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"valet perennari, optimam esse eam censemus, nec omnino quicquam permiscendum, quo naturalis sapor ejus infuscetur. Id enim praestantissimum est, quod suapte naturâ placere po"terit. Caeterum cum aut regionis vitio, aut novellarum vi"nearum, mustum laborabit, eligenda erit pars vineae (si est facultas) Ammineae; si minus, quam bellissimi vini, quaeque "erit et vetustissima, et minimè uliginosa."

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**On the famous base at Pozzuoli, dedicated to Tiberius, on which are fourteen figures in grand relief, representing so many cities or provinces of Asia (with their proper attributes, and the name under each figure), that of Tmolus is represented as a Bacchus.

This mountain was fruitful in wines even to a proverb; as appears by Ovid:

"Africa quot segetes, quot Tmolia terra racemos,

"Quot Sicyon baccas, quot parit Hybla favos."

Lib. IV. de Ponto, Eleg. penult.

And Strabo says: "Sardibus imminet mons dives," lib. XIII. p. 625.-" Tmolus vino excellit." lib. XIV. p. 637.—In the Pembroke collection is a bust of Tmolus crowned with grapes and vine-leaves. And Canini, in his Iconografia, plate XLIX, gives us a medal in the cabinet of Monsig. de Massimi, representing an old man crowned with a garland of grapes, with this inscription, TMOAOC. The reverse, he says, is a figure holding in its right hand an inclined vase, with an inscription, partly defaced, CAPAIANS.—Canini very justly remarks, that by this medal is represented the excellency of the wines of Mount Tmolus, near the city of Sardis.-This may serve likewise to explain the latter part of this verse-" Et Rex ipse "Phanaeus:"-for by this is probably meant that Phanaeus had, or at least deserved, for his excellent wines, the same honours of statues and medals as well as Tmolus. In that sense the Ipse is very emphatical.

Plutarch, and after him Tzetzes, place Tmolus in the number of the Kings of Lydia.

*3 Phanaeus Rex signifies undoubtedly Chian, from Phanae, a promontory of Chios. See Stephanus Byzant. Dáva, Ακρωτήριον τῆς Χίε, δι οἰκήτορες, Φαναΐοι. Servius says of "Rex ipse Phanaeus-De Lucillio hoc tractum est, qui ait, Χιός τε δυνάςης : that is, οἶνος.”

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** Columella says of this: "Terrae mediocritate laetatur, "nam in pingui nimiis viribus luxuriat; in macrâ, tenuis et vacua fructu venit. Amicior jugo, quam arboribus; sed "etiam in sublimibus fertilis vastis materiis et uvis exuberat, "humillimis tabulatis aptior." Lib. III. c. ii.

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VER. 101-104.

"Non ego te, mensis ** et Diis accepta secundis, "Transierim, *3 Rhodia; et tumidis, * bumaste, racemis. "**Sed neque quam multae species; nec nomina "Et numerus: neque enim numero comprendere refert.”

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*1 Having mentioned some of the most celebrated grapes for making wine, he descends to such as were used only for eating. And by this transition, "Non ego transierim,'' seems to insinuate, that though these were excellent in their kind, yet were not to be had in equal esteem with the others, which were more necessary for life. Columella reckons the Bumastus, and Rhodia, among the grapes for eating.

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Horat. ad Augustum, lib. IV. od. v.

* Probably, a very large full grape; and therefore used for desserts. Pliny mentions it with the Uva uncialis, so called, as he observes, "à pondere acini," lib. XIV. c. iii.

* Bumastus is the very large red sort of grapes, that they give you so perpetually in their desserts in Italy, and particularly at Florence. It has its name from its shape; each grape being like the teat of a cow: Varro half latinizes the word, and calls it Bumamma.

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*Tument mammarum modo bumasti." Plin. lib. XIV.

i.

** Columella, quoting this passage, says: "Universae regiones, regionumque pene singulae partes habent propria vitium "genera, quae consuetudine suâ nominant; quaedam etiam "stirpes cum locis vocabula mutaverunt; quaedam propter ❝ mutationes locorum à qualitate suâ discesserunt, ita ut dignosci non possint. Ideoque in hâc ipsâ Italiâ vicinae etiam "nationes nominibus earum discrepant, variantque vocabula." Lib. III. c.

ii.

VER. 116, 117.

"Sola India *1 nigrum

"Ferte benum, solis est thurea virga ** Sabaeis."

*Virgil uses this epithet for distinction sake, and it is in this place very necessary, the black ebony being the only sort valued." Duo genera ejus; rarum id, quod melius, arbor

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eum, trunco enodi, materie nigri splendoris, ac vel sine arte "protinus jucundi: Alterum fruticosum, cytisi modo, et totâ "Indiâ dispersum." Plin. lib. XII. c. iv.

Lucan makes Meroë in Aethiopia the Mother of Ebony:

"Nigris Meroë foecunda colonis,

"Laeta comis Ebeni."

Pharsal. lib. X. 303.

Virgil seems in several places to use India in the larger sense, to signify Aethiopia, or any very hot country, as well as India. properly so called.

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*Ad meridiem ultima è regionibus, quae habitantur, "Arabia est: in quâ solâ omnium nascuntur thus, myrrha, etc. Herod. Thalia.

"Thura, praeter Arabiam, nullis; ac ne Arabiae quidem "universae: in medio ejus ferè sunt Atramitae, pagus Sabae"orum; capite regni Sabota, in monte excelso; à quo octo "mansionibus distat regio eorum thurifera, Saba appellata.” Plin. lib. XII. c. xiv.

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VER. 118-125.

"Quid tibi odorato referam sudantia ligno
"Balsamaque, et baccas semper frondentis acanthi?
Quid nemora 1 Aethiopum, molli canentia lana?
“ ** Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia ** Seres ?
"Aut quos Oceano propior gerit India lucos,
"Extremi sinus orbis? Ubi aëra vincere ** summum
“Arboris haud ullae jactu potuere sagittae:

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"Et gens ** illa quidem sumptis non tarda pharetris.'

* Pliny, lib. XIII. c. xiv. adds to the passage quoted by Ruaeus; That what the woods of Aethiopia produce much more resembles wool, than that of Arabia or the Indies: that it is contained in pods resembling a pomegranate, and that the tree is like the pomegranate-tree.- Propior tamen huic naturae "lanae; majorque folliculus, granati modo mali: Similesque et "inter se arbores ipsae."

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* See an account of Silk in Mons. Rollin's Antient History, vol. X. last section.

* Silius Italicus makes the Seres the farthest people of the world eastward:

"Jam Titan equos jungebat Eois "Littoribus, primique novo Phaetonte retecti "Seres lanigeris repetebant vellera lucis."

At the beginning of the 6th book.

**Q. Curtius gives this account of the woods of India : "Alexander Poro amneque (Hydaspe) superato ad interiora "Indiae processit. Sylvae erant prope in immensum spatium "diffusae, procerisque et in eximiam altitudinem editis arboribus "umbrosae: Plerique rami instar ingentium stipitum flexi in "humum rursus, qua se curvaverant, erigebantur; adeo ut species esset non rami resurgentis, sed arboris ex suâ radice

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"generatae." Lib. IX. § 2.—And a little before, speaking of the Indian arrows, he says, they were so great and heavy, that upon Alexander's attacking Porus's army on a sudden, their arrows were of little use to them." Ne sagittarum quidem "ullus erat Barbaris usus; quippe longae et praegraves, nisi prius in terrâ statuerint arcum, haud satis aptè et commodè imponuntur." Lib. VIII. § 47.

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** Lucan, speaking of the Indians, says:

"fortior arcus:

"Nec puer, aut senior, lethales tendere nervos

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Segnis.".

Lib. VIII. 295.

VER. 126, 127.

"Media fert tristes succos tardumque *1 saporem "Felicis * mali*.

*1"Citreis odor acerrimus, sapor asperrimus." Plin. lib. XV. c. xxviii.

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That the Malum citreum is here meant appears plainly from Pliny, who has given us an account of the Malus Assyria or Medica, lib. XII. c. iii. which is agreeable to this description of Virgil's. And he declares in another place, that this Medica is the Citrea malus: for he says, lib. XV. c. xiv. "Malorum "plura sunt genera. De citreis cum suâ arbore diximus;

"Medica autem Graeci vocant, Patriae nomine.”

* I take it that Virgil here means the orange-tree, which was first brought into Italy, from Media, in his time.—As it was not yet generally known in Italy, he describes it by its likeness to a tree well known there, the laurel-tree. "Its leaves," says he, “resemble the leaves of that; but have a finer and more "diffused smell; and it is almost always beautified with flow"ers." Pliny calls the orange-tree Malus Medica (as above); and his account of it agrees extremely with this in Virgil.

+Fracastorius has a very pretty description of the same, which may be worth inserting here:

"Sed neque carminibus neglecta silebere nostris, "Hesperidum decus et Medarum gloria Citre "Sylvarum: si forte sacris cantata Poëtis,

“ Parte quoque hâc Medicam non dedignabere Musam.” "Sic tibi sit semper viridis coma; semper opaca,

"Semper flore novo redolens: sis semper onusta

“ Per viridem pomum sylvam pendentibus aureis." Siph. I. 2,
VER. 136-139.

"Sed neque 1 Medorum sylvae, ditissima terra,
"Nec pulcher Ganges, atque auro turbidus Hermus,

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"Laudibus + Italiae certent: non Bactra, neque Indi,
"Totaque thuriferis Panchaïa pinguis * arenis."

*1Observe with what art he introduces the praises of Italy, and his compliment to Caesar: making the thread of his discourse lead him to it, without seeming to have it in his view.

Compare this with Denis of Halicarnassus's Elogium of Italy, lib. I. c. viii. § 5.-Pliny, lib. III. c. v. and lib. XXXVII. c. xiii.-and Solin. c. viii.

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** Columella, speaking of the land of Numidia and Aegypt, calls it "terram pinguibus arenis putrem veluti cinerem solu"tam." Lib. II. c. ii.

VER. 149, 150.

"Hic ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus aestas; "Bis gravidae pecudes, bis * pomis utilis arbos."

*This, as Ruaeus observes, is generally thought an hyperbole, but without reason; for besides what Varro mentions, lib. I. c. vii. "De malo biferâ in agro Consentino," several other authors assert the same, as sufficient justifications of the poet. And I remember to have seen a vine at Ischia, which I was assured bore grapes three times in the year; and is therefore called Uva di tre volte l'anno. It had ripe grapes in August; others turning, which would be ripe in October; and others quite green and small, which I was informed would be ripe in December or January. This corresponds with what Pliny affirms, lib. XVI. c. xxvii. "Vites quidem et triferae sunt, quas ob id insanas "vocant; quoniam in iis aliae maturescunt, aliae turgescunt, "aliae florent."-But, without enlarging further upon such singular instances affirmed by other authors, we may observe that when Virgil mentions this particular in honour of the Italian climate, he expresses himself more modestly and accurately than other authors do. He does not affirm that the trees are Biferae, or Bis parturit arbos, which perhaps may be doubted, but "bis pomis utilis."- This is certainly true of the fig, which they have in great plenty, especially about Naples, at two distant seasons of the year; (viz.) at the usual time, at the latter end of August, or September; and likewise in May, thence called, from the season, Fico di Pascha. I was informed at Cava near Naples, which place is celebrated for its figs, that they cover their trees with mats all the winter, by which means the small figs, which remained green on the tree in the autumn, are preserved, and ripen in the spring as soon as the trees begin to shoot, and produce those forward figs.

Columella, lib. X. reckons the Ficus among the Arbores biferae :

"Tunc praecox biferâ descendit ab arbore ficus."

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