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

EXCURSUS VIII. PRINCIPAL VflNES OFTTTE ROMANS. 701
winds, has called forth the eulogies of every writer who has had occasion
to mention it. There the earth yields its choicest fruits almost unbidden,
"ipsa volentia rura," refusing not even the growths of the torrid zone;'
and if the inhabitants too often remain insensible to the advantages of
feheir situation, the traveller can not fall to be charmed with the luxuriant
display of vegetable life which bursts upoii his sight. Prom this district,
then, the Komans obtained those vintages which they valued so highly,
and of which the fame extended to all parts of the world. In ancient
times, indeed, the hills by which the surface is diversified seem to have
formed one continued vineyard ; and every care was taken to maintain
the choice quality of the produce. With respect to the locality and des-
ignation of particular celebrated spots, much controversy has arisen
among critics. Floras speaks of Falernus as a mountain,' and Martial
describes it under the same title ,^ hut Fliny, Folybius, and others denominate
it a Held or territory {ager) i and as the best growths were styled
indiscriminately Massicum and Falemum, Peregrini concurs with Vibius
in deciding that Massicus was the proper appellation of the hiU which
rose from the Falernian plain. By a similar mode of reasoning it might
be inferred from the term "arvis," which occurs in conjunction with '*MassicuSt"
in the splendid description of the Palernian vineyards given by
Silius Italicus, that the epithet Massicus was applicable to more level
gi'ounds.
The truth seems to be, that the choicest wines were produced on the
southern declivities of the range of hills which commence in the neighborhood
of the ancient Sinuessa, and extend to a considerable distance inland,
and which may have taken their general name from the town or district
oi Falemum ; but the most conspicuous or the best exposed among them
may have been the Massicus ; and as, in process of time, several inferior
growths were confounded under the common denomination of !Fa1emian,
correct writers would choose that epithet which most accurately denoted
the finest vintages. If, however, it be allowable to appeal to the analogy
of modern names, the question as to the locality will be quickly decided
for the mountain that rises from the Eooca di Mondragone, which is generally
allowed to point to the site of ancient Sinuessa, is still known by
the name ol Monte Massico. That the Massic wines were grown here is
sufficiently proved by the testimony of Martial, who describes them as
the produce of the Sinuessan vineyai'ds. At a short distance to the east,
and on the slope of the adjacent ridge, are two villages, of which the upper
is called Falciano a tnonte^ and the lower Falciano a basso. Here
was the ancient Fausiianum, of which Falciano is a corruption.
The account which Pliny has furnished of the wines of Campania is the
most circumstantial, and, as no one had greater opportunities of becoming
familiar with the principal growths of his native country, doubtless the
most con-ect. " Augustus, and most of the leading men of his time," he
informs us, " gave the preference to the Setine wine that was grown in
the vineyards above Forum Appii, as being of all kinds the least apt to
1 Cottnn has been cultivated on the plain of Sorrento with so much success
as to furnish in one year (1812) to the amount of 60,000 bales.— Chateamieux, Let
tres ficrites d'ltalie, torn, ii., p. 59.
8. Lib. i., c. 16. 3- Epig xU, 5T.
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