BOOK XIV. VIII. 70 i\. 74 



places. In the Spanish provinccs ihc vinevards of 

 Laeetaniini are famous for the quantity of winc 

 they produce, while for choice quahty the vineyards 

 of Tarragon and Lauron and those of the Balearics 

 among the islands challenge comparison with the 

 first vintages of Italy. And I am not unaware that 

 most people will think that many have been passed 

 over. inasmuch as everybody has his own favourite, 

 and wherever one may go one finds the same story 

 current — how that one of the freedmen of his late 

 Majesty Augustus, who was the most skilful among 

 them for his judgcment and palate, in tasting wine 

 for the emperor's table passed this remark to the 

 master of the house where Augustus was \isiting 

 in regard to a wine of the district : ' The flavour of 

 this wine is new to me, and it is not of a high class, 

 but all the same I prophesy that the emperor will 

 not drink any other.' I would not deny that other 

 wines also dcserve a high reputation, but the ones 

 that I have enumerated are those on which the 

 general agreement of the ages will be found to 

 have pronounced judgement. 



IX. \Ve will now in a similar manner specify the Fordgn 

 wines of countries overseas. The wines held in dassified. 

 highest esteem subsequent to the great vintages of 

 the Homeric age about which we have spokcn above §§ 53 /ozz. 

 were those of Thasos and Chios, and of the latter thc 

 wine called Ariusian. To these the authority of the 

 eminent physician Erasistratus, about four hundred 

 and fifty years ** after the foundation of Rome, 

 added Lesbian. At the present time the most 

 popular of all is the wine of Clazomenae. now that 

 they have begun to flavour it more sparingly with 

 sea-water. The wine of Lesbos by dint of its own 



235 



