“Nunc est Bibendum” said Horace for celebrating the victory of the future emperor Augustus (ode I, 37, 1). Drinking alcohol for celebrating an event, or drinking for alleviating unhappiness: both indicate that alcohol consumption is closely tied to emotions. Neuropsychology, neurophysiology, and neurobiology confirmed this with supporting data implicating limbic and cortical circuitries involved in pleasure and the management of emotions. Clinical descriptions have shown that addiction translates emotions into sensations. The development of alcohol drinking is strongly related to human civilization and sedentary life. Many historical reports show alcohol usage in memorable orgies, for reducing anxiety or simply for drinking pleasure and for improving a meal. The oldest alcohol to have been drank seems to be a kind of beer prepared with millet, the first cereal to be cultivated. In 2005, noodles prepared with millet dating from 2000 BC were found at the Lajia archeological site (upper part of the Huang He – Yellow River – in China; Lu et al., 2005). In Sumer, around 3000 BC, cuneiform tablets show pictograms of beer and brewers. The Sumerian god Enki, “The Lord of Wisdom,” drank beer and occasionally got drunk. People in pharaonic Egypt used beverages including palm wine, beer, shebdou (sort of wine from granada), and some wines from vineyards grown in limited inundable zones during the Nile overflow. Wine usage was limited but was sometimes drunk beyond the limit of decency. Some engravings of the time represent suggestive scenes of drunkenness (the term would be modified to alcoholism in 1849 Renaudin, 1853). A meal was written as “bread-beer” in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Diodore of Sicily wrote that Egyptian doctors who called themselves “Chiefs of Secrets” prescribed a mixture of wine, opium, and stramonia for anger or unhappiness (Pernoud, 1979). In antiquity, Greek citizens used many varieties of wines. The free citizens of Athens received an education for “knowing how to drink” in the course of banquets called “Symposium” (literally translated as “drinking together” to free the spirit for more efficient discussions). Wines were flowing freely in the banquets described in the Iliad, Odyssey, and in the feasts described by Greek poets. Homer cites the Pramne wine used by the magician Circea to make Ulysses and his companions drunk and change them into animals. In Rome, wine had a success at least equal to that in Egypt and Greece. Horace described a sweet white wine that elicited headache because of a large addition of sea water for its conservation. Plinius classified about 80 wines, of which two thirds came from Italy. Wine was frequently considered to have pharmaceutical and even magic properties. “Wine was by itself a remedy feeding the forces and the blood of man; it pleased his stomach and reduced sadness and worries” (Plinius). Reserves of good wine made friends and kept them (Horace). For Aristophanes, wine was milk for the old. All Roman poets sang the glory of wine. The Romans had high esteem for wine, which they placed under the protection of Bacchus (a god of outstanding nobility as the only one to be born from Jupiter’s thigh). The people of Narbon, a province in south Gaul, were impressed by the high profits of the Roman wine merchants (exchanging one wine amphora for one young slave). Since Roman law prohibited non-Roman persons from planting vineyards, the Narbon people circumvented the law by fictitiously selling the ground to a Roman citizen, who planted the vineyard and then resold the ground to the original owner. By this mechanism, Greek and Roman vineyards were cultivated in south Gaul provinces. The Gaul people enjoyed wine growing, and being good iron artisans, they invented wine maturation in wooden barrels (stored in cellars after 1750). Expansion via commercial ways brought wine
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Jul 13, 2023
Yan-Lun Ju + 8
Open Access