242 
plint's nattjeal history. 
[Book Xiy. 
them into favour, as we find stated in his Letters'^ — to the 
Mamertine wines, the produce of the country in the vicinity 
of Messana,"'^ in Sicily. The finest of these was the Potu- 
lanum,'^^ so called from its original cultivator, and grown on 
the spots that lie nearest to the mainland of Italy. The Tau- 
romenitanum also, a wine of Sicily, enjoys a high repute, and 
flaggons^^ of it are occasionally passed off for Mamertinum. 
Among the other wines, we find mentioned upon the Upper 
Sea those of Preetutia and Ancona, as also those known as 
the ^'Palmensia,"^^ not improbably because the cluster springs 
from a single shoot.^^ In the interior we find the wines of 
Csesena^^ and that known as the Msecenatian,^^ while in the 
territory of Yerona there are the Ehsetian wines, only inferior, 
in the estimation of Yirgil, to the Falernian.^^ Then, too, at 
the bottom of the Gulf^^ we find the wines of Adria.^^ On 
the shores of the Lower Sea there are the Latiniensian^"^ 
wines, the Graviscan,^^ and the Statonian in Etruria, the 
wines of Luna bear away the palm, and those of Genua*^^ in 
Liguria. Massilia, which lies between the Pyrenees and the 
Alps, produces two varieties of wine, one of which is richer 
and thicker than the other, and is used for seasoning other 
wines, being generally known as succosum."^^ The repu- 
Written to the Senate, also to Cicero. We learn from Suetonius that 
they were partly written in cipher. 
" Messina, at the present day, exports wines of very good quality, and 
which attain a great age. 
, It was sound, light, and not without body. 
'^^ ^'Lagenae." The same spot, now Taorniina in Sicily, between Catania 
and Messina, still produces excellent wines. 
See B. iii. c. 18. Fee says that this is thought to have been tlie 
wine of Syrol, of last century, grown near Ancona. 
^1 Palma." Notwithstanding this suggestion, it is more generally sup- 
posed that they had their name from the place called Palma, near Marano, 
on the Adriatic. Its wines are still considered of agreeable flavour. 
The wines of modern Cezena enjoy no repute, owing, probably, to the 
mode of making them. 
^3 Probably so called because it was brought into fashion by Maecenas. 
8^ See Georg. ii. 95. The wines of tbe Tyrol, the ancient Ehiietia, are 
still considered as of excellent quality. 
Of Adria, or the Adriatic Sea. 
^ See B. iii. c. 20. These wines are of little repute. 
87 In Latium. See B. iii. c. 9. 
From Graviscae. See B. iii. c. 8. 
83 See B. ii. c. 96, B. iii. c. 9, and B. xxxvi. c. 49. 
The wines of Genoa are of middling quality only, and but little known. 
Or "juicy" wine. 
