The Grape-Vine 223 



In the T'ang period the Chinese learned also that the people of 

 Fu-lin (Syria) relished grape-wine, 1 and that the country of the Arabs 

 (Ta-si) produced grapes, the largest of the size of fowl's eggs. 1 In 

 other texts such grapes are also ascribed to Persia. 3 At that epoch, 

 Turkistan had fallen into the hands of Turkish tribes, who absorbed 

 the culture of their Iranian predecessors; and it became known to the 

 Chinese that the Uigur had vine and wine. 



Viticulture was in a high state of development in ancient Iran. 

 Strabo 4 attributes to Margiana (in the present province of Khorasan) 

 vines whose stock it would require two men with outstretched arms to 

 clasp, and clusters of grapes two cubits long. Aria, he continues, is 

 described as similarly fertile, the wine being still richer, and keeping 

 perfectly for three generations in unpitched casks. Bactriana, which 

 adjoins Aria, abounds in the same productions, except the olive. 



The ancient Persians were great lovers of wine. The best vintage- 

 wines were served at the royal table. 6 The couch of Darius was over- 

 shadowed by a golden vine, presented by Pythius, a Lydian. 8 The 

 inscription of Persepolis informs us that fifty congius 7 of sweet wine 

 and five thousand congius of ordinary wine were daily delivered to the 

 royal house. 8 The office of cup-bearer in the palace was one of im- 

 portance. 9 The younger Cyrus, when he had wine of a peculiarly fine 

 flavor, was in the habit of sending half -emptied flagons of it to some 

 of his friends, with a message to this effect: "For some time Cyrus has 

 not found a pleasanter wine than this one; and he therefore sends some 

 to you, begging you to drink it to-day with those whom you love 

 best." 10 



Strabo 11 relates that the produce of Carmania is like that of Persia, 

 and that among other productions there is the vine. "The Carmanian 



1 Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, pp. 58, 63. 



* T'ai p'in hwan yii ki, Ch. 1 86, p. 15 b. 



3 For instance, Pen ts'ao yen i, Ch. 18, p. I (ed. of Lu Sin-yuan). 



* II. 1, 14, and XI. x, 2. 



6 Esther, 1, 7 ("And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, the vessels being 

 diverse one from another, and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of 

 the king"). 



•Herodotus, vn, 27; Athenaeus, xn, 514 f. According to G. W. Elderkin 

 (Am. Journal of Archaeology, Vol. XXI, 1917, p. 407), the ultimate source of this 

 motive would be Assyrian. 



7 A measure of capacity equal to about six pints. 



8 Joret, Plantes dans l'antiquite, Vol. II, p. 95. 



9 Xenophon, Cyropaedia, I. in, 8-9. 



10 Xenophon, Anabasis, I. IX, 25. 

 » XV. 11, 14. 



