[645] “Mali rugis per cocleas bullantibus.” The whole of this passage is full of difficulties.

[646] “Tympana:” literally, “drums.”

[647] Grape juice boiled down to one half; see B. xiv. c. 9.

[648] Virgil mentions this in the Georgics, B. i. 295. Of course, it is nothing but an absurd superstition.

[649] First of January.

[650] Piscinis.

[651] I. e. before getting in the next year’s crop. Of course, he alludes only to wines of an inferior class, used for domestic consumption.

[652] In B. xiv.

[653] In B. xv. c. 3.

[654] Georg. i. 276.