Chap. 8.] 



FIFTY KINDS OF WINES. 243 



tation of the wine of Beterrse 92 does not extend beyond the 

 Gallic territories ; 93 and as for the others that are produced in 

 Gallia Narbonensis, nothing can be positively stated, for the 

 growers of that country have absolutely established manufac- 

 tories for the purposes of adulteration, where they give a dark 

 hue to their wines by the agency of smoke ; I only wish I 

 could say, too, that they do not employ various herbs and 

 noxious drugs for the same purpose ; 94 indeed, these dealers are 

 even known to use aloes for the purpose of heightening the 

 flavour and improving the colour of their wines. 



The regions of Italy that are at a greater distance from the 

 Ausonian Sea, are not without their wines of note, such as 

 those of Tarentum, 95 Servitia, 96 and Consentia, 97 and those, again, ^ 

 of Tempsa, Babia, and Lucania, among which the wines of 

 Thurii hold the pre-eminence. But the most celebrated of all 

 of them, owing to the fact that Messala 98 used to drink it, and 

 was indebted to it for his excellent health, was the wine 

 of Lagara," which was grown not far from Grumentum. 1 In 

 Campania, more recently, new growths under new names have 

 gained considerable credit, either owing to careful cultivation, 

 or else to some other fortuitous circumstances : thus, for in- 

 stance, we find four miles from Neapolis the Trebellian, 2 near 



92 Now Bsziers, in the south of France. The wines of this part are 

 considered excellent at the present day. That of Frontignan grows m its 

 vicinity. Fee is inclined to think, from Pliny's remarks here, that the 

 ancients and the moderns differed entirely in their notions as to what con- 

 stitutes good or bad wine. . . 



w He means, beyond modern Provence, and Languedoc : districts fa- 

 mous for their excellent wines, more particularly the latter. 



9i Fee deems all this quite incredible. Our English experience, however, 

 tells us that it is by no means so ; much of the wine that is drunk in this 

 country is indebted for flavour as well as colour to anything but the grape. 



95 The wines of modern Otranto are ordinarily of good quality^ 



96 Baccius reads " Seberiniana," but is probably wrong. If he is not, it 

 mio-ht allude to the place now known as San Severmo, and which produces 

 excellent wine. Fee thinks that these wines were grown m the territory 

 of Salerno, which still enjoys celebrity for its muscatel wmes _ 



97 See B. iii. c. 10. the wines of modern Cosenza still enjoy a high 

 reputation. . „ . 



9* M. Valerius Messala Corvinus, the writer and partisan ot Augustus. 



See end of B. ix. . .. 



99 A place supposed to have been situated near I hum. 



1 See B. iii. c. 15. „, 



2 Said by Galen to be very wholesome, as well as pleasant, lhe wines 

 of the vicinity of Naples are still held in high esteem. 



E 2 



