304 The Tine in t?ie Orient, 



the ground was an inclined plane exposed to the sun and having a calcareous or vol- 

 canic soil ; for this would best secure the vine and fruit against the intense heat inci- 

 dent to such an exposure and such a soil. 



From the numerous and fragmentary statements of the Greek and Latin writers 

 who have discussed the subject, it appears that the methods of planting, training, 

 cultivating and pruning the vine, and the rules for manufacturing and preserving 

 wine among those ancient peoples of Greece and Italy were as various as those now 

 in vogue among wine-growers, and not widely differing from them ; save that the 

 theories were less complicated, and the vine was allowed to grow more strictly in 

 accordance with the dictates of nature. That grapes were successfully cultivated in 

 Western Asia thirty-three centuries ago is conclusively proved by the authentic nar- 

 rative concerning the cluster of Eshcol. 



As the vine is indigenous to the southern and western portions of Asia, and the 

 southern half of Europe, including Greece, Italy and Spain, it is highly probably 

 that the native variety was first cultivated in each particular locality. In due time 

 improved varieties were gradually introduced from other sections, and the coarse 

 native was forced to give place to the more highly refined foreigner. Accepting the 

 testimony of the early historians, poets, and writers on horticulture, we conclude 

 that the very choicest wines were produced in some of the Ionian Isles and in favored 

 parts of Italy. Those spots were near the sea — a fact suggesting that the peculiar 

 richness, flavor, bouquet, and mellowness so much extolled were due to the sea's 

 influence. Among the Greeks, the places oftenest mentioned with afi"ection because 

 of the vines they produced, were the islands of Thasos, Leshos, Chios and Cos ; 

 and the perpetual recurrence of these words in prose and poetry, wherever wine is 

 the theme, furnishes evidence that writers, readers and hearers were keenly alive to 

 the merits of the god so constantly in their minds and on their lips ; and that they 

 could make nice distinctions between wines of diiferent flavors and ages. One might 

 almost venture to affirm that any of those joyous old philosophers who were at all 

 in the habit of attending public festivals or private banquets could name the year in 

 which a genuine glass of wine was manufactured, provided it were not more than 

 fifty years old. At all events they would cheerfully guess the age on being pre- 

 sented with an additional goblet : and it was their unanimous opinion that old wine 

 was not only more grateful to the palate, but also more wholesome and invigorating. 

 Nestor, one of the grand characters in the Odyssee, is found drinking wine ten 

 years old. On other occasions, wine sixteen, twenty-five or fifty years old is set 

 before the guests. 



Among the Latin authors, Horace never grows weary while praising his fine old 

 Massie and Falernian ; numerous places in Latium and Campania were noted for 

 the excellence of their conies, and thereby it came to pass that the sound of the 

 proper adjectives, Caecuban, Fundanian, Setinian, Alban and Slatinian awakened 

 lively emotions in the minds of poets, generals, statesmen and philosophers. Among 

 the Romans, Caesar, Pliny, Virgil, Horace and Cicero, — and among the Greeks, 

 save the divine philosopher Socrates, were fond of good wine, drank it themselves 

 and sanctioned its use, but were severely temperate and exceptionally faultless in 

 character. Such a beverage was believed to be ennobling and not degrading to 

 those who indulged moderately. It therefore becomes a matter of interest to know 

 the art of making and preserving wine, and the rules for enjoying the presence of 

 this social divinity so often counterfeited and so lavishly calumniated in modern 

 times. H. M. W. 



