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10
CFFS AND THEIB CUSTOMS.
described in tlie feast of Home/s heroes. The vessels
from which they drank were generally made of wood^
decorated with gold and silver, and crowned with
garlands, as also were their heads
3
particular flowers
and herbs being selected^ which were supposed to keep
all noxious vapours from the brain. In some cases their
cups were formed entirely of gold^ silver^ or bronze, A
beautiful example of a bronze cup was found in Wilt-
shire, having the names of five Boman towns as an
inscription, and richly decorated with scenes of the
chase, from which it has been imagined that it belonged
to a club or society of persons, probably hunters,, and
may have been one of their prizes : they also used cups
made from the horns of animals. The wines were com-
monly drunk out of small glasses called
ff
cyaths/
J
which held just the twelfth of a pint. The chief beve-
rage among the Greeks and Romans was the fermented
juice of the grape; but the particular form of it is a
matter of some uncertainty. The "vinumAlbanum" was
probably a kind of Frontignac^ and of all wines was
most esteemed by the Romans>—though Horace speaks
in such glowing terms of Falernian, which was a strong
and rough wine^ and was not fit for drinking till it had
been kept ten years j and even then it was customary to
mix: honey with it to soften it. Homer speaks of a
famous wine of Maronea in Thrace, which would bear
mixing with twenty times the quantity of water^ al-
though it was a common practice among the natives to
drink it in its pure state. Salt water was commonly
used by the Romans to dilute their wine
5
which they