the same operation. The liquor from the second pressing was known as mustum tortivum, and was used for the manufacture of inferior wines, or for mixing with the better qualities. The "must" or sweet juice was transferred to "dolia," long bell-mouthed earthenware vases, partially sunk in the earth, in an apartment on the ground floor called the cella vinaria, and in these vessels the fermentation took place, usually lasting nine days. After this, the upper part of the inside of the dolia having been previously smeared with a composition of saffron, pitch, mastic, and fir cones, those vessels were closed with lids, which were taken off from time to time to give air to the contents, to remove impurities, and to add any substances which were deemed necessary to give soundness to the wine. From the dolia the finer kinds of wine were transferred to other vessels called amphora, made of earthenware or glass, and closed with a plug of wood or cork, which was rendered impervious to air by being coated with clay or gypsum. These amphora bore the name of the wine they held, just as do our bottles, and they were usually deposited in the upper floor of the house, it being supposed that the smoke or warmth from the floors below, in passing upwards, improved the quality of the wine. This effect was heightened by constructing the bath furnaces below the apartments (apotheca) in which the wine was stored.1 The commoner kinds were drawn direct from the dolia, the original vessels in which 1 For further particulars concerning the process of wine-making in Rome, the reader is referred to Smith's "Dictionary of Antiquities," Art. "Vinum," by W. Ramsay, which contains a large amount of useful and interesting information on the subject. PLINY ON ROMAN VINE-CULTURE. 63 fermentation had taken place; and for the sale of wine in the streets and markets, or for its transport, the wine-holders were usually made of the skins of animals. The culture of the vine was a most important industry in Greece and Italy, and the plant itself is said to have attained proportions which are rarely if at all equalled in our day. We are told, for example, that in the city of Populonium there was a statue formed of the trunk of a single vine, which for ages remained proof against all decay;1 and again that at Metapontum the temple of Juno stood supported by pillars formed of the same material. Pliny says that there were in his day ninetyone varieties of vine, of which he describes several, giving many details concerning their cultivation. He mentions one hundred and sixteen different sorts of wine, whereof fifty are called "generous;" and he (as well as other writers of his day) speaks of the wines of Latium in Italy, chiefly those growing near the sea, and of certain islands in the Grecian Archipelago (Chios, Lesbos, &c.), as the most highly prized and commended. Various substances were used to improve and give flavour to the wines of those days, and amongst them we find named sea-water, turpentine, resin, gypsum, almonds, parched salt, goats' milk, cedar cones, salts of lead, and a variety of others which would seem hardly suited to the purpose. Many were adulterants used for doctoring inferior wines, and severe enactments were passed to prevent such practices. We are not, however, led to believe that artificial wines were manufactured and adulteration practised to the same extent as 1 Pliny, vol. iii. p. 218 (Book xiv.). 2 Ibid., p. 222 et seq. in our day. A German newspaper1 recently gave an account of a prosecution in Berlin, in which it was stated that one large store which had been inspected contained only artificial wines, into the manufacture of which the juice of the grape never entered, although the names borne by the labels of the bottles were those of wellknown wines. But to return to Rome. Drinks more or less intoxicating were made from honey (hydromeli), and from a great variety of fruits, shrubs, and herbs; but our space will not allow us even to enumerate them. The views which were entertained at that time concerning the use and abuse of wine seem to be somewhat similar to those which are held in the present day. Pliny, for example, describes its effects as follows:-"It causes a feeling of warmth in the interior of the viscera, and when poured upon the body is cool and refreshing;" and he adds, 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. Some wines, we are told, had the virtue of prolonging life; thus Livia Augusta, who lived to her eighty-second year, attributed her longevity to the wine of Pucinum, as she never drank any other. The fact is hardly conclusive, for we do not know how long she would have lived if she had drunk no wine at all. The author knows an old gentleman who has attained nearly the same age, and he never drinks anything but brown brandy, yet he has never heard him attribute his longevity to that cause. 2 1 The "Kölnische Zeitung," Friday, November 23, 1877. "Vermischte Nachrichten." See also "The Chemistry of Wine," p. 374, by Mulder. Churchill. 2 Pliny, vol. iii. p. 239. ANCIENT ROMAN DRINKING VESSELS. 91 Wine was believed to possess distinctly medicinal properties. Pliny says, "It acts as an antidote to cantharides and stings inflicted by serpents," and that “it is good for the kidneys, liver, and inner coat of the bladder, and is an antidote for various poisons, especially hemlock;"1 whilst Mnesitheus, an Athenian physician, although he admitted that people who drink a great quantity of unmixed wine at banquets often receive great injury from so doing, recommended "occasional hard drinking," which appeared to him to produce "a certain purging of the body and a certain relaxation of the mind." 2 We have heard opinions expressed almost as irrational as the last named, even in our time. The price of wine appears to have been marvellously low. It is said to have varied from sixpence per gallon down to threepence for ten gallons; but, of course, it is difficult to form a correct estimate in this respect without comparing its price with that of bread. or some other article of regular consumption, and ascertaining what were the rates of remuneration in trades and handicrafts. The strongest proof of the large consumption of wine is, however, to be found in the number and variety of the drinking vessels which were employed in Greece and Rome. The most common were the calix, a flat vase-shaped cup with one handle, and the rhyton, a horn-shaped vessel. Originally the latter was the horn of an animal, which appears to have been the first drinking vessel of most nations, but gradually the rhyton assumed various 1 Pliny, vol. iv. p. 259. Athenæus, vol. ii. p. 772. 3 Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, Art. "Vinum." ornamental shapes, such as the head of a bull or greyhound, either made altogether of earthenware, or surmounted with an open receptacle of chased gold or silver, and provided with a handle. But besides these, the names of the drinking vessels were legion. Athenæus describes a vast number with great minuteness.1 Some were of precious metal, others of crystal, wood, horn, or earthenware; some of ordinary dimensions, and others again were enormous as, for example, the elephant : "Tis a mighty cup, Pregnant with double springs of rosy wine, Dionysius of Sinope, we are told, published a catalogue of cups, which, if we may judge from the space occupied by little more than the bare mention of some of them in Athenæus, must have been pretty compendious. But these drinking vessels had a significance beyond that which attached either to their size, material, or variety. Whilst some were works of art, testifying only the skill, the love of the beautiful, and the cultivated taste of their makers and owners, many, through the indecent scenes which were portrayed upon them, revealed an age of dissoluteness which had probably never been surpassed nor even equalled. To descend to an account of the debauchery practised in the ancient empires of Greece and Rome would be impossible in this or any other work of a popular character, but our duty would remain unfulfilled did 1 Athenæus, p. 738 et seq. 2 Ibid., p. 747. |