BOOK III. II. 24-26 



of the tree than at the lower part. It produces 

 much wood and many clusters. For those Greekling 

 vines — such as the Mareotic, the Thasian, the 

 Psithian, and the Sophortian — though they have an 

 agreeable taste, still in our localities they yield 

 little juice because of the looseness of the bunches 

 and the small size of the berries. Nevertheless 

 the black Inerticulan, which certain Greeks call 

 amethystos,°' may be placed in the second tribe, so 

 to speak, because it makes good wine and is harm- 

 less; from this fact, too, it takes its name, because 

 it is considered inactive (iners) in its effect on the 

 sinews, although not dull in taste. 



Celsus makes a third class of those vines which 25 

 are commended for fruitfulness alone, such as the 

 three Helvenacans,* of which the two larger are 

 considered by no means equal to the smaller in the 

 quality and quantity of their must. One of them, 

 which people who live in Gaul call marcus,'^ produces 

 ordinary wine ; and the other, which they designate 

 as the " long vine " and also the " white vine," yields 

 a wine of low grade and of no such quantity as the 

 number of its clusters promises at first glance. The 26 

 smallest and best of the three is very readily re- 

 cognized by its leaf, for it bears the roundest leaf 

 of all of them ; and it is praiseworthy because it 

 endures drought best of all, because it bears cold 



* Cf. Pliny, N.H. XIV. 32-33. 



* Sobel (Stud. Colum., 47^8) points out the long standing 

 error of editors and lexicographers in reading emarcum, 

 without MS. authority, as a " Gallic " word. Rejecting also 

 Schneider's interpretation of the word as Fr. inarc, Sobel, com- 

 paring modern " Alexander " apples, " Victoria " plums, 

 " Williams " pears, etc., proposes the familiar Roman 

 praenomen to produce " Marcus " grapes. 



247 



