Chap. 8.] 
EIFTY KiraS OF WllS^ES. 
243 
tation of the wine of Beterree^^ does not extend beyond the 
Gallic territories and as for the others that are produced iii 
Gallia I^arbonensis, nothing can be positively stated, for the 
growers of that country have absolutely established manufac- 
tories for the purposes of adulteration, where they give a dark 
hue to their wines by the agency of smoke ; I only wish I 
could say, too, that they do not employ various herbs and 
noxious drugs for the same purpose f"^ indeed, these dealers are 
even known to use aloes for the purpose of heightening the 
flavour and improving the colour of their wines. 
The regions of Italy that are at a greater distance from the 
Ausonian Sea, are not without their wines of note, such as 
those of Tarentum,^^ Servitia,^^ and Consentia,^^ and those, again, 
of Tempsa, Eabia, and Lucania, among which the wines of 
Thurii hold the pre-eminence. But the most celebrated of all 
of them, owing to the fact that Messala^^ used to drink it, and 
was indebted to it for his excellent health, was the wine 
of Lagara,^^ which was grown not far from Grumentum.^ In 
Campania, more recently, new growths under new names have 
gained considerable credit, either owing to careful cultivation, 
or else to some other fortuitous circumstances : thus, for in- 
stance, we find four miles from JN^eapolis the Trebellian,^ near 
92 Now Eeziers, in the south of France. The wines of this part are . 
considered excellent at the present day. That of Frontignan grows in its 
vicinity. Fee is inclined to think, from Pliny's remarks here, that the 
ancients and the moderns differed entirely in their notions as to what con- 
stitutes good or bad wine. 
He means, beyond modern Provence, and Languedoc : districts fa- 
mous for their excellent wines, more particularly the latter. 
Fee deems all this quite incredible. Our English experience, however, 
tells us that it is by no means so ; much of the wine that is drunk in this 
country is indebted for flavour as well as colour to anything but the grape. 
9^ The wines of modern Otranta are ordinarily of good quality. 
9^ Baccius reads " Seberiniana," but is probably wrong. If he is not, it 
might allude to the place now known as San Severino, and which produces 
excellent wine. Fee thinks that these wines were grown in the territory 
of Salerno, which still enjoys celebrity for its muscatel wines. 
9^ See B. iii. c. 10. The wines of modern Cosenza still enjoy a high 
reputation. 
9^ M. Valerius Messala Corvinus, the writer and partisan of Augustus. 
See end of B. ix. 
^3 A place supposed to have been situated near Thurii. 
1 See B. iii. c. 15. 
2 Said by Galen to be very wholesome, as well as pleasant. The wines 
of the vicinity of Naples are still held in high esteem. 
R 2 
