Chap. 3.] THE CULTIVATION OF THE VINE. 221 



while others, again, will keep by virtue of their own natural 

 freshness and vigour, if put into earthen jars, which are then 

 enclosed in dolia, 26 and covered up with the fermenting husks 

 of grapes. Some grapes receive from the smoke of the black- 

 smith's forge that remarkable flavour which it is also known 

 to impart to wines : it was the high name of the Emperor 

 Tiberius that brought into such great repute the grapes that 

 had been smoked in the smithies of Africa. Before his time 

 the highest rank at table was assigned to the grapes of Rhae- 

 tia, 2; and to those growing in the territory of Verona. 



Raisins of the sun have the name of "passi," from having 

 been submitted 28 to the influence of the sun. It is not un- 

 common to preserve grapes in must, and so make them drunk 

 with their own juices; while there are some that are all the 

 sweeter for being placed in must after it has been boiled ; 

 others, again, are left to hang on the parent tree till a new 

 crop has made its appearance, by which time they have be- 

 come as clear and as transparent 29 as glass. Astringent 

 pitch, if poured upon the footstalk of the grape, will impart 

 to it all that body and that firmness which, when placed in 

 dolia or amphorae, it gives to wine. More recently, too, there 

 has been discovered a vine which produces a fruit that imparts 

 to its wine a strong flavour of pitch : it is the famous grape 

 that confers such celebrity on the territory of Yienne, 30 and of 

 which several varieties have recently enriched the territories 

 of the Arverni, the Sequani, and the Helvii : 31 it was un- 

 known in the time of the poet Virgil, who has now been dead 

 these ninety years. 32 



In addition to these particulars, need I make mention of the 

 fact that the vine 33 has been introduced into the camp and 



26 "We have no corresponding word for the Latin " dolium." It was 

 an oblong earthen vessel, used for much the same purpose as our vats ; 

 new wine was generally placed in it. In times later than that of Pliny 

 the dolia were made of wood. 



27 Hardouin speaks of these grapes as still growing in his time in the 

 Valtelline, and remarkable for their excellence. 



28 " A patientia." Because they have suffered from the action of the 

 heat. 



29 From the thinness ef the skin. 



30 See c. 24, also B. xxiii. c. 24. 31 See B. hi. c. 5, and B. xxxiii. c 24. 



32 He died in the year b.c. 19. 



33 A vine sapling was the chief mark of the centurion's authority. 



