[1408] We learn from the writings of Moses, that the planting of the vine, and the conversion of the juice of the grape into wine, was practised by Noah immediately after the Flood. The mixing of water with wine would seem to be a very obvious and natural mode of procuring a pleasant and refreshing beverage.—B.
[1409] From the writings of Moses, we learn that the use of oil and of honey was known to the inhabitants of Palestine and Egypt, at a very early period.—B.
[1410] “Buzyges” is a Greek term, signifying “one who yokes oxen;” according to Hardouin, the real name of the person here referred to was Epimenides.—B.
[1411] For an account of Triptolemus, the reader may consult Hyginus, and Pausanias, B. vii. Achaica.—B. Also the Fasti of Ovid, B. iv. l. 507, et seq.
[1412] Phalaris is supposed to have been contemporary with Servius Tullius, who reigned from 577 to 533 B.C.—B.
[1413] Meaning a citizen who obtained the sovereignty by violence and usurpation.
[1414] This is supposed to have taken place 1000 years before Christ, when the Lacedæmonians conquered the Helots. But Moses had given the Jews a code of laws, respecting the treatment of slaves, between 400 and 500 years before that event, and we have various intimations of the existence of slavery, in his writings, long before his time. It appears, indeed, that in the different countries of the East, and in Africa, slavery has existed from time immemorial.—B.
[1415] This is confirmed by Ælian, Var. Hist. B. iii. c. 38.—B.
[1416] According to the same fabulous account of the early Grecian history, they were twin brothers, kings of the Argives; after much contention, Acrisius succeeded in expelling Prœtus from Argos; they are said to have lived 1400 years B.C. Athamas was a king of Thebes, and the contemporary of Acrisius.—B.
[1417] According to Hardouin, the Lacedæmonians had the helmet, the sword, and the spear, of a peculiar form, different from that used by the other natives of Greece.—B.