110 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOHT. [Book XVII 1. 



to employ two, however large the single ohes may be. It is the 

 length of them that is of the greatest consequence, and not the 

 thickness : if wide, however, they press the fruit all the better. 

 The ancients used to screw down the press-boards with ropes 

 and leather thongs, worked by levers. Within the last hundred 

 years the Greek press has been invented, with thick spiral 

 grooves running down the 48 stem. To this stem there are 

 spokes attached, which project like the rays of a star, and by 

 means of which the stem is made to lift a box filled with stones 

 a method that is very highly approved of. It is only within 

 the last two-and-twenty years, that a plan has been discovered 

 of employing smaller press-boards, and a less unwieldy press : 

 to effect this, the height has been reduced, and the stem of the 

 screw placed in the middle, the whole pressure being concen- 

 trated upon broad planks 49 placed over the grapes, which are 

 covered also with heavy weights above. 



This is the proper time for gathering fruit ; the best moment 

 for doing so is when it has begun to fall through ripeness, 

 and not from the effects of the weather. This is the season, 

 too, for extracting the lees of wine, and for boiling defrutum i 50 

 this last must be done on a night when there is no moon, or if 

 it is a full moon, in the day-tirne. At other times of the year, 

 it must be done either before the moon has risen, or after it 

 has set. The grapes employed for this purpose should never 

 be gathered from a young vine, nor yet from a tree that is 

 grown in a marshy spot, nor should any grapes be used but 

 those that are perfectly ripe : the liquor, too, should never be 

 skimmed with anything but a leaf, 61 for if the vessel should 

 happen to be touched with wood, the liquor, it is generally 

 thought, will have a burnt and smoky flavour. 



The proper time for the vintage is between the equinox and 

 the setting of the Vergilise, a period of forty-four days. It is 

 a saying among the growers, that to pitch wine- vessels after 

 that day, in consequence of the coldness of the weather, is only 

 so much time lost. Still, however, I have seen, before nov, r , 

 persons getting in the vintage on the calends of January 52 



48 " Mali rugis per cocleas bullantibus." The whole of this passage is 

 full of difficulties. 



49 " Tympana ;" literally, " drums." 



50 Grape juice boiled down to one half; see B. xiv. c. 9. 



51 Virgil mentions this in the Georgics, B i. 295. Of course, it is no- 

 thing but an absurd superstition. 



52 First of January. 



