learned from the Scythians. The proportions of the mixture varied, but there was always more water, and half and half toov low was repudiated as disgraceful.

The process of wine-making was essentially the same among the Greeks and the Romans. The grapes were gathered, trodden, and submitted to the press. The juice which flowed from the grapes before

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any force was applied was known as "póxчua, and was reserved for the manufacture of a particular species of rich wine described by Pliny (H. N. xiv. 11), to which the inhabitants of Mitylene gave the name of πρόδρομος. The Greeks recognised three colours in wines-black or red, white or straw-colour, and tawny brown (Kippós, fulvus). When wine was carried, ȧokoí, or bags of goat-skin, were used, pitched over to make them seam-tight. The cut below, from a bronze found

at Herculaneum (Mus. Borbon. iii. 28). exhibits a Silenus astride one of them.

The mode of drinking from the ȧupopeus, bottle or amphora, and from a wine skin, is taken from a painting on an Etruscan vase.

A spiced wine is noticed by Athenæus under the name of τρίμμα. Into the οἶνοι ὑγιεινοί, or medical wines, drugs, such as horehound, squills, wormwood, and myrtle-berries, were introduced to produce hygienic effects. Essential oils were also mixed with wines. Of these the uppvirns1 is mentioned by Ælian (V. H. xii. 31). So in the early ages when Hecamede prepares a drink for Nestor, she sprinkles her cup of

Pramnian wine with grated cheese, perhaps a sort of Gruyère, and flour. The most popular of these compound beverages was the oivóueı2 (mulsum), or honey wine, said by Pliny (xiv. 4) to have been invented by Aristæus. Greek wines required no long time to ripen. The wine drank by Nestor (Odyss. iii. 391) of ten year old is an exception.

The sweet wines of the Greeks (the produce of various islands on the Ægean and Ionian Seas) were probably something like modern Cyprus and Constantia, while the dry wines, such as the Pramnian and Corinthian, were remarkable for their astringency, and were indeed only drinkable after being preserved for many years. Of the former of these Aristophanes says that it shrivelled the features and obstructed the digestion of all who drank it, while to taste the latter

was mere torture.

1 This is probably the murrhina of Plautus (Pseudol. ii. 4, 50) 2 This drink must not be confounded with vdpóμeλi, honey and water, our mead, or vôpoμýλor, our cider

Falernian, Cæcuban, and other Wines-Galen's Opinion-Columella's Receipt-The Roman Banquet-Dessert Wines-The Supper of Nasidienus-Dedication of Cups-Wines mentioned by Pliny made of Figs, Medlars, Mulberries, and other Fruits.

F Roman wines the Campania Felix boasted the

OF

most celebrated growths. The Falernian, Massican, Cæcuban, and Surrentine wines were all the produce of this favoured soil. The three first of these wines have been, as the schoolboy (not necessarily Macaulay's) is only too well aware, immortalised by Horace, who doubtless had ample opportunities of forming a matured judgment about them.

The

The Cæcuban is described by Galen as a generous wine, ripening only after a long term of years. Massican closely resembled the Falernian. The Setine was a light wine, and, according to Pliny, the favourite drink of Augustus, who perhaps grounded his preference on his idea that it was the least injurious to the stomach. Possibly Horace differed from his patron in taste. He never mentions this wine, which is however celebrated both by Martial and by Juvenal

As for the Surrentine, the fiat of Tiberias has dismissed it as generous vinegar. Dr. Henderson has no hesitation in fixing upon the wines of Xeres and Madeira as those to which the celebrated Falernian bears the nearest resemblance. Both are strawcoloured, assuming a deeper tint from age. Both present the varieties of dry and sweet. and durable. Both require keeping. The soil of Madeira is more analogous to that of the Campania Felix, whence we may conclude perhaps that the flavour and aroma of its wines are similar to those

Both are strong

of the Campania. Finally, if Madeira or sherry were kept in earthen jars till reduced to the consistence of honey, the taste would become so bitter that, to use the expression of Cicero (Brut. 83), we should condemn it as intolerable.

The wines of antiquity present disagreeable features; sea water, for instance, and resin already mentioned. Columella advises the addition of one pint of salt water for six gallons of wine. The impregnation with resin has been still preserved, with the result of making some modern Greek wines unpalatable save to the modern Greeks themselves. Columella (De Re Rustica, xii. 19) says that four ounces of crude pitch mingled with certain aromatic herbs should be mixed with two amphora, or about thirteen gallons of wine.

Ancient wines were also exposed in smoky garrets until reduced to a thick syrup, when they had to be strained before they were drunk. Habit only it seems could have endeared these pickled and pitched and smoked wines to the Greek and Roman palates, as