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

706 EXCURSUS IX. DILUTION OP ANCIENT WINES.
most frequent mention is made, and concerning which the fullest particu-
lars have been transmitted. Respecting certain other growths, as the
Galenum, CauUnum, and SpatanuTip, our information is of a more imper
feet nature. We only know that the vintages of Cales are much praised
by Horace, and described by G-alen as lighter, and more grateful to the
stomach than the Falemian, while those of the latter territories are pro*
nounced to have been little, if at all; inferior to that celebrated Wine
As the soils of the Campania of Rome partake of the same nature, ana
present many exoelient exposures for the vine, some good wines were
there produced, hut none of them equal in quality to those which tre have
just been reviewing. The Albanwint which grew upon the hills that rise
to the south, in view of the city, is ranked by Pliny only as a third-rate
wine ; but, from the frequent commendation of it by Juvenal and Horace,
we must suppose it to have been in considerable repute, especially wheti
matured by long keeping.^ It was sweet and thick when new, but be
came dry when old, seldom ripening properly before the jQfteenth year.
The wine of Labicum occupied the middle station between the Falemiao
and the Alban. The Signinum, on the other hand, is said to. have been
60 rough and astringent that it was chiefly used as an