There are some vines, again, that are remarkable, not for their wine, but for their grapes, such, for instance, as the ambrosia,[1192] one of the “duracinus,”[1193] kind, a grape which requires no potting, but will keep perfectly well if left on the vine, so remarkable is the strength with which it is endowed for withstanding the effects of cold, heat, and stormy weather. The “orthampelos,”[1194] too, is a vine that requires neither tree nor stay, as it is well able to sustain its own weight. This, however, is not the case with the “dactylis,”[1195] the stem of which is no thicker than the finger. The “columbina”[1196] is one of those with the finest clusters, and still more so is the purple “bimammia;” it does not bear in clusters,[1197] but only secondary bunches. There is the tripedanea,[1198] too, a name which it owes to the length of its clusters, and the scirpula,[1199] with its shrivelled berry; the Rhætica,[1200] too, so called in the Maritime Alps, though very different from the grape of that name which is so highly esteemed, and of which we have previously spoken; for in this variety the clusters are small, the grapes lie closely packed, and it produces but a poor wine. It has, however, the thinnest skin of all the grapes, and a single stone,[1201] of very diminutive size, which is known as the “Chian;”[1202] one or two of the grapes on the cluster are remarkably large. There is also the black Aminean, to which the name of Syriaca is given: the Spanish vine, too, the very best of all those of inferior quality.
The grapes that are known as escariæ,[1203] are grown on trellises. Of the duracinus[1204] kind, there are those known as the white and the black varieties; the bumastus, too, is similarly distinguished in colour. Among the vines too, that have not as yet been mentioned, there are the Ægian and the Rhodian[1205] kinds, as also the uncialis, so called, it would seem, from its grape being an ounce in weight. There is the picina[1206] too, the blackest[1207] grape known, and the stephanitis,[1208] the clusters of which Nature, in a sportive mood, has arranged in the form of a garland, the leaves being interspersed[1209] among the grapes; there are the grapes, too, known as the “forenses,”[1210] and which quickly come to maturity, recommend themselves to the buyer by their good looks, and are easily carried from place to place.
On the other hand, those known as the “cinerea”[1211] are condemned by their very looks, and so are the rabuscula[1212] and the asinusca;[1213] the produce of the alopecis,[1214] which resembles in colour a fox’s tail, is held in less disesteem. The Alexandrina[1215] is the name of a vine that grows in the vicinity of Phalacra: it is of stunted growth, and has branches a cubit in length; the grape is black, about the size of a bean, with a berry that is soft, and remarkably small: the clusters hang in a slanting direction, and are remarkably sweet; the leaves are small and round, without any division.[1216] Within the last seven years there has been introduced at Alba Helvia,[1217] in the province of Gallia Narbonensis, a vine which blossoms but a single day, and is consequently proof against all accidents: the name given to it is “Narbonica,” and it is now planted throughout the whole of that province.
CHAP. 5. (4.)—REMARKABLE FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE CULTURE OF THE VINE.
The elder Cato, who was rendered more particularly illustrious by his triumph[1218] and the censorship, and even more so by his literary fame, and the precepts which he has given to the Roman people upon every subject of utility, and the proper methods of cultivation in particular; a man who, by the universal confession, was the first husbandman of his age and without a rival—has mentioned a few varieties only of the vine, the very names of some of which are by this utterly forgotten.[1219] His statement on this subject deserves our separate consideration, and requires to be quoted at length, in order that we may make ourselves acquainted with the different varieties of this tree that were held in the highest esteem in the year of the City of Rome 600, about the time of the capture of Carthage and Corinth, the period of his death: it will show too, what great advances civilization has made in the last two hundred and thirty years. The following are the remarks which he has made on the subject of the vine and the grape.
“Where the site is considered to be most favourable to the growth of the vine, and exposed to the warmth of the sun, you will do well to plant the small[1220] Aminean, as well as the two eugenia,[1221] and the smaller helvia.[1222] On the other hand, where the soil is of a denser nature or more exposed to fogs, the greater Aminean should be planted, or else the Murgentine,[1223] or the Apician of Lucania. The other varieties of the grape are, for the most part, adapted to any kind of soil; they are best preserved in a lora.[1224] The best for keeping by hanging, are the duracinus kind, the greater Aminean, and the Scantian;[1225] these, too, will make excellent raisins for keeping if dried at the blacksmith’s forge.” There are no precepts in the Latin language on this subject more ancient than these, so near are we to the very commencement of all our practical knowledge! The Aminean grape, of which mention has been made above, is by Varro called the “Scantian.”
In our own times we have but few instances of any consummate skill that has been manifested in reference to this subject: the less excuse then should we have for omitting any particular which may tend to throw a light upon the profits that may be derived from the culture of the vine, a point which on all occasions is regarded as one of primary importance. Acilius Sthenelus, a man of plebeian rank, and the son of a freedman, acquired very considerable repute from the cultivation of a vineyard in the territory of Nomentum, not more than sixty jugera in extent, and which he finally sold for four hundred thousand sesterces. Vetulenus Ægialus too, a freedman as well, acquired very considerable note in the district of Liternum,[1226] in Campania, and, indeed, received a more extensive share of the public favour, from the fact that he cultivated the spot which had been the place of exile of Scipio Africanus.[1227] The greatest celebrity of all, however, was that which, by the agency of the same Sthenelus, was accorded to Rhemmius Palæmon, who was also equally famous as a learned grammarian. This person bought, some twenty years ago, an estate at the price of six hundred thousand sesterces in the same district of Nomentum, about ten miles distant from the City of Rome. The low price of property[1228] in the suburbs, on every side of the City, is well known; but in that quarter in particular, it had declined to a most remarkable extent; for the estate which he purchased had become deteriorated by long-continued neglect, in addition to which it was situate in the very worst part of a by no means favourite locality.[1229] Such was the nature of the property of which he thus undertook the cultivation, not, indeed, with any commendable views or intentions at first, but merely in that spirit of vanity for which he was notorious in so remarkable a degree. The vineyards were all duly dressed afresh, and hoed, under the superintendence of Sthenelus; the result of which was that Palæmon, while thus playing the husbandman, brought this estate to such an almost incredible pitch of perfection, that at the end of eight years the vintage, as it hung on the trees, was knocked down to a purchaser for the sum of four hundred thousand sesterces; while all the world was running to behold the heaps upon heaps of grapes to be seen in these vineyards. The neighbours, by way of finding some excuse for their own indolence, gave all the credit of this remarkable success to Palæmon’s profound erudition; and at last Annæus Seneca,[1230] who both held the highest rank in the learned world, and an amount of power and influence which at last proved too much for him—this same Seneca, who was far from being an admirer of frivolity, was seized with such vast admiration of this estate, as not to feel ashamed at conceding this victory to a man who was otherwise the object of his hatred, and who would be sure to make the very most of it, by giving him four times the original cost for those very vineyards, and that within ten years from the time that he had taken them under his management. This was an example of good husbandry worthy to be put in practice upon the lands of Cæcuba and of Setia; for since then these same lands have many a time produced as much as seven culei to the jugerum, or in other words, one hundred and forty amphoræ of must. That no one, however, may entertain the belief that ancient times were surpassed on this occasion, I would remark that the same Cato has stated in his writings, that the proper return was seven culei to the jugerum: all of them so many instances only tending most convincingly to prove that the sea, which in our rashness we trespass upon, does not make a more bounteous return to the merchant, no, not even the merchandize that we seek on the shores of the Red and the Indian Seas, than does a well-tilled homestead to the agriculturist.
CHAP. 6.—THE MOST ANCIENT WINES.
The wine of Maronea,[1231] on the coast of Thrace, appears to have been the most celebrated in ancient times, as we learn from the writings of Homer. I dismiss, however, all the fabulous stories and various traditions which we find relative to its origin, except, indeed, the one which states that Aristæus,[1232] a native of the same country, was the first person that mixed honey[1233] with wine, natural productions, both of them, of the highest degree of excellence. Homer[1234] has stated that the Maronean wine was mixed with water in the proportion of twenty measures of water to one of wine. The wine that is still produced in the same district retains all its former strength, and a degree of vigour that is quite insuperable.[1235] Mucianus, who thrice held the consulship, and one of our most recent authors, when in that part of the world was witness himself to the fact, that with one sextarius of this wine it was the custom to mix no less than eighty sextarii of water: he states, also, that this wine is black,[1236] has a strong bouquet, and is all the richer for being old.