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34
DRINKS.
For
more
information
on
wines
the
reader
may
con-
sult
Sir
Edward
Barry,
Dr.
Alexander
Henderson,
and
Cyrus
Redding.
Henderson,
who
was,
like
Barry,
a
physician,
did
not
always
agree
with
him.
Barry's
observations,
according
to
Henderson,
are
chiefly
borrowed
from
Bacci.
Those
not
so
borrowed
are
for
the
most
part
*'
flimsy
and
tedious."
The
vessels
and
other
drinking
cups
were
com-
monly
ranged on
an abacus
of
marble,
something
like
our
sideboard.
It
was
large,
if
Philo
Judeus
is
to
be
believed.
Pliny,
speaking
of
Pompey's
spoils
in
the
matter
of
the
pirates,
says
the
number
of
jewel-adorned
drinking
cups
was
enough
to
furnish
nine
abaci.
Cicero
charges
Verres
with
having
plundered
the
abaci.
When
Rome
was
in
the
height
of
her
luxury,
mur-
rhine
cups
were
introduced
from
the
East.
What
this
substance
was,
the
ruins
of
Pompeii
have
never
re-
vealed
;
some
maintain
it
was
porcelain,
others
think
it
was
a
species
of
spar.
Dr.
Henderson
adopts
the
opinion
of
M.
de
Roziere
that
these
cups
were
of
fluor-spar
;
but
this
article
is
not
found
in
Karamania,
from
which
district
of Par-
thia
both
Pliny
and
Propertius
agree
that
they
came,
though
they
differ
with
respect
to
their
nature
;
its
geographic
situation
seems
confined
to
Europe.
The
anecdote
told
by
Lampridius
of
Heliogabalus
(502)
proves,
not
the
similarity
of
material,
but
only
the
equal
rareness
and
value
of
vessels
of
onyx
and
murrhine.
A
writer
in
the
Westminster
Review
for
July,
1825,
believes
them
to
have
been
porcelain
cups
from
China