510 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



Himilco;* he also attributes Caesar's getting the better of the pirates 

 who captured him near Malea to his sagaciously including wine drugged 

 with maudragora among the presents which he caused to be sent along 

 with his ransom money : 



Stratag., 8. 23. 1: Epicrates, at Caesar's command, provided along with 

 the ransom money supplies for a great feast, and a vessel filled with swords, 

 and wine mixed with maudragora. . . . The pirates, rejoicing at the great 

 amount of money, hastened to indulge in a sumptuous banquet, drank the 

 drugged wine, and were thrown into a stupor. Then Caesar ordered his 

 sleeping victims to be put to death. 



Whether or not there was any historical basis for such stories as 

 these, they would not have arisen had not the soporific properties of 

 the plant been a matter of common knowledge. 



Plutarch intimates that the mere fact that mandragora grows near 

 vines is sufficient to impart lethargic properties to them : 



Moral., 15 F. : The mandragora, growing near vines and imparting its 

 force to the wine, makes the sleep of those who drink it gentler, f 



Further references to the narcotic properties of the plant are found in 

 Lucian. In Timon we read: 



Timon, 2 : You sleep as though under the influence of mandragora, 

 neither hearing those who swear falsely nor regarding wrong-doers. 



In the Verae Historiae, describing the City of Sleep in the Island of 

 Dreams, he says : 



Ver. Hist., 2. 33 : A wood has sprung up all around it, and the trees are 

 lofty poppies and mandragoras.J 



* Stratag., 5. 10. 1. 



t Compare witli this I'lin., 14. 110: Mira vitium natura saporeni alienum in se 

 trahendi, quare et salicem redolent Patavinorum in palustribus vindemiiie. Plu- 

 tarch also alludes to tiie soporific properties of mandragora in Moral , G52C. 



\ A third passage in Lucian referring to mandragora ailmits of two interpreta- 

 tions: Adv. Ind., 23 : aAA', Si KaTaTrvyov, o^fi toctovtov iJ.avSpay6pav KaTaKfxvaQai. avrov, 

 iis TavTa fxiv aKoveiv, eneTva oe /xr] elSfuat, ofos fx(v aov 6 fied' rtixipav ;8/os, oioi St croi 

 ttStoi, diroiai Se vvKTis Koi o'lois Koi ^At/cois ^vyKaOevSeis ; One niigiit see here a 

 reference to madness produced by mandragora : " do you think iiim so /««(/ that, 

 wliile he liears this, he does not investigate your record ? " ; but it is probably 

 better to understand a reference rather to letharyi/ ; this is of course in line with 

 the other allusions to mandragora in Lucian. 



In the spurious Demosthenis Encomium, 36, there is a reminiscence of Demosth., 

 Philip. 4. 6, quoted above. 



