187 



vine, to teach us that wine taken immode- 

 rately, will enervate us, consume our health, 

 and render us loquacious and childish, like 

 old men. 



Juno's crown was also made of the 

 vine. The vine, with grapes, is still selected 

 as a proper ornament in all bacchanalian 

 devices. 



Wine was chiefly used by the ancient 

 Romans in the worship of their gods. Young 

 men under thirty, and women all their life- 

 time, were forbidden to drink wine. Egna- 

 tius Macennius killed his wife with a cud- 

 gel, having caught her drinking wine out of 

 a tun, for which he was tried by Romulus, 

 and acquitted of murder. Fabius Pictor, in 

 his Annals, reports, that a Roman lady was 

 starved to death by her own relations for 

 opening a cupboard which contained the keys 

 of the wine-cellar. Cato records, that the 

 custom of kinsfolks kissing of women when 

 they met, was to know by their breath if 

 they had been drinking wine, but these re- 

 strictions were removed when wine became 

 more plentiful ; and the use of it was then 

 carried to such an excess, that even females 

 would drink wine, and, by the aid of a vomit, 

 throw it up again, in order to sharpen their 

 appetites for supper. 



