09-14-2007, 08:41 PM
Which triggers the question reenactors hate - do you read German? 
'cause K.W.Weeber wrote a pretty good book on that.
IN short, I don't drink wine so I can't speak to flavours, but I very much doubt Roman wines were particularly strong compared to traditional European stuff (the current fashion for light, dry wines is quite recent, most traditional modern wine is as sweet and strong as can be arranged). There are some vineyards that try to reproduce Roman wines, and from what I hear they're on the strong side, but not exceptionally so, and tend to be dry and acerbic. Of course that could just be our idea of what Roman wine is *supposed* to taste like - food archeology is dangerous that way.
My suspicion regarding the watering is that the Romans liked the 'soft drink feeling', drinking large quantities of cool liquid without getting immediately drunk. Keep in mind a Roman commissatio could last for hours and a triclinium full of people must have got hot. You could easily put away a few litres. Try that with unmixed wine...
As to women, yes, in Republican times there was a tradition and even a law that forbade women from drinking wine. A writer (I can'tr recall who) even says the tradition of male relatives kissing female relatives as a greeting is to check for wine on their breath. Traditionalists love to pint out that in the good old days, a weoman could be killed for the offense, because wine-bibbing led to sexual license. However, by the Late Republic, this is pretty much history, and may never have been much more than the Roman version of the 'chastity belt'. Women in the Late Republic and Empire drink wine without fear of legal repercussions, though not without occasional censure. My guess is it was much like smoking in the early 20th century - not something a well-bred lady does where people can see, but something everyone knows women do.
'cause K.W.Weeber wrote a pretty good book on that. IN short, I don't drink wine so I can't speak to flavours, but I very much doubt Roman wines were particularly strong compared to traditional European stuff (the current fashion for light, dry wines is quite recent, most traditional modern wine is as sweet and strong as can be arranged). There are some vineyards that try to reproduce Roman wines, and from what I hear they're on the strong side, but not exceptionally so, and tend to be dry and acerbic. Of course that could just be our idea of what Roman wine is *supposed* to taste like - food archeology is dangerous that way.
My suspicion regarding the watering is that the Romans liked the 'soft drink feeling', drinking large quantities of cool liquid without getting immediately drunk. Keep in mind a Roman commissatio could last for hours and a triclinium full of people must have got hot. You could easily put away a few litres. Try that with unmixed wine...
As to women, yes, in Republican times there was a tradition and even a law that forbade women from drinking wine. A writer (I can'tr recall who) even says the tradition of male relatives kissing female relatives as a greeting is to check for wine on their breath. Traditionalists love to pint out that in the good old days, a weoman could be killed for the offense, because wine-bibbing led to sexual license. However, by the Late Republic, this is pretty much history, and may never have been much more than the Roman version of the 'chastity belt'. Women in the Late Republic and Empire drink wine without fear of legal repercussions, though not without occasional censure. My guess is it was much like smoking in the early 20th century - not something a well-bred lady does where people can see, but something everyone knows women do.
Der Kessel ist voll Bärks!
Volker Bach
Volker Bach
