DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0166
XXXIII.] THE VINEYARDS OF SELINO UNFRUITFUL. 147
the year. On account of its ravages last year, my host
obtained only six imstata of wine from his vineyard,
which ought to have produced fifty mistata; in Klsa-
nios, the same quantity of ground, ten days' work3 of
a man, would produce nearly two hundred mistata.
This caterpillar sometimes infested the vineyards of
the ancients, as it now does those of the moderns in
the district of Selino. In order to free the vine from
its ravages, various superstitious charms used to be
practised, some of which were of a very extraordinary
kind, and must remain veiled in the decent obscurity of
a learned language1. In more recent times a supposed
remedy consisted in summoning the offenders into a court
of law. As soon as they were thus publicly called on,
to answer for their depredations, it is gravely said that
they at once abandoned the vineyard5.
In the district of Selino, where the olive-trees are
very fine, nearly two trees are ordinarily required to
produce a mistaton of oil: sometimes three roots would
be requisite. A village here producing one hundred
,! McpoKa/iaTU, from i)fiepoKd{iaTov.
4 Geoponica, xii. 8. p. 8S8. Aelian, N. A. vi. 36. Pliny, N. Hi
xvii. 47. Columella, Hort. 357.
At si nulla valet meiiicina repellere pestem,
Dardaniae veniant artes, nudataque plantas
Foemina, quae, justis turn demum operata juventae
Legibus, obscoeno manat pudibunda cruore;
Et rcsoluta sinus, rcsoluto moesta capillo,
Ter eircum areolas et sepeni dueitur horti.
Quae cum Iustravit gradiens, mirabile visu,
Volvitur ad terram distorto eorpore earape.
■The Kufi-n-,1 does not confine its attacks to the vine: see Theophrastus,
H. P. in. 22. 3. p. 486. and Athenaeus, ii. p. 55. e.
5 Leo Allatius, de quorund. Graec. Opinat. p. 177- Relatum mihi
est; opportunissimum remedium esse, si illi, tanquam rei, per praeconem,
aut libello scripto, per nomina in curiam ad judices citentur. Sic enim vel
illico evuncscunt. Si pergunt adferre noxam, repetita citatione proclamantur.
Ubi pertinacius persistant, in contumaces sententia pronunciatur. Sunt
etiam, qui pro damno, jam accepto, et detrimento, testes examinant. Minim
esse tlicunt, vermiculos, qui omnia tolerant, judicium non sustinere; sed
repente, ne deprehensi poenas luant, eodem tempore difl'ugere, atque eva-
nescere. See another extraordinary remedy against the poor kampe prescribed
by Michael Psellus, and another practised by Tuscan monks, at pp. 178-
'79. of the same work.
the year. On account of its ravages last year, my host
obtained only six imstata of wine from his vineyard,
which ought to have produced fifty mistata; in Klsa-
nios, the same quantity of ground, ten days' work3 of
a man, would produce nearly two hundred mistata.
This caterpillar sometimes infested the vineyards of
the ancients, as it now does those of the moderns in
the district of Selino. In order to free the vine from
its ravages, various superstitious charms used to be
practised, some of which were of a very extraordinary
kind, and must remain veiled in the decent obscurity of
a learned language1. In more recent times a supposed
remedy consisted in summoning the offenders into a court
of law. As soon as they were thus publicly called on,
to answer for their depredations, it is gravely said that
they at once abandoned the vineyard5.
In the district of Selino, where the olive-trees are
very fine, nearly two trees are ordinarily required to
produce a mistaton of oil: sometimes three roots would
be requisite. A village here producing one hundred
,! McpoKa/iaTU, from i)fiepoKd{iaTov.
4 Geoponica, xii. 8. p. 8S8. Aelian, N. A. vi. 36. Pliny, N. Hi
xvii. 47. Columella, Hort. 357.
At si nulla valet meiiicina repellere pestem,
Dardaniae veniant artes, nudataque plantas
Foemina, quae, justis turn demum operata juventae
Legibus, obscoeno manat pudibunda cruore;
Et rcsoluta sinus, rcsoluto moesta capillo,
Ter eircum areolas et sepeni dueitur horti.
Quae cum Iustravit gradiens, mirabile visu,
Volvitur ad terram distorto eorpore earape.
■The Kufi-n-,1 does not confine its attacks to the vine: see Theophrastus,
H. P. in. 22. 3. p. 486. and Athenaeus, ii. p. 55. e.
5 Leo Allatius, de quorund. Graec. Opinat. p. 177- Relatum mihi
est; opportunissimum remedium esse, si illi, tanquam rei, per praeconem,
aut libello scripto, per nomina in curiam ad judices citentur. Sic enim vel
illico evuncscunt. Si pergunt adferre noxam, repetita citatione proclamantur.
Ubi pertinacius persistant, in contumaces sententia pronunciatur. Sunt
etiam, qui pro damno, jam accepto, et detrimento, testes examinant. Minim
esse tlicunt, vermiculos, qui omnia tolerant, judicium non sustinere; sed
repente, ne deprehensi poenas luant, eodem tempore difl'ugere, atque eva-
nescere. See another extraordinary remedy against the poor kampe prescribed
by Michael Psellus, and another practised by Tuscan monks, at pp. 178-
'79. of the same work.