[1128] See B. iii. c. 5, and B. xxxiii. c. 24.
[1129] He died in the year B.C. 19.
[1130] A vine sapling was the chief mark of the centurion’s authority.
[1131] The reading “elatas,” has been adopted. If “lentas” is retained, it may mean, “promotion, slow though it be,” for the word “aquila” was often used to denote the rank of the “primipilus,” who had the charge of the eagle of the legion.
[1132] Because it was the privilege solely of those soldiers who were Roman citizens to be beaten with the vine sapling.
[1133] He alludes to the “vinea” used in besieging towns; the first notion of which was derived from the leafy roof afforded by the vines when creeping on the trellis over-head. It was a moveable machine, affording a roof under which the besiegers protected themselves against darts, stones, fire, and other missiles. Raw hides or wet cloths constituted the uppermost layer.
[1134] See B. xxiii. c. 19.
[1135] Many years ago, there were in the gardens of the Luxembourg one thousand four hundred varieties of the French grape, and even then there were many not to be found there; while, at the same time, it was considered that the French kinds did not form more than one-twentieth part of the species known in Europe.
[1136] This vine was said to be of Grecian origin, and to have been conveyed by a Thessalian tribe to Italy, where it was grown at Aminea, a village in the Falernian district of Campania. It is supposed to have been the same as the gros plant of the French. The varieties mentioned by Pliny seem not to have been recognized by the moderns.
[1137] Fée does not give credit to this statement.