Deipnosophistae

Aleman somewhere speaks of a wine as free from fire, and smelling of flowers, which is produced from the Five Hills, a place about seven furlongs from Sparta. And he mentions another wine which comes from Denthiades, a small fortress, and another from Œnus, and another from Onogle and Stathmi. And these places are all near Pitane. Accordingly, he says,

And wine from Œnus, or from Denthis, or from Carystus, or from Onoglæ, or from Stathmi.

The Carystian wine is that which comes from Carystus in Laconia, on the borders of Arcadia. And he calls it

free from fire

as not having been boiled; for they often used boiled wines. Polybius says that there was an admirable wine made at Capua; which was called ἀναδενδρίτης, to which no other wine was at all comparable. But Alciphron of the Mæander says, that there was a mountain village near the Ephesian territories, which was formerly called Latona's, but is now called Latorea, from Latorea the Amazon; and that there also Pramnian wine is made. Timachidas the Rhodian calls a wine made at Rhodes ὑπόχυτος, or the adulterated wine, being near akin to sweet wine. But that wine is called γλύξις which goes through no process of decoction.

There is also a Rhodian wine, which Polyzelus calls αὐτίτης· [*](αἰτίτης, by itself, i.e. unmixed.) and another which Plato the comic writer calls καπνίας;[*](καπνίας,i.e. smoky.) and this wine is made in the greatest perfection at Beneventum, a city in Italy. But the wine Amphis is spoken of as a very poor wine by Sosicrates. The ancients used also a certain wine made of spices, which they called τρίμμα. But Theophrastus, in his History of Plants, says, that a wine is made in Heræa in Arcadia which, when it is drunk, drives men out of their senses, and makes women inclined to preg- nancy: and that around Cerunia in Achaia there is a kind of vine, from which a wine is made which has a tendency to cause abortion in pregnant women; and if they eat the grapes too, says he, they miscarry;—and the Trœzenian wine, he says, makes those who drink it barren: and at Thasos,

says he, they make a wine which produces sleep, and another which causes those who drink it to keep awake.

But concerning the manufacture of scented wine, Phanias of Eresus says,

There is infused into the wine one portion of sea-water to fifty of wine, and that becomes scented wine.

And again he says,

Scented wine is made stronger of young than of old vines;

and he subjoins,

Having trodden on the unripe grapes they put the wine away, and it becomes scented.

But Theophrastus says, that

the wine at Thasos, which is given in the prytaneum, is wonderfully delicious; for it is well seasoned; for they knead up dough with honey, and put that into the earthen jars; so that the wine receives fragrance from itself, and sweetness from the honey.

And he proceeds to say,

If any one mixes harsh wine which has no smell with soft and fragrant wine, such, for instance, as the Heraclean wine with that of Erythræ, softness is derived from the one, and wholesomeness from the other.

And the Myrtite or Myrrhine wine is spoken of by Posidippus:—

1. A tasteless, dry, and foolish wine
2. I consider the myrrhine.

Hermes, too, is mentioned by Strattis as the name of a drink. And Chæreas says, that a wine is made in Babylon which is called nectar.

The bard of Ceos says—

1. 'Tis not enough to mix your wine with taste,
2. Unless sweet converse seasons the repast;
3. And Bacchus' gifts well such regard deserve,
4. That we should e'en the stones of grapes preserve.