BOOK XIV. XIV. 91-XV1. 95 



resemble the gentlemen who give even their guests 

 other wines than those served to themselves, or else 

 substitule inferior wines as the meal progresses. 



XV. The finest wines in early days were those Spic^d mnt. 

 spiced with scent of myrrh, as appears in the plays 

 of Plautus, altliough in the one entitled The Persian 

 he recommends the addition of sweet-reed also.<* 

 Consequently some think that in old times people 

 were extremely fond of scented wine ; but Fabius 

 Dossennus decides the point in these verses : 



I sent them a fine wine, one spiced with myrrh, 



and in his Acharistio : 



Bread and pearl-barley and wine spiced with myrrh. 



I also observe that Scaevola and Lucius Aelius and 

 Ateius Capito were of the same opinion, inasmuch 

 as we find in Pseudolus ^ : 



A. But if he has to bring out a sweet wine 

 From that same cellar, has he got one ? 



B. Got one ? 

 Myrrh-wine and raisin-wine and boiled-down must 

 And honey — 



which shows that myrrh-wine was counted not only 

 among wines but also among sirops. 



X\'l. The existence of the Opimian wine — 1\ a\y naiianand 

 already understanding the blessing she enjoyed — l^S^ 

 aifords an undoubted proof that wine-lofts existed 

 there and it was usual for wine to be racked off 

 in the 633rd year of the city. Nevertheless the 21 b.c, 

 vintages referred to were not yet celebrated ; and 

 accordingly all the wines grown in that year bear 

 the name of the consul only.*^ Similarly also after- 

 wards wines imported from oversea held the field for 



240 



VOL. IV. I ^^ 



