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1 4
CUPS AND THBIB CUSTOMS.
attending the abuse of it. Saleneus passed a law for-
bidding the use of wine, upon pain of death, except in
case of sickness; and the inhabitants of Marseilles and
Miletus prohibited the use of it to women. At Rome,
in the early ages, young persons of high birth were
not permitted to drink wine till they attained the age of
thirty^ and to women the use of it was absolutely for-
bidden
;
but Seneca complains of the violation of this law,
and says that in his day the women Talued themselves
upon carrying excess of wine to as great a height as the
most robust men.
€(
Like them," says he,
u
they pass
whole nights at tables^ and, with a full glass of unmixed
wine in their hands, they glory in vying with them, and,
if they can, in overcoming them/
1
This worthy philo-
sopher, however,, appears not to have considered excess
of drinking in men a vice; for he goes so far as to
advise men of high-strained minds to get intoxicated
now and then. "Not/* says he,
fr
that it may over-
power us, but only relax our overstrained faculties/*
1
Soon afterwards he adds,
"Do
you call Cato^s excess
in wine a vice ? Much sooner may you be able to
prove drunkenness to be a virtue, than Cato to be
vicious/*
The first history of wine was written in Latin by
Bacci in the 16th century j and in 1775 Sir Edward
Barry composed his observations on « Wines of the
Ancients/' whose authority, though not reliable, is
curious. After him came Dr. Henderson on Wines j
and the best treatise of the present day is the History
of Wine by Cyrus Bedding. To all wine-keepers and