CHAP. 14. (12.)—THE INSPECTION OF WINE ORDERED BY KING ROMULUS.
Romulus made libations, not with wine but with milk; a
fact which is fully established by the religious rites which
owe their foundation to him, and are observed even to the
present day. The Posthumian Law, promulgated by King
Numa, has an injunction to the following effect:—" Sprinkle
not the funeral pyre with wine;" a law to which he gave his
sanction, no doubt, in consequence of the remarkable scarcity
of that commodity in those days. By the same law, he also
pronounced it illegal to make a libation to the gods of wine that
was the produce of an unpruned vine, his object being to compel
the husbandmen to prune their vines; a duty which they
showed themselves reluctant to perform, in consequence of the
danger which attended climbing the trees.
1 M. Varro informs us, that Mezentius, the king of Etruria, succoured the
Rutuli against the Latini, upon condition that he should receive all the wine that was then in the territory of Latium.
(13.) At Rome it was not lawful for women to drink wine.
Among the various anecdotes connected with this subject, we
find that the wife of Egnatius Mecenius
2 was slain by her husband with a stick, because she had drunk some wine from the vat,
and that he was absolved from the murder by Romulus. Fabius
Pictor, in his Book of Annals, has stated that a certain lady,
for having opened a purse in which the keys of the wine-cellar
were kept, was starved to death by her family: and Cato tells
us, that it was the usage for the male relatives to give the
females a kiss, in order to ascertain whether they smelt of
"temetum;" for it was by that name that wine was then
known, whence our word "temulentia," signifying drunkenness. Cn. Domitius, the judge, once gave it as his opinion,
that a certain woman appeared to him to have drunk more
wine than was requisite for her health, and without the knowledge of her husband, for which reason he condemned her to
lose her dower. For a very long time there was the greatest
economy manifested at Rome in the use of this article. L. Papirius,
3 the general, who, on one occasion, commanded against
the Samnites, when about to engage, vowed an offering to Jupiter
of a small cupfull of wine, if he should gain the victory. In fact,
among the gifts presented to the gods, we find mention made
of offerings of sextarii of milk, but never of wine.
The same Cato, while on his voyage to Spain, from which
he afterwards returned triumphant,
4 would drink of no other
wine but that which was served out to the rowers—very different, indeed, to the conduct of those who are in the habit of
giving to their guests even inferior wine
5 to that which they
drink themselves, or else contrive to substitute inferior in the
course of the repast.
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