The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

EXCURSUS VII. GREEK WINES. 699
alluded to in terms of the highest commendation.i The Phanean, which
is extolled hy Virgil aa the king of wines, was also the product of the
same island. The wines of Naxos, BJiedes, and Cos, on the other hand,
were still more liable to the censure passed on the Lesbian in Pliny's time
and those of Zacynthus and Leucadia had the character of being heady.
As the latter were prepared with gypsum, they were probably of a drier
nature and more potent quality than the wines of the other islands.
Among the lighter wines, the Mendean, which most likely took its name
from Mende, a town in Thrace, was a white wine, and of such moderate
strength, that it bore dilution with only three parts of water. Por the
manufacture of it, the grapes, while still hanging on the vine, are said to
have been sprinkled with elaterium, which was supposed to impart a peculiar
softness to the wine. The Argitis, celebrated by Virgil for its ex-
traordinary dnrability, and procured from a small grape abounding in juice,
is also believed to have been a white wine.' If this conjecture be well
founded, we may discover some analogy between it and the best growths
of the Rhine, which are obtained from a small white grape, and are remarkable
for their permanency. A little rough wine, named Omphadies,
was procured in Lesbos and Thasos from a particular species of grape,
which was gathered before it had attained its full maturity, and exposed
to the snn three or four days previously to pressure.* After the first fermentation
was over, the casks were kept in a sunny situation till the
wine was sufficiently ripened.^
The above are all the principal wines of Greece to which it is possible
to assign distinctive characters. But, besides these indigenous growths,
the Greeks were familiar with the produce of the African and Asiatic
wines, of which several enjoyed a high reputation, and may be consider
ed as the parent stocks from which the lirst Grecian vineyards were sup-
plied. According to I'lorentinus, some of the Bithynian wines, but especially
that procured from a species of grape called mersites, were of the
choicest quality.* The wines of Byblos, in Fha3nicia, on the other hand,
vied in fragrancy with the Lesbian ; and, if we may confide in the report
of Athenffius, the white wines of Mareotis and Tania, in Lower Egypti
were of almost unrivalled excellence. The former, which was sometimes
called Alexandrean, from the neighboring territory, was a light, 'sweetish
white wine, with a delicate perfume, of easy digestion, and not apt to affect
the head, though the allusion of Horace to its influence on the mind
of Cleopatra would seem to imply that it had not always preserved its innocuous
quality.^ The wine of Meroe, however, which was produced at
the feast given to Ccesar hy that voluptuous female, would appear to have
been in still higher estimation, and to have borne some resemblance to
the Falernian.' The Taaiotie, on the other hand, which derived its name
from the narrow strip where it grew, was a gray or greenish vrine (inr;y?\,aaoc),
of a greater consistence Snd more luscious taste than the Mare
otic, buit accompanied with some degree of astringenoy, and a rich aro.
matio odor. The wine of Antylla, also the produce of the vicinity of Alexandrea,
was the only remaining growth, from among the numerous vine-
1 Eclog., v., 71. Sii. iiai!., vii., 210. 2. Georg, ii., 99.
3. Vwscoriia, v., 13.
S. Carm i., 37, 14.
4- Geoponica, v, 2.
6- I^