On Wine . ' 
£8 1 
(Squash or Gourd ?) which seem to be the demijohns filled for a 
drinking bout ; or the Pocula, the Cyathi, the Vitrea, the Chrystal - 
Iina y the Murrinx , out of which they drank ; and of which, the 
Cyathi were of the smallest size, as I think in opposition to Dr* 
Adams ; the Vitrea and the Chrystallina being of late date. 
They had, as all well regulated communities ought to have^ 
some repository for the sovereign power, a Symposiarch , Archipo-* 
sia, Arbiter bibendi y or toast master, chosen by the throw of a die ; 
the successful throw, being supposed to be regulated by Venus 
( Quern Venus arbitrem dicit bibendi) : for the ancients also, were 
“wont to entwine, the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’s vine.’ 3 
Sometimes they adopted the silly practice of drinking a Cyathus* 
for each letter of their mistresses’ name : JVxvia sex Cyathis y 
septem Justina bibatur. I do not recollect any other specimen of 
their toasts, excepting the girls they were enamoured of. 
Vultis severi me quoque sumere 
Partem Falerni ? Dicat Opuntix 
Prater Me gill quo beat us 
Vulnere , qua per eat Sagitla. 
Mankind however, were much addicted to getting drunk s 
as we find in every part of history from Noah to Holofernes, 
from Alexander the Great to the tippling philosophers of 
Lucian’s supper ; without the hospitable excuse of Horace, Recepto 
dulce mihi furere est Amico.\ They complained grievously of 
the effects of drinking. Quo me Bacche rapis tui plenum ? Evoe , 
Evoe y parce pater l and so forth. These are symptoms of acid 
wine and head-ache. They probably knew not how to regulate the 
fermentation ; they had no brandy to mix with their wines, to coun- 
teract the tendency to acidity : they drank their wines too new ; 
for Horace seems to consider the four years old wine as a treat, De~ 
prome Quadrimum. Nor were their wines clear, nor had they any 
eocks or spigots. 
* This would be hard work, if, as Dr. Adams [Rom. Antiq.] supposes, 
the Cyathus held a quart. 
t Expressed with much greater spirit in that fine old song tf Welcome to 
’ Paxton, Robin Adair.’ 8 
I will drink wine with you Robin Adair, 
I will drink wine with you Robin Adair : 
Rum-punch, ay, and brandy too % 
By my soul, I’ll get drunk with you~= 
Why did’nt they come with you 
