differ both in colour and taste: but that which is produced about Anthylla is preferred to all the rest;" and Anthylla, as it is reasonable to suppose, was situated near the edge of the stony desert.* Some of the wine made in the Thebaïd was particularly light, especially about Coptos, and "so wholesome," says the same author, "that invalids might take it without inconvenience, even during a fever." The Sebennytict was likewise one of the choice Egyptian wines; but, from the position of that town and nome, we may infer that it differed greatly in quality from those just mentioned, and that it was inferior in body as well as flavour. Pliny, however, cites it among the best of foreign wines, and says it was made of three different grapes, a sort of Thasian, the athalos, and peuce. The Thasian grape he afterwards describes as excelling all others in Egypt in sweetness, and as being remarkable for its medicinal effects.

Another singular wine, called by Pliny ecbolada S (Exboλas), was also the produce of Egypt; but, from its peculiar powers, we may suppose that men alone drank it, or at least that it was forbidden to newly married brides. And, considering how prevalent the custom was amongst the ancients of altering || the qualities of wines, by drugs and divers

• Herodotus says, that on going to Naucratis by the plain, in order to avoid the inundation, you pass by Anthylla (ii. 97.). According to Athenæus, the revenues derived from that city were bestowed on the queens of Egypt, both under the Persians and the native princes.

lib. i. 25.

+ Plin. xiv. 7.

Plin. xiv. 18.

§ Plin. ibid. Condiendi, medicandi, concinnandi vini. Plin. xiv. 20. It was also mixed or perfumed with myrrh and other ingredients. Plin. xiv. 13.

processes, we may readily conceive the possibility of the effects ascribed to them; and thus it happened that opposite properties were frequently attributed to the same kind.

Wines were much used by them for medicinal purposes, and many were held in such repute as to be considered specifics in certain complaints. But the medical men of the day were prudent in their mode of prescribing them; and as imagination has on many occasions effected the cure, and given celebrity to a medicine, those least known were wisely preferred, and each extolled the virtues of some foreign wine. In the earliest times, Egypt was renowned for drugs, and foreigners had recourse to that country for wines as well as herbs; yet Apollodorus, the physician, in a treatise on wines, addressed to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, recommended those of Pontus as more beneficial than any of his own country, and particularly praised the Peparethian †, produced in an island of the Ægean Sea; but he was disposed to consider it less valuable as a medicine, when its good qualities could not be discovered in six years.

The wines of Alexandria and Coptos are also

Mark, xv. 23.

Diodor. iii. 61. Hor. i. Sat. iv. 24. J. Poll. Onom.

vi. 2., and Martial, Epig.

"Si calidum potas, ardenti myrrha Falerno

Convenit, et melior sit sapor inde mero.” xiv. 113.

* Hom. Od. A. 229. Jerem. xlvi. 11.

+ Plin. xiv. 7." Quod cunctis prætulit Peparethium." Some read Præparentium. Peparethos was one of the Cyclades, famous for its vines and olives. "Nitidæque ferax Peparethos olivæ." Ovid. Met. vii. 470. Athenæus, Deipnos. i. 52., quotes it from Aristophanes. Jul. Pollux. Onom. vi. 2.

cited among the best of Egyptian growth; and the latter was so light as not to affect even those in delicate health.

In offerings to the Egyptian deities wine frequently occurs, and several different kinds are noticed in the sacred sculptures; but it is probable that many of the Egyptian wines are not introduced in those subjects, and that, as with the Romans * and other people, all were not admitted at their sacrifices. It was in the temple of Heliopolis t alone that wine was totally forbidden in libations ‡, and when used by the priests in other places for this purpose, says Plutarch, "they poured it on the altars of the gods, as the blood of those enemies who had formerly fought against them." According to Herodotus § their sacrifices commenced with this ceremony, and some was also sprinkled on the ground where the victim lay: yet at Heliopolis, if Plutarch may be credited, it was forbidden to take it into the temple, and the priests of the god worshipped in that city were required to abstain from its use. "Those of other deities," adds the same author, "were less scrupulous in these mat

Plin. xiv. 12. 19.

+ Herodotus (ii. 63.) says, "those who go to Heliopolis and Buto only offer sacrifices."

Plut. de Is. s. 6. Romulus performed libations with milk. Plin. xiv. 12.

§ Herodot. ii. 39.

....

Conf. the Jewish custom "with the one lamb... flour mingled with . . . oil and . . . . wine for a drink offering." Exod. xxix. 40. ¶ I am inclined to believe that they did perform libations in the temple of Heliopolis as in other parts of Egypt; and Herodotus says the custom was common throughout the country (ii. 39.). It may be supposed that Plutarch intends to say the priests of Heliopolis were forbidden to drink it in the temple, "it being indecent to do so under the eyes of their lord and king." loc. cit.

ters," but still they used wine very sparingly, and the quantity allowed them for their daily consumption was regulated by law; nor could they indulge in it at all times, and the use of it was strictly prohibited during their more solemn purifications, and in times of abstinence. The same writer also affirms, on the authority of Eudoxus, that it was wholly forbidden to the kings of Egypt, previous to the reign of Psamaticus; and, though we may feel disposed to question the truth of this assertion*, there is every probability that they were on the same footing in this respect as the priests, and that a certain quantity was allowed them, in accordance, as Hecatæus states, with the regulations of the sacred books.† The number of wines, mentioned in the lists of offerings presented to the deities in the tombs or temples, varies in different places. Each appears with its peculiar name attached to it; but they seldom exceed three or four kinds, and among them I have observed, at Thebes, that of the "northern country t," which was, perhaps, from Mareotis, Anthylla, or the nome of Sebennytus.

Private individuals were under no particular restrictions with regard to its use, and women were not forbidden it, whether married or single. In this they differed widely from the Romans: for in

Vide Vol. I. p. 253., and Herod. ii. 133. The six last years of king Mycerinus's life.

In spite of these regulations, the kings probably committed excesses on some occasions, like Mycerinus and Amasis. Herod. ii. 133.

173.

Not a foreign production. Wine prepared by an unclean Greek would of course be excluded by the prejudices of an Egyptian from the altars of the gods, if not from the table.

early times no female at Rome enjoyed the privilege, and it was unlawful for women, or, indeed, for young men below the age of thirty, to drink wine, except at sacrifices.* And so scrupulous were they on this point, in the time of Romulus †, that Egnatius Mecennius caused his wife to be put to death for infringing this law, as if guilty of a crime. Such was the custom at the earliest periods of Roman history; and even at a later time prejudice pronounced it disgraceful for a woman to drink wine; and they sometimes saluted a female relation +, whom they suspected, in order to discover if she had secretly indulged in its use. It was afterwards allowed them on the plea of health, and no better method could have been devised for removing the restriction.

The Egyptian women, as I have already observed, appear to have enjoyed greater privileges, and to have been treated with more courtesy on all occasions, than in other ancient communities: and if they sometimes sat apart from the men, on another side of the same room, equal attentions were shown to them as to the other guests. That they were not restricted in the use of wine §, and in the enjoyment of other luxuries, is evident from the frescoes which represent their feasts; and the painters, in illustrating this fact, have sometimes sacrificed their gallantry to a love of caricature. Some call the servants to support them as they

+ Ibid. loc. cit.

Plin. xiv. 13. + Ibid. § The Moslems include all wine under the same name, khumr (fermented drink), and thereby forbid whatever has undergone the process of fermentation. It is prohibited to both sexes in the Qorán.