Ancient Rome and wine

The Roman belief that wine was a daily necessity made the drink "democratic" and ubiquitous; in various qualities, it was available to slaves, peasants and aristocrats, men and women alike. To ensure the steady supply of wine to Roman soldiers and colonists, viticulture and wine production spread to every part of the empire. The economic opportunities presented by trading in wine drew merchants to do business with tribes native to Gaul and Germania, bringing Roman influences to these regions even before the arrival of the Roman military.^[1] Evidence of this trade and the far-reaching ancient wine economy is most often found through amphorae – ceramic jars used to store and transport wine and other commodities.^[2]

The works of Roman writers – most notably Cato, Columella, Horace, Catullus, Palladius, Pliny, Varro and Virgil – have provided insight into the role played by wine in Roman culture as well as contemporary understanding of winemaking and viticultural practices.^[3] Many of the techniques and principles first developed in ancient Roman times can be found in modern winemaking.^[4]

Early history

The beginnings of domestic viticulture and winemaking on the Italian peninsula are uncertain. It is possible that the

The

In the Republican era, the culture of Roman winemaking was influenced by the viticultural skills and techniques of allies, and of regions conquered in Rome's expansion.^[7] The Greek settlements of southern Italy were brought under Roman control by 270 BC. The Etruscans, who had long-established, mostly maritime trade routes into Gaul, were largely Romanised by the 1st century BC.

The

For most of Rome's winemaking history, Greek wine was the most highly prized, with domestic Roman wine commanding lower prices. The 2nd century BC saw the dawn of the "golden age" of Roman winemaking and the development of grand cru vineyards (a type of early first growths in Rome). The famous vintage of 121 BC became known as the Opimian vintage, named for consul Lucius Opimius. Remarkable for its abundant harvest and the unusually high quality of wine produced, some of the vintage's best examples were being enjoyed over a century later.

Modern estimates of Roman wine consumption vary. All classes drank it, but not the very young. Women seem to have consumed less wine than men. Wine was almost always diluted before drinking, by as much as an equal volume of water, except for the elderly, libations to the gods, and alcoholics. Phillips estimates that on average, each member of Rome's urban population (man, woman or child) consumed half a litre of undiluted wine daily.[1] Tchernia and Van Limbergen estimate the same average consumption levels per diem, per capita throughout the Greco-Roman world.^[9]

Pompeii

One of the most important wine centres of the Roman world was the city of Pompeii, located south of Naples, on the Campanian coast. An expanse of farms and vineyards covered the slopes of nearby Vesuvius, exploiting its exceptionally fertile soil to produce some of the best wines available to the Italian mainland, Rome and the Provinces.

The Pompeians themselves developed a widespread reputation for their wine-drinking capacity. The worship of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, is attested by his image on frescoes and archaeological fragments throughout the region. Amphoras stamped with the emblems of Pompeian merchants have been found across the modern-day remnants of the Roman empire, including Bordeaux, Narbonne, Toulouse and Spain. Evidence in the form of counterfeit stamps on amphoras of non-Pompeian wine suggests that the popularity and reputation of Pompeian wine may have given rise to early wine fraud.^[10]

The 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius had a devastating effect on Campana's well-established, long-distance maritime export and trade. Ports, vineyards, and the warehouses that stored the 78 AD vintage were destroyed. Prices rose sharply, making wine unaffordable to all but the most affluent, at a time when wine-drinking habits and demand had percolated down to the less affluent majority. The wine shortage, and the potential for increased profits, led to the hurried planting of new vineyards nearer to Rome and the replanting of existing grain fields with grapevines.^[11]

The subsequent wine surplus created by successful efforts to relieve the wine shortage caused a depression in price, and in the medium term, damage to the interests of wine producers and traders. The loss of grain fields now contributed to a food shortage for the growing Roman population. In 92 AD,

Although there is evidence to suggest that this edict was largely ignored in the Roman provinces, wine historians have debated the effect of the edict on the infant wine industries of

The preservation of Pompeii has provided unique insights into Roman wine making and viticulture.[6]^[3] Preserved vine roots reveal planting patterns. Whole vineyards have been excavated within the city walls (for example, at Pompei's former cattle-market, the Forum Boarium). This complements evidence of pressing and production technologies that worked in tandem with this cultivation.^[6] Some of these vineyards have been replanted in the modern era with ancient grape varieties and experimental archaeology used to recreate Roman wine.^[12][13]

Expansion of viticulture

Among the lasting legacies of the ancient Roman empire were the viticultural foundations laid by the Romans in lands that would become world-renowned

During the Gallic Wars, when Julius Caesar brought his troops to Cabyllona in 59 BC, he found two Roman wine merchants already established in business trading with the local tribes. In places like Bordeaux, Mainz, Trier and Colchester where Roman garrisons were established, vineyards were planted to supply local need and limit the cost of long-distance trading. Roman settlements were founded and populated by retired soldiers with knowledge of Roman viticulture from their families and life before the military; vineyards were planted in their new homelands. While it is possible that the Romans imported grapevines from Italy and Greece, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that they cultivated native vines that may be the ancestors of the grapes grown in those provinces today.^[14]

As the republic grew into empire beyond the peninsula, wine's trade and market economy echoed this growth. The wine trade in Italy consisted of Rome's sale of wine abroad to settlements and provinces around the Mediterranean Sea, yet by the end of the 1st century AD, its exports had competition from the provinces, themselves exporters to Rome.^[15] The Roman market economy encouraged the provinces' exports, enhancing supply and demand.^{[clarification needed][16]}

Hispania

Rome's defeat of Carthage in the Punic Wars brought the southern and coastal territories of Spain under its control, but the complete

While the Carthaginians and

From the

The first mention of Roman interest in the Bordeaux region was in Strabo's report to Augustus that there were no vines down the river

The steep hillsides along the rivers Mosel and Rhine provided an opportunity to extend the cultivation of grapes to a northerly location. A south-southwest-facing slope maximizes the amount of sunshine vines receive, with the degree of angle allowing the vines to receive the sun's rays perpendicularly rather than at the low or diffuse angle vineyards on flatter terrain receive. Hillsides offered the added benefit of shielding vines from the cold northern winds, and the rivers' reflection offered additional warmth to aid in ripening the grapes. With the right type of grape (perhaps even an early ancestor of the German wine grape Riesling), the Romans found that wine could be produced in Germania. From the Rhine, German wine would make its way downriver to the North Sea and to merchants in Britain, where it began to develop a good reputation.

Despite military hostilities, the neighboring Germanic tribes like the

Rome's influence on Britain with respect to wine is not so much viticultural as it is cultural. Throughout modern history, the British have played a key role in shaping the world of wine and defining global wine markets.^[20] Though evidence of V. vinifera vines in the British Isles dates to the Hoxnian Stage when the climate was warmer than it is now, British interest in wine production greatly increased following the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD.

Amphoras from Italy indicate that wine was regularly transported to Britain at great expense by sea, around the Iberian Peninsula. The development of wine-producing regions in Bordeaux and Germany made supplying the needs of local Roman colonists much easier and cheaper, but in Britain, no certain evidence of an early local or provincial wine industry has been found, possibly because climate and soil conditions have not favoured its preservation. Remnants of amphora production at

More than 400 artifacts depicting Bacchus have been found throughout Britain, evidence of his widespread cult as a wine-god. They include the great silver dish of the Mildenhall Treasure, showing the rites of Bacchus' procession and his triumph over Hercules in a drinking contest. In Colchester, the early capital of Roman Britain, excavations have uncovered containers identifying over 60 different types of wines from Italy, Spain, the Rhine and Bordeaux.^[19]

Growers and traders

Roman attitudes to wine were complex, especially among the

Book 14 deals exclusively with the subject of wine itself, including a ranking of the "first growths" of Rome. Book 17 includes a discussion of various viticultural techniques and an early formalization of the concept of terroir, in that unique places produce unique wine. In his rankings of the best Roman wines, Pliny concludes that the vineyard has more influence on the resulting quality of wine than the particular vine. The early sections of Book 23 deal with some of the purported medicinal properties of wine.^[29]

Pliny was a strong advocate for training vines up trees in a pergola, noting that the finest wines in Campania all derived from this practice. Due to the dangers in working on and pruning vines trained this way, however, he advised not using slaves, who were costly to buy and maintain, but rather vineyard workers hired with a stipulation in their contract to cover grave and funeral expenses. He described some contemporary varieties, recommending Aminean and Nomentan as the best. Some modern ampelographers believe that two white wine varieties mentioned, Arcelaca and Argitis, may be early ancestors to the modern grape Riesling.^[28]

Pliny is also the source for one of the most famous Latin quotations about wine: "In vino veritas," or "There's truth in wine," referring to the often confessional loquacity of the intoxicated.^[30] This is not a commendation on Pliny's part: he regrets that the "excessive candour" of drunkards can lead to serious breaches of etiquette, and thoughtless disclosure of matters best kept private.^[31]

Other writers

Marcus Terentius Varro, whom the rhetorician Quintilian called "the most learned man among the Romans,"^[32] wrote extensively on such topics as grammar, geography, religion, law and science, but only his agricultural treatise De re rustica (or Rerum rusticarum libri) has survived in its entirety. While there is evidence that he borrowed some of this material from Cato's work, Varro credits the lost multi-volume work of Mago the Carthaginian, as well as the Greek writers Aristotle, Theophrastus and Xenophon. Varro's treatise is written as a dialogue and divided into three parts, the first of which contains most of the discussion on wine and viticulture. He defines old wine as one removed from its vintage by at least a year; nonetheless, he notes that while some wines are best consumed young, especially fine wines such as Falernian are meant to be consumed much older.^[33]

The poetry of

Virgil's contemporary Horace wrote often of wine, though no single work is devoted entirely to the subject. He espoused an Epicurean view of taking life's pleasures, including wine, in moderation. Among the earliest recorded examples of deliberately choosing a wine for a specific occasion, Horace's Odes included serving a wine from the birth-year vintage at a celebration of an honored guest. He writes of serving simple wines for everyday occasions and saving celebrated wines such as Caecuban for special events. Horace answered the question posed by the Alexandrian poet Callimachus as to whether water or wine was the preferred drink of poetic inspiration by enthusiastically siding with Cratinus and the wine drinkers.^[35] His affinity for wine was such that while contemplating his death, he expressed more dread at the thought of departing from his beloved wine cellar than his wife.^[28]

The process of making wine in ancient Rome began immediately after the

Cato described the process of pressing as taking place in a special room that included an elevated concrete platform containing a shallow basin with raised curbs. The basin was shaped with gentle slopes that led to a runoff point. Horizontally across the basin were long, wooden beams whose front parts were attached by rope to a windlass. The crushed grapes were placed between the beams, with pressure applied by winding down the windlass. The pressed juice ran down between the beams and collected in the basin. As the construction and use of a wine press was labor-intensive and expensive, its use was generally restricted to large estates, with smaller wineries relying on treading alone to obtain grape juice.^[37]

If grape pressing was used, an estate would press the skins one to three times. Since juice from later pressings would be coarser and more

As in much of the ancient world, sweet white wine was the most highly regarded style. Wine was often diluted with warm water, occasionally seawater.^[5]

The ability to age was a desirable trait in Roman wines, with mature examples from older vintages fetching higher prices than that from the current vintage, regardless of its overall quality. Roman law codified the distinction between "old" and "new" as whether wine had aged for at least a year. Falernian was particularly valued for its aging ability, said to need at least 10 years to mature but being at its best between 15 and 20 years. The white wine from Surrentine was said to need at least 25 years.

In the manner of Greek wine, Roman wine was often flavored with

The term "vinum" spanned a broad spectrum of wine-based beverages, the quality of which depended on the amount of pure grape juice used and how diluted the wine was when served. Temetum, a sacrificial grade, strong wine from the first pressing, was served undiluted, and was supposedly reserved for men of the Roman elite, and for offerings to the gods.[38] Its name suggests an archaic Etruscan origin; in Rome's distant past, temetum might have been an alcoholic drink brewed from Rowan fruits.^[39] Well below that was posca, a mixture of water and sour wine that had not yet turned into vinegar. Less acidic than vinegar, it still retained some of the aromas and texture of wine and was the preferred wine for the rations of Roman soldiers due to its low alcohol levels. Posca's use as soldiers' rations was codified in the Corpus Juris Civilis and amounted to around a liter per day. Still lower in quality was lora (modern-day piquette), which was made by soaking in water for a day the pomace of grape skins already pressed twice, and then pressing a third time. Cato and Varro recommended lora for their slaves. Both posca and lora were the most commonly available wine for the general Roman populace and probably would have been for the most part red wines, since white wine grapes would have been reserved for the upper class.^[40]

Grape varieties

The writings of Virgil, Pliny and Columella offer the most detail about the grape varieties used in the production of wine in the Roman empire, many of which have been lost to antiquity. While Virgil's writings often do not distinguish between a wine's name and the grape variety, he made frequent mention of the Aminean grape variety, which Pliny and Columella ranked as the best in the empire. Pliny described five sub-varieties of the grape that produced similar but distinct wines, declaring it to be native to the Italian peninsula. While he claimed that only Democritus knew of every grape variety that existed, he endeavored to speak with authority on the grapes he believed were the only ones worthy of consideration.

Pliny described Nomentan as the second-best wine-producing grape, followed by Apian and its two sub-varieties, which were the preferred grape of

Ampelographers debate these descriptions of grapes and their possible modern counterparts or descendants. The Allobrogica grape that was used to produce the Rhone wine of Vienne may have been an early ancestor of the Pinot family. Alternative theories posit that it was more closely related to Syrah or Mondeuse noire—two grapes that produce vastly different wines. The link between these two is the Mondeuse noire synonym of Grosse Syrah. The Rhaetic grape that Virgil praised is believed to be related to the modern Refosco of northeastern Italy.^[19]

Wine in Roman culture

Wine played a major role in

Jupiter, king of the gods. It was an essential element of the secretive, nocturnal and exclusively female Bona Dea festival, during which it was freely consumed but referred to euphemistically, as "milk" or "honey".^[47][48] Outside of this context, ordinary wine (that is, Venus' wine) tinctured with myrtle oil was thought particularly suitable for women; myrtle was sacred to Venus.^[49]

Venus' long association with wine reflects the inevitable connections between wine, intoxication and sex, expressed in the proverbial phrase sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus (loosely translated as "without food and wine, Venus freezes"). It was employed in various forms, notably by the Roman playwright, Terence, and well into the Renaissance.^[50]

The major public festivals concerning wine production were the two Vinalia. At the Vinalia prima ("first Vinalia") of 23 April, ordinary men and women sampled the previous year's vintage of ordinary wine in Venus' name, while the Roman elite offered a generous libation of wine to Jupiter, in the hope of good weather for the next year's growth.^[51] The Vinalia Rustica of 19 August, originally a rustic Latin harvest festival, celebrated the grape harvest, and the growth and fertility of all garden crops; its patron deity may have been Venus, or Jupiter, or both.^[52]

Early Roman culture was strongly influenced by the neighbouring

Etruscans to the north, and the ancient Greek colonists of Southern Italy (Magna Graecia) both of whom exported wine, and held viticulture in high esteem. Though Rome was still probably very "dry" by Greek standards, Roman attitudes to wine were drastically changed by the establishment and growth of empire.^[53] Wine had religious, medicinal and social roles that set it apart from other ingredients of Roman cuisine. Wine might be watered by more than half its volume, possibly for taste or purification. Excessive drinking of undilute wine was thought barbaric and foolish; on the other hand, undilute wine was thought to be beneficial and "warming" for old men. Throughout Rome's Republican and Imperial eras, the offering of good wine to guests at banquets was a mark of the host's generosity, wealth and prestige.^[54]

During the mid-to-later Republic, wine was increasingly treated as a necessity of everyday life rather than simply a luxury enjoyed by the elite. Cato recommended that slaves should have a weekly ration of 5 liters (over a gallon), though this should be sour or otherwise inferior wine. Should slaves become old, or sick and unproductive, Cato advised halving their rations.[1] The widespread planting of grapevines reflects the increase in demand for wine among all classes; the expanding market for wine also reflects an overall change in Roman diets. In the 2nd century BC, Romans began to shift from meals consisting of moist porridge and gruel to those more bread-based; wine aided in eating the drier food.^[40]

Bacchic cult

Main article: Bacchanalia

See also:

Bacchus, Liber, Dionysia, and Dionysian Mysteries

The Bacchanalia were private Roman

Dionysian mysteries, and probably arrived in Rome c. 200 BC from Greek colonies in southern Italy, and Etruria, Rome's northern neighbour. They were originally occasional, women-only affairs, but became increasingly popular and frequent, and were opened to priests and initiates of both genders and all classes; they may have briefly supplanted an existing, lawful cult to Liber.^[55] Cult initiates employed music, dance and copious amounts of wine to achieve ecstatic religious possession. The Roman Senate perceived the cult as a threat to its own authority and Roman morality, and suppressed it with extreme ferocity in 186. Of some seven thousand initiates and their leaders, most were put to death. Thereafter the Bacchanalia continued in much diminished form, under the supervision of Rome's religious authorities, and were probably absorbed into Liber's cult.^[56][57] Despite the ban, illicit Bacchanals persisted covertly for many years, particularly in Southern Italy, their likely place of origin.^[58]

Judaism and Christianity

As Rome assimilated more cultures, it encountered peoples from two religions that viewed wine in generally positive terms—

Great Flood, and in exploring Canaan following the Exodus from Egypt, one of the positive reports about the land was that grapevines were abundant. The Jews under Roman rule accepted wine as part of their daily life, but regarded negatively the excesses that they associated with Roman "impurities".^[59]

Many of the Jewish views on wine were adopted by the new

death and resurrection story. Eucharist's act of drinking wine as a stand-in for consuming Christ, either metaphysically or metaphorically, echoes the rites performed in festivals dedicated to Bacchus.^[59]

The influence and importance of wine in Christianity was undeniable, and soon the Church itself would take the mantle from ancient Rome as the dominant influence in the world of wine for the centuries leading to the Renaissance.[59]

Medical uses

See also:

Wine and health

Romans believed that wine had the power to both heal and harm. Wine was a recommended cure for mental disorders such as

vertigo

.

Cato wrote extensively on the medical uses of wine, including a recipe for a laxative: wine made from grapevines treated with a mixture of ashes, manure and hellebore. He recommended that the flowers of certain plants, e.g. juniper and myrtle, be soaked in wine to help with snakebites and gout. He also believed that a mixture of old wine and juniper, boiled in a lead pot, could aid in urinary issues and that mixing wine with very acidic pomegranates could cure tapeworms.^[59]

The 2nd-century CE

mouth sores lasted until the 18th century. In his work De Antidotis, Galen noted the trend in Romans' tastes from thick, sweet wines to lighter, dry wines that were easier to digest.^[28]

The Romans were also aware of the negative health effects of drinking wine, particularly the tendency towards "madness" if consumed immoderately. Lucretius warned that wine could provoke a fury in one's soul and lead to quarrels. Seneca the Elder believed that drinking wine magnified the physical and psychological defects of the drinker. Drinking wine in excess was frowned upon and those who imbibed heavily were considered dangerous to society. The Roman politician Cicero frequently labeled his rivals drunkards and a danger to Rome—most notably Mark Antony, who apparently once drank to such excess that he vomited in the Senate.^[59]

The ambivalent attitude of the Romans is summarized in an epitaph:

balnea vina Venus
corrumpunt corpora
nostra se<d> vitam faciunt
balnea vina Venus

"

sex

corrupt our bodies, but baths, wine, and sex make life worth living."

— epitaph of Tiberius Claudius Secundus, ^[60]

See also

• Ancient Roman cuisine
• Ancient Greece and wine
• Phoenicians and wine
• Speyer wine bottle
• History of wine

References

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47. ^ Versnel, H. S., "The Festival for Bona Dea and the Thesmophoria", Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association, Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Apr. 1992), pp. 32, 45: "the most surprising aspect is the nature of the drinks: during this exclusively female, nocturnal festival the women were allowed to drink – at the very least to handle – wine"
48. ^ Wildfang, Robin Lorsch, Rome's vestal virgins: a study of Rome's vestal priestesses in the late Republic and early Empire, Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2007, p. 41
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55. ^ Most Roman sources describe Liber as Rome's equivalent to Dionysus and Bacchus, both of whom were sometimes titled eleutherios (liberator); see Robert Rouselle, Liber-Dionysus in Early Roman Drama, The Classical Journal, 82, 3 (1987), p. 193.
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External links

• "Wine and Rome"
• "Roman Wine: A Window on an Ancient Economy"
• Emlyn K. Dodd (2020). Roman and Late Antique wine production in the eastern Mediterranean, Archaeopress.
  ISBN 978-1-78969-402-4