Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

VINUM. VINUM. 1201
could be carried by the soldiers; sometiles, how- that Papirius the dictator, when about to join in
ever, when the purpose which it was to serve re- battle with the Samnites, vowed to Jupiter a smnall
quired great strength, it was heavy and then the cupful (vini poc~illum). if he should gain the victory,,
-whole fabric probably was moved by wheels at- That wine war racked off into amphorae and
tached to the posts. The roof was formed of planks stored up in regular cellars as early as the era
and wicker-work, and the uppermost layer or layers of the Gracchi Pliny considers proved by the
consisted of raw hides or wet cloth as a protection existence in his own day of the Vinum Opihmianumt,
against fire, by which the besieged frequently de- described hereafter. But even then no specific apstroyed the vineae. (Liv. ii. 17, v. 7, xxi. 61.) pellation was given to the produce of different loThe sides of a vinea were likewise protected by calities, and the jar was marked with the name of
wicker-work. Such machines were constructed inl the consul alone. For many years after this foreign
a safe place at some distance front the besieged twines were considered far superior to native growtls,
town, and tllen carried or wheeled (agere) close to and so precious were the Greek vintages esteemed.
its walls. Here several of them were frequently in the times of nMarius and Sulla that a single
joined together, so that a great nummber of soldiers draught only was offered to the guests at a bannight be employed under them. When vineae quet. The rapidity with which luxury spread iin
had taken their place close to the walls the sol- th.is- matter is well illustrated by the saying oF
diers began their operations, either by underminini g M. Varro, that Lsucullus when a boy never saw ntl
the walls, and thus opening a breach, or by em- entertainment in his father's house, hlowever splenploying the battering-ram (aries, Liv. xxi. 7, 8). did, at whalicl Greek twine was handed round more
In the time of Vegetius the soldiers used to call thlan once, but whenl in manhood hle returned firoml
these machines causiae. (J. Lipsius, Poliorcet. i. his Asiatic conquests he bestowed on the people a
dial. 7.) [L. S.] largess of more than a hundred thousand cadi.
VINUM (oeeos). The genleral term for the Four different kinds of-wine are said to have been
fermented juice of the grape. presented for the first time at the feast given by
The native country of the vine was long a vex- Julius Caesar in his third consulsilip (r. c. 46),
ata quaestio among botanists, but, althoughi many these being Falernian, Chian, Lesbian, and Mameirpoints still remain open for debate, it seems now to tille, aiid niot until after this date were tle mierits
be generally acknowledged that it is indigenous of the numerous varieties, foreigii anid doniestic,
throughout the whole of that vast tract which accurately known and fully appreciated. But
stretches southward from the woody mountains of duritng the reign of Augustus and his immediate
Mazanderln on the Caspian to the shores of tle successors the study of wines became a passion, and
Persian Gulf and the Indian sea, and eastward the most scrupulous care -was bestowed upon every
through Khorasan and Cabul to the base of the process connected with their production and proI-Iinmlaya,-the region to which history and phi- servstion. (Pliln.. N. xiv. 28.) Piiny calculate3
lology alike point as the cradle of the human race. that the numiber of wines in the whole world deHience, wlhen we consider the extreme facility of servillg to be accounted of high quality (nzobil a)
the process inl its most simple form, we need little amlounted to eighty, of which his own. coulltr'
wonlder that the art of making Nvine should have could claim two-thirds (xiv. 13); and in anothler
been discovered at a very reliote epochl. passage (xiv.'29) he asserts that 195 distinct kinds
lIn the earliest of profane writers the cultivation might be reckoned up, and that if all the varieties
of the grape is represenlted as fauiiiliiar to the Heroic of these were to be included inl tile computation,
Greeks, some of his mnost beautiful and vivid pic- the sum would be alniost doubled. (Plin. H. R.
tumes of rural life being closely connected witlh the xiv. 6. 29.)
toils of the vineyard. It is worth remarking tllait'The process followed in wine-making was esthe only winie upon whose excellence HIonmer dilates sentially the same among both thle Greeks and
in a tone approaching to hyperbole is represented the Romtans. After the grapes lhad been gathered,
as having been produced on the coast of Thrace, the they were first trodden with thle feet ald afterregion from which poetry and civilization spread wards submitted to the action of the press. This
into Itellas, and the scene of several of the mlore part of tile process of wine-nlaking is described in
remarkable exploits of Bacchus. IIence we might the article'ToRcULvUL.
infer that the Pelasgians introduced the culture of The sweet unferimented juice of the grape was
the vine when they wandered westward across the termed,yAevicos by the Greeks and m2ustuni by thie
Hellespont, and that in like manner it was coln- Rlomans, the latter word being properly an adveyed to the valley of the Po, when at a subse- jective siganif''ig new orJ'esh. Of this there were
quent period they nmade their way rounld the head severmal kinds distinguished acccording to the mtiilof the Adriatic. It seems certain from the various net in which each was originally obtained land sublegends that wine was both rare and costly ill the sequently treated. That which flowed from the
earlier ages of Italian and Romamn history. Thus, clusters, in consequence merely of their pressure
a tradition preserved by Varro (.pq. /'liz. i. N. upon each other before any force was applied, uwas
xiv. 14) told that wheo Mezentius agreed to aid knlown as 7rpoxveua (Geopon. vi. 16) orlprotropumt
the Rutilians he stipulated that the produce of the (PIin. tI. ir xivN. 11), atid was reserved for manuLatian vineyards should be his recompense. Ro- filcturing a particular species of rich wine described
mulus is said to have used milk onely i his ofifer- by Pliiy (1. c.) to which the inhabitamnts of Mlytilene
ings to the gods (Plin. 1.c.): Numa, to check ex- gave tile name of rpo'3poeLos or 7rporpowros. (Athen.
travagance, prohibited the sprinkling of wine upon i. p. 30, b., ii. p. 45, e.) That whichl was obtained
the funeral pyre, and, to stimulate the energies next, before the grapes had been filly trodden, was
of the rustic population, he ordailled that it the muts/tum lixiviuss, and was conlsidered best for
should be held impious to offer a libation to the keepinlg. (Geopom. vi. 16; Colun. xii. 4!.) After
gods of wine which had flowed from an lnmpruned the grapes had been ftlly trodden and pressed, the
stock. So scarce was it at a much later period utass was taken oLut, thie edges of tile husks caut,
- 4