Plastic Paper Disposable Cups/Drinking Straws ,
Early history
The ruins of Carthage. When the city was destroyed, one of the few items that the Romans saved was the agricultural works of Mago.
Wild grapevines have grown on the Italian peninsula since prehistory and historians have not been able to pinpoint the exact moment in time when domestic viticulture and winemaking first occurred. It is possible that the Mycenaean had some influences with early Greek settlements in southern Italy but the earliest recorded evidence of Greek influence was in 800 BC. Viticulture was widely entrenched in Etruscan civilization which was centered around the modern winemaking region of Tuscany. The Ancient Greeks saw wine as a staple of domestic life as well as a viable economic trade commodity. Throughout the Greek world, settlements were encouraged to plant vineyards for local use and trade with the Greek city states. Southern Italy, with its abundance of indigenous vines, was an ideal location for wine production and was known by the Greeks as Oenotria (“land of vines”).
As Rome grew from a collection of settlements to a kingdom and then republic, the culture of Roman winemaking was influenced by the skills and techniques of the regions that were conquered and became part of the Roman Empire. The Greek settlements of southern Italy were completely under Roman control by 270 BC. The Etruscans, who already had established trade routes into Gaul, were completely conquered by the 1st century BC. The Punic Wars with Carthage had a particularly marked effect on Roman viticulture. In addition to broadening the cultural horizons of the Roman citizenry, they also introduced them to the advanced viticultural techniques of the Carthaginians in particular the work of Mago. When the libraries of Carthage were ransacked and burned, one of the few Carthaginian works to survive was the 26 volumes of Mago’s work which was translated into Latin and Greek in 146 BC. Mago’s work was extensively quoted in the influential Roman works by Pliny, Columella, Varro and Gargilius Martialis.
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For most of Rome’s winemaking history, Greek wine was the most highly prized with domestic Roman wine fetching far lower prices. The 2nd century BC began the “golden age” of Roman winemaking and the development of Grand cru vineyards (a type of early First Growths in Rome). The vintage of 121BC was of legendary fame and became known as the Opimian vintage, named after the consul at the timeucius Opimius. The vintage was noted for its large harvest and the unusually high quality of wine that was producedith some examples still being drunk over 100 years later. Pliny the Elder wrote extensively about the “first growths” of Romeost notably Falernian, Alban and Caecuban. Other first growth vineyards include Rhaeticum and Hadrianum located along the Po river in what are now the modern day regions of Lombardy and Venice respectively; Praetutium (not related to the modern Italian city Teramo, historically known as Praetutium) located along the Adriatic coast near the border of Emilia-Romagna and Marche and Lunense located in modern Tuscany. Around Rome itself were the estates of Alban, Sabinum, Tiburtinum, Setinum and Signinum. Going south towards Naples were the estates of Caecuban, Falernian, Caulinum, Trebellicanum, Massicum, Gauranium, and Surrentinum. In Sicily was the first growth estate of Mamertinum. At this highpoint, it was estimated that Rome was consuming over 47 million gallons (nearly 1.8 million hl) of wine each year, enough for every man, woman and child to have a pint (half a liter) of wine each day , tissue paper roll .
Pompeii
A mosaic depicting the harvest in Pompeii, recovered from a bar that served the city prior to its destruction.
One of the most important wine centres of the Roman world was the city of Pompeii located south of Naples. The area was home to a vast expanse of vineyards, and served as an important trading city with Roman provinces abroad. It was the principal source of wine for the city of Rome. The Pompeians themselves were notorious for the decadence of their wine thirst. The worship of Bacchus, the god of wine, was prevalent with depictions of the god being found on frescoes and archaeological fragments throughout the region. Amphorae stamped with the emblems of Pompeian merchants have been found across the Roman empire including the modern day regions of Bordeaux, Narbonne, Toulouse and Spain. There is evidence to suggest that the popularity and notoriety of Pompeian wine may have given rise to early wine fraud with fraudulent stamps being used to mark amphorae of non-Pompeian wine.
The 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius had a devastating effect on the Roman wine industry. Vineyards across the region were destroyed, as well as warehouses storing the recent 78 AD vintage, causing a dramatic shortage of wine. The damage to the trading port also hindered the flow of wines from outside provinces. The wine that was available rose sharply in price, making it unaffordable to all but the most affluent Romans. The wine famine caused a sense of panic among the Romans who rushed to plant vineyards in the areas near Rome, even uprooting grain fields to have more available areas to plant. While these efforts helped to quickly correct the shortage of wine, the opposite effect of a wine surplus also brought negative consequences. The glut of wine caused a depression in pricing which hurt the commercial entrance of wine producers and traders. The grain fields that were uprooted contributed to a food shortage for the growing Roman population. In 92 AD, Roman Emperor Domitian issued an edict that banned the plantings of any new vineyards in Rome and ordered the uprooting of half of the vineyards in Roman provinces. While there is evidence to suggest that Domitian’s edict was largely ignored in the Roman provinces, wine historians have debated the effect of the edict on the infant wine industries of Spain and Gaul. The expectation of the edict was that the reduced vineyards would supply only enough wine for domestic consumption with sparse amount for trade. While vineyards were already established in these growing wine regions, the lacking impetus of trading consideration may have had a depressing effect on the spread of viticulture and winemaking in these areas. Domitian’s edict stayed in effect for 188 years till Emperor Probus repealed the measure in 280 AD.
Expansion of viticulture
One of the lasting legacies of the ancient Roman empire was the foundations that the Romans set in lands that would become world renowned wine regions. Through trade, military campaigns and settlementshe Roman influence that touched each land brought with it a taste for wine and impetus to plant vines. Trade was the first and farthest reaching arm of Roman influence. From the Carthaginians and southern Spain to the Celtic tribes in Gaul and Germanic tribes of the Rhine and Danube, Roman wine merchants were eager to trade with enemy and ally alike. During the Gallic Wars, when Julius Caesar brought his troops to Chalon-sur-Sane in 59 BC, he found two Roman wine merchants already established in business trading with the local tribes. In places like Bordeaux, Trier and Colchester where Roman garrisons were established, vineyards were planted to supply the needs locally and limit the cost of long distance trading. As Roman settlements were founded and populated by retired soldiers, many of whom had knowledge of Roman viticulture from their families and life before the military, would plant vineyards of their own in their new homelands. While there are possibilities that the Romans imported grapevines from Italy and Greece, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the Romans cultivated native vines in the provinces that may be the ancestors of the grapes grown there today.
As the Roman Republic grew into an empire, the complexity of the Roman wine trade grew as well. The Roman peninsula was known for its high quality wine. Pompeii was known for its unique and high quality wine. However, as the Republic grew beyond Italy, the trade and the market economy dealing with wine grew as well. The wine trade in Italy consisted of the Romans selling their wine abroad to settlements and provinces around the Mediterranean Sea. Yet, by the end of the 1st century C.E., the Romans wine exports had competition from its provinces, which began to export their wine to Rome. Because the Roman Empire was very much a market economy, the provinces exports were encouraged. This enhanced the supply and demand of the Roman market economy. If there were a high supply of wine, then the price of wine would be lower to the consumer. Because the Empire had a supply and demand economy, the Romans also had an ample supply of coinage, which also suggests that there was a complex market economy surrounding the wine trade of Roman Empire. An ample supply of coins meant that people within the Empire put a great deal of thought into the market economy of wine. Wine clearly was a pivotal part of the Roman Empire, her provinces, and its economy.
Hispania
Roman amphorae recovered from Catalonia.
The Roman defeat of Carthage in the Punic Wars which brought the southern and coast territories of Spain under their control though the complete conquest of the Iberian peninsula wasn’t completed till the reign of Caesar Augustus. Roman colonization of the region led to the development of Tarraconensis in the northern regions of Spain, including what is now the modern winemaking regions of Catalonia, Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Galicia, and Hispania Baetica which includes modern Andalusia and Sherry wine making region of Cdiz. The Carthaginians and Phoenicians were the first to introduce viticulture to…
