A Lutz, Viticulture and Brewing. 



grape) and the peuce (J. e., the 'pitchy' grape)". The Thasian 

 grape is described by the same writer' as such which excels all 

 other grapes in Egypt in sweetness and as having remarkable 

 medicinal properties. Sebennytos (modern Samanud), Egyp- 

 tian Zeb-nuter, Coptic Jemnuti, was situated on the Damietta 

 arm of the Nile. Athenaeus praises the wine of Anthylla. 

 "There are many other vineyards in the valley of the Nile," 

 he says, "whose wines are in great repute and these differ 

 both in color and taste, but that which is produced about 

 Anthylla 2 is preferred to all the rest '. Less favorably spoken 

 of is the ecboladic wine-*. According to Pliny (XIV, l8) it 

 was possessed of the singular property of producing, miscar- 

 riage (XIV, 9; XIV, 22). It is possible that to the Egyptians 

 it was a particularly strong wine, and as such only drunk by 

 men. This, we may conjecture, may have been the reason 

 for Pliny to make this statement, since he probably saw the 

 Egyptian women abstaining from its use. Pliny knows also 

 the wines of Mendes^ (modern Tell Roba or Tell al-Kasr at 

 the village ofTmei al-Amdid), which are mentioned again by 

 Horace and Clemens of Alexandria^. The Mendesian wine, 

 according to the latter writer seems to have had a sweet 

 flavor. The wine of the Thebais was particularly light, 

 especially about Coptos. The wine of the latter city was so 

 thin that it could be easily thrown off. It was "so whole- 

 some", says Athenaeus, "that the invalids might take it without 

 inconvenience even during a fever". Upper Egypt, according 

 to Athen. I, 60 produced a poor quality of wines. Viticulture 

 was engaged in as far south as Meroe the ancient capital of 

 Ethiopia since c. 600 B. C. , at which time the seat of govern- 

 ment was transferred from Napata to that place. The wine 

 of Meroe has been immortalized by Lucian". On the whole 



i) Pliny XIV, i8. 



2) Anthylla ("AvduXXa) was a town ot considerable size on the Canobic 

 branch of the Nile, some few miles south-east of Alexandria. 



3) Ecbolas from eK^dWu) "to e'ect". 



4) See Pliny, //?>/. Na/. XIV, 9. Cf- also Athen.aeus, Deipnos. I, 30 

 "Afendaetem viimin coeUstla nuinina meiu/it'\ 



5) Paedagog. II, c. 2. 



6) Athen. I, p. 33 f; Strabo, XVII, p. 799; etc. Here it may also be men- 

 tioned that the story of the shipwrecked sailor, which contains popular ideas 



