B. iii. c. 20. These wines are of little repute.] On the shores of the Lower Sea there are the Latiniensian [In Latium. See B. iii. c. 9.] wines, the Graviscan, [From Graviscæ. See B. iii. c. 8.] and the Statonian: [See B. ii. c. 96, B. iii. c. 9, and B. xxxvi. c. 49.] in Etruria, the wines of Luna bear away the palm, and those of Genua [The wines of Genoa are of middling quality only, and but little known.] 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.” [Or “juicy” wine.] The reputation of the wine of Beterræ [Now 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.] does not extend beyond the Gallic territories; [He means, beyond modern Provence, and Languedoc: districts famous for their excellent wines, more particularly the latter.] 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; [Fée 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.] 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, [The wines of modern Otranto are ordinarily of good quality.] Servitia, [Baccius 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.] and Consentia, [See B. iii. c. 10. The wines of modern Cosenza still enjoy a high reputation.] 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 [M. Valerius Messala Corvinus, the writer and partisan of Augustus. See end of B. ix.] used to drink it, and was indebted to it for his excellent health, was the wine of Lagara, [A place supposed to have been situated near Thurii.] which was grown not far from Grumentum. [See B. iii. c. 15.] 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, [Said by Galen to be very wholesome, as well as pleasant. The wines of the vicinity of Naples are still held in high esteem.] near Capua the Cauline, [Galen says that it was very similar to the Falernian.] wine, and the wine of Trebula [See B. iii. c. 9.] grown in the territory so called, though but of a common sort: Campania boasts of all these, as well as of her Trifoline [The 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.] wines. As to the wines of Pompeii, [They have been already mentioned in c.. See B. iii. c. 9.] 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 [Twelve o’clock in the day.] of the next day.

These illustrations, if I am not greatly mistaken, will go far to prove that it is 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 [See B. iii. c. 4.] in Spain [In Catalonia, which still produces abundance of wine, but in general of inferior repute.] are remarkable for the abundance of wine they produce, while those of Tarraco [The wines of Tarragona are still considered good.] and of Lauron [A place in the province of Hispania Tarraconensis, destroyed by Sertorius.] are esteemed for the choice qualities of their wines: those, too, of the Balearic Isles [They still enjoy a high repute. The fame of their Malvoisie has extended all over the world.] 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.” [He means to illustrate the capricious tastes that existed as to the merits of wines.] 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.