[1381] Or “wine-lee drink.” It would make an acid beverage, of disagreeable taste.
[1382] “Nobilia.” In c. [29] he speaks of 195 kinds, and, reckoning all the varieties, double that number.
[1383] Fée observes that the varieties of the modern wines are quite innumerable. He remarks also that Pliny does not speak of the Asiatic wines mentioned by Athenæus, which were kept in large bottles, hung in the chimney corner; where the liquid, by evaporation, acquired the consistency of salt. The wines of other countries evidently were little known to Pliny.
[1384] “Circa pericula arbusti.” This is probably the meaning of this very elliptical passage. See p. [218].
[1385] Called Metellus, by Valerius Maximus, B. vi. c. 3.
[1387] Over the Celtiberi.
[1388] The younger Pliny, B. ii. Ep. 2, censures this stingy practice. See also Martial, B. iii. Epig. 60.
[1389] That this, however, was not uncommonly done, we may judge from the remark made by the governor of the feast, John ii. 10, to the bridegroom.
[1390] Called “myrrhina.” Fée remarks that the flavour of myrrh is acrid and bitter, its odour strong and disagreeable, and says that it is difficult to conceive how the ancients could drink wine with this substance in solution.