BOOK XIV. XVI. 95-x\'ii. 97 



a long time and right down to our grandfathers' day, 

 indced even after Falernian had already been dis- 

 covered, as appears from the hne of the comedy 

 play^\Tight " : 



rU broach five casks of Thasian, two of Faler- 

 nian. 



In the year 665 from the foundation of the city the 89 b.o. 

 censors PubUus Licinius Crassus and Lucius Juhus 

 Caesar promulgated an edict prohibiting ' the sale 

 of Greek and Aminnian wine at a higher price than 

 8 asses for 6 gallons ' — those being the actual words 

 of the edict. But Greek wine was so highly esteemed 

 that only one cup was given to each guest at a ban- 

 quet. X\'II. Marcus Varro records in the following imported 

 words the wines that ranked highest in his own ^^*'* "^'^^' 

 younger days : ' When Lucius Lucullus was a boy he 

 never saw a full-dress banquet in his father's house at 

 which Greek wine was given more than once, but 

 when he himself came back from Asia he distributed 80 b.c. 

 more than 100,000 jars in largess ; also Gaius Sentius, 

 who was praetor in our time, used to say that the 

 first time that Chian wine entered his house was 

 when the doctor had prescribed it for him for heart- 

 burn ; but Hortensius left over ten thousand jarSoOB.c. 

 to his next-of-kin.' So far Varro. x\nd besides, did 

 not Caesar also, when dictator, at the banquet in 

 celebration of his triumph apportion to each table a 40 b.c. 

 flagon of Falernian and a jar of Chian ? Caesar also 

 gave Chian and Falernian at his triumph over Spain, eOB.c. 

 but at a banquet during his third consulship he 46 b.o. 

 provided Falernian, Chian, Lesbian and Mamertine : 

 this is known to be the first occasion on which four 



« Unknown. 



251 



