* INTRODUCTION OF THE VINE INTO FRANCE. 



of Narbonne, when Julius Caesar conquered the Gauls ; and 

 there is good reason to believe that the first vineyards of Bur- 

 gundy existed in the age of the Antonines, but the other parts 

 of Gaul and Helvetia (Switzerland) were totally without them 

 at that time. Indeed, a circumstance is related in history, that 

 about this period a Swiss blacksmith having crossed the Alps 

 into Italy, on his return brought back some grapes and some 

 figs, which caused the whole nation to determine on emigrat- 

 ing to so desirable a country, producing such delicious fruits, 

 and that they departed, after setting fire to their towns and vil- 

 lages, but were repulsed in their attempt to pass the Alps by 

 Julius Caesar ; and also a second time in attempting to cross 

 the river Saone, and go round the Alps by Nice. 



Strabo remarks, that the vines of Languedoc and Provence 

 produced the same fruit as those of Italy, which was doubtless 

 the case, they having all one common origin. Whether the 

 success was greater or less which attended the vineyards at 

 antecedent periods, it is certain that about the year eighty-five 

 the culture of the vine had already covered many of the hill 

 sides of the southern and middle departments of France, and 

 was gradually extending itself to the rest of Gaul, when Do- 

 mitian, finding there was a great scarcity of grain in the 

 Roman dominions, attributed it to the vast increase of vine- 

 yards in Italy and the provinces, which he considered as form- 

 ing a cause that rendered agriculture too much neglected, and 

 deeming also their existence to so great an extent as an incite- 

 ment to sedition from the encouragement they gave to intem- 

 perance, he issued an edict prohibiting the planting of any 

 new vineyards in Italy, and ordering the whole (some histo- 

 rians say one half) of those in the provinces to be destroyed. 

 The date of this edict is said by some to be the year 85, 

 and by others 92 of the Christian era. This privation lasted 

 nearly two centuries, during which no vineyards could be 

 planted without permission of the emperor, and the provincials 

 did not receive permission to replant them until about the 

 year 280, when Probus, after numerous victories, which 

 gave peace to his empire, evinced a great desire to encourage 



