The Tarentins used to drink from morning till night, and got quite drunk in public[6].
The Leontins, a people in Sicily, were such great drunkards, that they occasioned this proverb, viz. the Leontins are always near a cup of wine[7].
The Byzantins must not be refused a place in this chapter. Ælian reports[8], that Leonides, their general, being besieged, and unable to make his men keep their posts, which they quitted every moment to go and get drunk at the taverns, he immediately gave orders that the vintners should repair with all their liquors to the ramparts, by which stratagem he kept them to their duty.
But as it may be said that the nations we have already mentioned were all barbarous, we shall, for that reason, verify what Montaigne says, that amongst nations the best regulated, and most polite, this essay of drinking deep was very much in use[9].
The Greeks, whom one may look upon as the only nation of the world for politeness and good sense, are a proof of what I advance. They celebrated the feasts of Bacchus with a great deal of solemnity; it is from them that Pergræcari, of which every one knows the signification, is derived. Ælian assures us, that they were so very luxurious, that they put perfumed oils into their wine, which they called wine of myrrh.
The Romans had also a very strong passion for wine, so that at Rome there were frequently very great seditions for want of it. Seditiones sunt concitatæ graves ob inopiam vini[10], says Ammianus Marcellinus, in the Life of Constantius and Gallus; and in the reign of Constantius only, the same historian says, there was a sedition also upon that very account.
Titus Livius tells us, that the Clusians passed the Alps, and came to inhabit the country that the Etrurians possessed before, to have the pleasure of drinking wine[11].
Let us now descend to some nations, with whom, at present, this custom of getting drunk is received.
Sir Paul Ricaut[12] assures us, that the Turks considering that wine rejoices the heart, and comforts the stomach, have begun to drink it; adding, that at present there are only a few (ulamah) ecclesiastical hypocrites or some ignorant bigots, or superannuated people, that abstain from that liquor; but at the same time drunkenness is grown very common amongst them.
M. Du Mont confirms this truth, “As to wine,” says he, “though it be as expressly forbidden as swine’s flesh, it is nevertheless very certain that a great many Mahometans transgress that precept; and the justest thing that I can say in that respect is, that abstinence from wine is observed there almost after the same manner as Lent in France[13].”