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CHAP. 6.—THE MOST ANCIENT WINES.

The wine of Maronea,1 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,2 a native of the same country, was the first person that mixed honey3 with wine, natural productions, both of them, of the highest degree of excellence. Homer4 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.5 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,6 has a strong bouquet, and is all the richer for being old.

The Pramnian wine, too, which Homer7 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 Mother8 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,9 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,"10 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.11 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,12 when we call to mind the life of Pom- ponius Secundus, the poet, and the banquet which he gave to that prince13—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.14 Very rarely, indeed, up to the present day, has it been known for a single15 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;16 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 colder17 temperature than any other.

1 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, honeysweet, fragrant. The place is still called Marogna, in Roumelia, a country the wines of which are still much esteemed.

2 See B. vii. c. 57.

3 Thus making "mulsum."

4 B. ix. c. 208.

5 Indomitus.

6 By "black" wines he means those that had the same colour as our port.

7 Il. xi. 638. Od. x. 234.

8 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. Dios- corides 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.

9 B.C. 121.

10 "Cooking," literally, or "boiling."

11 The wines of Burgundy, in particular, become bitter when extremely old.

12 See B. vii. c. 18.

13 Caligula.

14 By some remarkable and peculiar quality, such as in the Opimian wine.

15 "Testa," meaning the amphora.

16 See c. 3 of the present Book, where these "picata," or "pitched- wines," have been further described.

17 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.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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  • Commentary references to this page (1):
    • W. Walter Merry, James Riddell, D. B. Monro, Commentary on the Odyssey (1886), 9.209
  • Cross-references to this page (31):
    • Harper's, Fundānus
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ANCO´NA
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    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CAESE´NA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CALES
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    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CIRCEIUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), FALERNUS AGER
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    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LAGA´RIA
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    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), MA´SSICUS MONS
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    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PONS CAMPA´NUS
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    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), STATO´NIA
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    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), TARENTUM
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