WINE. And Alexis, in his play entitled The Usurer, or Liar, says—
A. Don't give him wine quite drown'd in water, now;—
Dost understand me? Half and half, or nearly:
That's well.
B. A noble drink: where was the land
That raised this noble Bacchus? by its flavour,
I think he came from Thasos.
A. Sure 'tis just
That foreigners should foreign wines enjoy,
And that the natives should drink native produce.
And again, in his Supposititious Son, he says—
He drank and never drew his breath, as one
Would quaff rich wine, mix'd half and half with care.
And Menander, in his Brethren—
Some one cried out to mingle eight and twelve,
Till he with rivalry subdued the other ([Greek: kateseise]).
And the verb [Greek: kataseiô] was especially used of those who fell down from drinking, taking its metaphor from the shaking down fruit from the tree.
And Alexis, in his Man cut off, says—
He was no master of the feast at all,
But a mere hangman, Chæreas his name;
And when he'd drunk full twenty cups of wine,
Mix'd half and half, he ask'd for more, and stronger.
38. And Diodorus of Sinope, in his Female Flute-player, says—
When any one, O Crito, drinks ten cups,
Consider, I do beg you, whether he
Who never once allows the wine to pass
Is in a fit state for discussion.
And it was not without some wit that Lysander the Spartan, as Hegesander relates in his Commentaries, when some vintners sold wine which had been much watered in his camp, ordered some one to supply it properly tempered, that his men might buy it with less water in it. And Alexis has said something which comes to nearly the same thing, in his Æsop; thus—
A. That is a good idea of yours, O Solon,
And cleverly imagined, which you have
Adopted in your city.
S. What is that?
A. You don't let men drink neat wine at their feasts.
S. Why, if I did, 'twould not be very easy
For men to get it, when the innkeepers
