him permanently the remembrance of his fault and of the rights of property.[XXVIII_40]
The imperial jurisprudence afterwards softened the Draconian rigour of this law of the Decemviri.[XXVIII_41]
The ancients, like ourselves, were fond of seeing fresh grapes appear on their tables at all periods of the year. They preserved them by covering them with barley flour,[XXVIII_42] or by placing fine bunches in rain water, diminished to a third by boiling. The vase was hermetically sealed with pitch and plaster, and then placed in a spot where the sun’s rays could not enter. This water was an excellent beverage for the sick.[XXVIII_43]
The method of making wine was precisely the same both in Greece and Italy.
The vine gatherers carefully rejected the green grapes,[XXVIII_44] and piled the others in deep baskets,[XXVIII_45] the contents of which were instantly emptied into large vats. There men, hardly clothed in the lightest garments, trampled them under their feet,[XXVIII_46] whilst joyous songs and sounds of flutes hastened their movements, and animated them to work faster.[XXVIII_47]
Wine obtained in this manner was much esteemed, and kept very well.[XXVIII_48] The wort which escaped from the vat as soon as they had thrown in the grapes, and which came from the pressure occasioned by their laying one on the other, enjoyed the preference. This first liquor was transformed into an exquisite wine.[XXVIII_49]
The grapes, crushed by the feet, were placed under the press,[XXVIII_50] and an opening made in the lower part of the vat allowed the wort to flow into earthen jars, whence it was subsequently poured into the barrels.[XXVIII_51]
The press was always raised at a little distance from the cellar and kitchen.[XXVIII_52] Its mechanism was very simple. The antiquities of Herculaneum will furnish us with an example. Two trees were firmly fixed in the ground, at a few feet distance one from the other, and a strong horizontal beam rested on their summit. Other pieces of wood, similar
DESCRIPTION OF [PLATE No. XXII.]