248 
PLITil'S NATURAL HISTORY. 
[Book XIV. 
cocoum."^^ In other countries again, they follow a similar 
plan in making a wine called tethalassomenon."" They 
make a wine also known as thalassites/'^^ by placing vessels 
full of must in the sea, a method which quickly imparts to the 
wine all the qualities of old age.^ In our own country too, 
Cato has shown the method of making Italian wine into Coan : 
in addition to the modes of preparation above stated, he tells us 
that it must be left exposed four years to the heat of the sun, 
in order to bring it to maturity. The Ehodian'''' wine is 
similar to that of Cos, and the Phorinean is of a still Salter 
flavour. It is generally thought that all the wines from 
beyond sea arrive at their middle state of maturity in the 
course of six^^ or seven years. 
CHAP. 11. (9.) EIGHTEEIS' VAETETEIS OF SWEET WINE. 
EAISIN-WINE AND HEPSEMA. 
All the luscious wines have but little^^ aroma : the thinner 
the wine the more aroma it has. The colours of wines are 
four, white,^"^ brown, blood-coloured,^^ and black.^^ Psythium^^ 
and melampsythium^^ are varieties of raisin- wine which have 
the peculiar flavour of the grape, and not that of wine. Sc}'- 
belites^^ is a wine grown in Galatia, and Aluntium*'^ is a 
w^ine of Sicily, both of which have the flavour of mulsum.^* 
-0 White wine of Cos. Fee thinks that Pliny means to say that the sea 
water turns the must of a white or pale straw colour, and is of opinion that 
he has been wrongly informed. 
51 " Sea-water " wine. u Sea-seasoned " wine. 
53 Fee says, that if the vessels were closed hermetically this would have 
little or no appreciable effect ; if not, it would tend to spoil the wine. 
Athenaeus says that the Rhodian wine will not mix so well witb sea- 
water as the Coan. Fee remarks that if Cato's plan were followed, the 
wine would become vinegar long before the end of the four years. 
55 Sillig thinks that the proper reading is "in six" only. 
56 The sweet wines, in modern times, have the most bouquet or aroma. 
5'' " Albus," pale straw-colour. 58 "Fulvus," amber-colour. 
59 Bright and glowing, like Tent and Burgundy. 
60 Niger," the colour of our port. 
61 Supposed to be a species of Pramnian wine, mentioned in c. 6. Tliis 
was used, as also the Aminean, for making omphacium, as mentioned in B. 
xii. c. 60. See also c. 18 of this Book. 
62 " Black psythian/' 
63 Mentioned by Galen among the sweet mnes. 
6* See B. iii» c. 14. Now Solana in Sicily, which produces excellent 
wine. Honied wine. 
