Wines are made, too, of other herbs, the nature of which will be mentioned in their respective places, the stœchas[1456] for instance, the root of gentian,[1457] tragoriganum,[1458] dittany,[1459] foal-foot,[1460] daucus,[1461] elelisphacus,[1462] panax,[1463] acorus,[1464] conyza,[1465] thyme,[1466] mandragore,[1467] and sweet rush.[1468] We find the names mentioned, also, of scyzinum,[1469] itæomelis, and lectisphagites, compounds of which the receipt is now lost.
The wines that are made from the shrubs are mostly extracted from the two kinds of cedar,[1470] the cypress,[1471] the laurel,[1472] the juniper,[1473] the terebinth,[1474] and in Gaul the lentisk.[1475] To make these wines, they boil either the berries or the new wood of the shrub in must. They employ, also, the wood of the dwarf olive,[1476] the ground-pine,[1477] and the germander[1478] for a similar purpose, adding at the same time ten drachms of the flower to a congius of must.
CHAP. 20. (17.)—HYDROMELI, OR MELICRATON.
There is a wine also made solely of honey and water.[1479] For this purpose it is recommended that rain-water[1480] should be kept for a period of five years. Those who shew greater skill, content themselves with taking the water just after it has fallen, and boiling it down to one third, to which they then add one third in quantity of old honey, and keep the mixture exposed to the rays of a hot sun[1481] for forty days after the rising of the Dog-star; others, however, rack it off in the course of ten days, and tightly cork the vessels in which it is kept. This beverage is known as “hydromeli,” and with age acquires the flavour of wine. It is nowhere more highly esteemed than in Phrygia.[1482]
CHAP. 21.—OXYMELI.
Vinegar[1483] even has been mixed with honey; nothing, in fact, has been left untried by man. To this mixture the name of oxymeli has been given; it is compounded of ten pounds of honey, five semi-sextarii of old vinegar, one pound of sea-salt, and five sextarii of rain-water. This is boiled gently till the mixture has bubbled in the pot some ten times,[1484] after which it is drawn off, and kept till it is old;[1485] all these wines, however, are condemned[1486] by Themison, an author of high authority. And really, by Hercules! the use of them does appear to be somewhat forced,[1487] unless, indeed, we are ready to maintain that these aromatic wines are so many compounds taught us by Nature, as well as those that are manufactured of perfumes, or that shrubs and plants have been generated only for the purpose of being swallowed in drink. However, all these particulars, when known, are curious and interesting, and show how successfully the human intellect has pried into every secret.
None of these wines, however, will keep beyond a year,[1488] with the sole exception of those which we have spoken of as requiring age; many of these, indeed, there can be no doubt, do not improve after being kept so little as thirty days.