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Quid de vino? De potationibus?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:53 am
by Valerius Claudius Iohanes
Returning from a farewell luncheon replete with wine, I'm curious to ask of those better read than I - What had the Romani to say of Bacchus's gift and its employment? What famous chapters are there about the glories, or the practical employment, or the villainy of wine?

PostPosted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:42 am
by Horatius Piscinus
Salve Valeri

Em, Pliny of course has a section on wine, comparing some by region, which Augustus preferred and so on. Valerius Maximus has some stories about men beating their wives to death for drinking wine, and other stories about men abusing wine. Juvenal takes a shot at women returning drunk from the rites of the Bona Dea. Plautus has a character... Ovid in a few places. Horace is it? that called on Bacchus to relieve him of love sickness... Em, Cato on viticulture, some others as well... Virgil, Georgics is it? Oh, I think you might find some mention here and there.

Vale

Quid de vino?

PostPosted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:39 pm
by Valerius Claudius Iohanes
Gratias tibi, Horati. I thought that there had to be a lot of mention. Perhaps less talk of a question of sobriety versus potation, since wine was so universal in the ancient mediterranean?

PostPosted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:52 am
by Iacobulus
Salve

Wealthy Romans usually drank wine mixed with water in a krater. It was considered barbaric to drink neat wine (merum) or unmixed wine, as the Romans believed it would make one insane. Pliny comments disparagingly on the Gauls' custom of drinking neat wine. The Romans usually mixed one part wine to two parts water and the Greeks diluted it even more. The point of the symposia was to enjoy the aesthetic experience of drinking wine.

Here's a good explanation of Roman wine practices wit quotes from authors:

http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2004/10/wine-and-water.html

Quid de vino?

PostPosted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:39 pm
by Valerius Claudius Iohanes
Gratias tibi, Iacobule. I'll check the site. I recalled talk of Greek ways with wine, should have realized the Romans would follow suit. The modern American custom with vinum is quite different.

What type of wine drank the Romans?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 4:04 pm
by Cleopatra Aelia
While we're discussion the topic wine here, I always wondered what type of wine the Romans drank? Did they have red and white wine like we know it today? Or did they know only sweet wine like today's Marsala or Malaga Dulce?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 7:49 pm
by Iacobulus
Salve Cleopatra:

It would appear so. U of Chicago has some good information about it:

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/enc ... /wine.html

De Vino - U of Chicago article

PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:05 am
by Valerius Claudius Iohanes
Salvete omnes,

Optimum hoc est articulum. Denuo gratias ago. It's interesting but not surprising to think that the American way of wine (drinking it neat) is anciently the barbarian way!

Quid de viis vini aliis in nationibus? What of the way of wine elsewhere? In Belgium, in Germany, in France? How do the Japanese drink it? I wonder what variations there are, too, depending on region, finance and education? I have to query this out at Google when I have a minute....