BOOK XIV. VIII. 65 68 



fortunc. The adjaccnt vintages of the Calenian hills 

 iised to be prefcrred to them, as werc thosc of Fundi 

 whcre the vines are grown on trellises or traincd up 

 small trees, and others from the vicinity of Rome, 

 thosc of Castcl dcl \'olturno and Pipcrno. As for the 

 winc produced at Segni, it counts as a mcdicine, bcing 

 useful as a stomachic astringcnt owing to its exccssive 

 dryness. 



For public banquets the fourth placc in the race Fourthciois 

 has becn hcld from thc time of his late Majesty "^"***' 

 .TuUus Cacsar onward — for he was the first person to 

 bring thcm into favour, as appears from his letters — 

 to the Mamertine vintages grown in the neighbour- 

 hood of Messina in Sicily ; of these the Potitian, so 

 called after the name of its original grower, is par- 

 ticularly highly spokcn of — it grows in the part of 

 Sicily nearest to Italy. In Sicily also is grown the 

 Taormina vintage, which when bottled is constantly 

 passed off for Mamertinc. 



Among the rcmaining wines there are, in the 

 vicinity ofthe AdriaticandIonianSea,the Praetutian 

 and those grown at Ancona and the vines callcd 

 sprig-vincs, becausc they were all struck from a 

 single chance sprig ; and in the intcrior the wines of 

 Cezena and those called by the name of Maecenas ; 

 also in the district of Verona the wines of Tyrol, 

 reckoned by Virgil infcrior only to Falernian ; and GeorgicsU. 

 next at the top of the Adriatic the wincs of Adria, "^^' 

 and from the Lower Sea*^ the Latiniensian, Graviscan 

 and Statonicnsian. Luna carries off the palm of 

 Tuscany and Genoa that of Liguria. Betwecn the 

 Pyrenees and the Alps Marseilles has wine of two 

 flavours, as itproduccs aricher varietv, the localname 

 for which is the * juicy ' brand, which is also used for 



231 



