And pour upon them many cups of water.
Then make him eat them when well steep'd in wine.
And the poet, who is the author of the Chiron, which is generally attributed to Pherecrates, says—
Almonds and apples, and the arbutus first,
And myrtle-berries, pastry, too, and grapes
Well steep'd in wine; and marrow.
And that every sort of autumn fruit was always plentiful at Athens, Aristophanes testifies in his Horæ. Why, then, should that appear strange which Aethlius the Samian asserts in the fifth book of his Samian Annals, where he says, "The fig, and the grape, and the medlar, and the apple, and the rose grow twice a-year?" And Lynceus, in his letter to Diagoras, praising the Nicostratian grape, which grows in Attica, and comparing it to the Rhodiacan, says, "As rivals of the Nicostratian grapes they grow the Hipponian grape; which after the month Hecatombæon (like a good servant) has constantly the same good disposition towards its masters."
69. But as you have had frequent discussions about meats, and birds, and pigeons, I also will tell you all that I, after a great deal of reading, have been able to find out in addition to what has been previously stated. Now the word περιστέριον (pigeon), may be found used by Menander in his Concubine, where he says—
He waits a little while, and then runs up
And says—"I've bought some pigeons (περιστέρια) for you."