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Art. XIV.— Notices regarding the Vineyards of Egypt. 
.A. newly published edition of Horace, has given rise to a re- 
cent discussion regarding the wines of Egypt. An anonymous 
writer in one of the journals, does not admit that the Virium 
mareoticum , mentioned in the 37th ode of the 1st book, came 
from the neighbourhood of the lake Mareotis in Egypt, but ra- 
ther from a district of Epirus, which was named Mareotis. M. 
Malte Brun contradicts this opinion ; and gives a critical exa- 
mination of the two passages in which Herodotus says, !<$£, 
That there are no vines in Egypt ; and, 2dly, That the people 
drank beer; but that the priests received an allowance of wine 
daily. He adds, that M. Champollion the younger has recog- 
nised upon Egyptian monuments, offerings made to the gods, 
of two white flagons, which are painted red up to the lower part 
of the neck, indicating a liquor of that colour ; and the Egyp- 
tian word erp , which signifies wine , written beside the flagons, 
removes all uncertainty with regard to the materials of the of- 
fering. Strabo saw wines in Egypt in the neighbourhood of 
Alexandria, which he mentions as the soil in which the mareo- 
tic wine was produced. He also saw vines in other districts in 
Egypt, and he correctly distinguishes their various qualities. 
Pliny and Athenseus speak not less pertinently of them. Ho- 
race must therefore have meant, by Vinum mareoticum , the 
wine of the territory of Mareotis, near Alexandria in Egypt. 
Lucan even goes so far as to make an important critical distinc- 
tion, for he warns against confounding the Mareotic wine with 
the exquisite wine which came from Meroe. There can remain 
no doubt regarding the consequences of this letter of M. Malte 
Brun, namely, that, under the Greek and Roman kings, Egypt 
had vines, and made wines of various qualities ; but, before the 
Greek kings, was it equally so ; and does Herodotus, who at 
that period travelled in Egypt, speak truly, when he says, that 
there were none ? The following note from one of the editors 
of the Bulletin des Sciences, goes to solve this interesting diffi- 
culty • 
cc The readers of the Journal des Dehats have seen with in- 
terest the animated discussion which has arisen upon the subject 
i 
