238 plint's natueal history. [Book XIV. 



ponius Secundus, the poet, and the banquet which he gave 

 to that prince 47 — so enormous is the capital that lies buried in 

 our cellars of wine ! Indeed, there is no one thing, the value 

 of which more sensibly increases up to the twentieth year, or 

 which decreases with greater rapidity after that period, sup- 

 posing that the value of it is not by that time greatly en- 

 hanced. 48 Yery rarely, indeed, up to the present day, has it 

 been known for a single 49 piece of wine to cost a thousand 

 sesterces, except, indeed, when such a sum may have been paid 

 in a fit of extravagance and debauchery. The people of 

 Yienne, it is said, are the only ones who have set a higher price 

 than this upon their " picata," wines, the various kinds of 

 which we have already mentioned ; M and this, it is thought, 

 they only do, vying with each other, and influenced by a sort 

 of national self-esteem. This wine, drunk in a cool state, is 

 generally thought to be of a colder 51 temperature than any 

 other. 



CHAP. 7. (5.) THE NATURE OF WINES. 



It is the property of wine, when drunk, to cause a feeling 

 of warmth in the interior of the viscera, and, when poured 

 upon the exterior of the body, to be cool and refreshing. It 

 will not be foreign to my purpose on the present occasion to 

 state the advice which Androcydes, a man famous for his 

 wisdom, wrote to Alexander the Great, with the view of put- 

 ting a check on his intemperance : " When you are about to 

 drink wine, king !" said he, "remember that you are about 

 to drink the blood of the earth : hemlock is a poison to man, 

 wine a poison 52 to hemlock." And if Alexander had only fol- 

 lowed this advice, he certainly would not have had to answer 



47 Caligula. 



48 By some remarkable and peculiar quality, such as in the Opimian 

 wine. 49 " Testa," meaning the amphora. 



50 See c. 3 of the present Book, where these "picata," or "pitched- 

 wines," have been further described. 



51 On the contrary, Fee says, the coldest wines are those that contain 

 the least alcohol, whereas those of Vienne (in modern Dauphine) contain 

 more than the majority of wines. 



52 He implies that wine is an antidote to the poisonous effects of hem- 

 lock. This is not the case, but it is said by some that vinegar is. It is 

 the plant hemlock (cicuta) that is meant, and not the fatal draught that 

 was drunk by Socrates and Philopcemen. See further in B. xxiii. c. 23, 

 and B. xxv. c. 95. 



