And Aristotle says, that the wine called the Samagorean wine was so strong that more than forty men were made drunk with a pint and a half of it after it had been mixed with water.
35. Democritus having said this, and having drunk, said,—Now if any one can gainsay any of these statements let him come forward: and then he shall be told, as Evenus says—
That may be your opinion; this is mine.
But I, since I have now made this digression about the mixtures of the ancients, will resume the thread of my original discourse where I let it drop; considering what was said by Alcæus the lyric poet. For he speaks, somewhere or other, in this way—
Pour out, in just proportion, one and two.
DRINKING.
For in these words some people do not think that he is alluding to the mixture of wine and water at all; but that, being a moderate and temperate man, he would not drink more than one cyathus of pure wine, or perhaps, at the most, two. And this is the interpretation given to the passage by Chamæleon of Pontus, who was ignorant how fond of wine Alcæus had been. For this poet will be found to have been in the habit of drinking at every season and in every imaginable condition of affairs. In winter he speaks thus—
Now the storm begins to lower,
And Jove descends in heavy snow,
And streams of water stand congeal'd
In cruel ice: let's drive away
The wintry cold, and heap up fire,
And mingle with unsparing hand
The honied cup, and wreathe our brows
With fragrant garlands of the season.
And in summer, he writes—
Now it behoves a man to soak his lungs
In most cool wine; for the fierce dogstar rages,
And all things thirst with the excessive heat.