Chap. 6.] 
THE MOST ANCIEKT AVINES. 
237 
water : he states, also, that this wine is black,^° has a strong- 
bouquet, and is all the richer for being old. 
The Pramnian wine, too, which Homer has also similarly- 
eulogized, still retains its ancient fame : it is grown in the 
territory of Smyrna, in the vicinity of the shrine of the 
Mother^2 ^he Gods. 
Among the other wines now known, we do not find any 
that enjoyed a high reputation in ancient times. In the 
year of the consulship of L. Opimius, when C. Gracchus, the 
tribune of the people, engaging in sedition, was slain, the 
growth of every wine was of the very highest quality. In 
that year, the weather was remarkable for its sereneness, and 
the ripening of the grape, the coctura,'' as they call it, 
was fully effected by the heat of the sun. This was in the 
year of the City 633. There are wines still preserved of this 
year's growth, nearly two hundred years ago; they have 
assumed the consistency of honey, with a rough taste ; for 
such, in fact, is the nature of wines, that, when extremely 
old, it is impossible to drink them in a pure state ; and they 
require to be mixed with water, as long keeping renders them 
intolerably bitter.^^ A very small quantity of the Opimian 
wine, mixed with them, will suffice for the seasoning of other 
wines. Let us suppose, according to the estimated value of 
these wines in those days, that the original price of them was 
one hundred sesterces per amphora : if we add to this six per 
cent, per annum, a legal and moderate interest, we shall 
then be able to ascertain what was the exact price of the 
twelfth part of an amphora at the beginning of the reign of 
Caius CsGsar, the son of Germanicus, one hundred and sixty 
years after that consulship. In relation to this fact, we have 
a remarkable instance,^^ when we call to mind the life of Pern- 
io By a "black " wines lie means those that had the same colour as our 
port. ^ 41 II. xi. 638. Od. x. 234. 
42 Cybele. A wine called " Pramnian " was also grown in the island of 
Icaria, in Lesbos, and in the territory of Ephesus. The scholiast on Ni- 
cander says that the grape of the psythia was used in making it. Dios- 
corides says that it was a *'protropum," first-class wine, made of the juice 
that voluntarily flowed from the grapes, in consequence of their own pres- 
sure. 4^ B.C. 121. 
44 ^'Cooking,*' literally, or "boiling." 
45 The wines of Burgundy, in particular, become bitter when extremely 
old. 46 See B. vii. c. 18. 
