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188 W. KENDRICK PRITCHETT
vinegar, which was regarded by Attic writers as a condiment par excellence,74 are
described by Athenaeus, II, 67 c ff. The best varieties were reported to be Knidian
and Egyptian. The oldest preserved recipe is found in Cato, De agricultura, 104.
Vinegar was usually extracted from the cheaper sorts of wine, but there are references
which show that the ancients also made it from dates, figs, etc.75
This writer has found prices for oxos only in papyrological sources and in the
Edict of Diocletian. Pap. Gen., 71 (Fayum, second century after Christ) comprises a
list of the sales of oxos.76 The price varies between 4 drachmas and 5X2 drachmas a
dichoron.77 A few other prices are given by A. C. Johnson, " Roman Egypt," Economic
Survey, II, pp. 314-315. In A.D. 301 the maximum price for vinegar was established
in the Edict of Diocletian at 6 denarii an Italian pint (xestes) 78
11. opo,/o (II, 91). Bitter vetch. Ervum Ervilia.79 The orobos was one of the
vetches of which, according to Athenaeus," several varieties were eaten both green and
dry.8' When dry, they were served either boiled or roasted like chestnuts.82 In a fragment
of Alexis the orobos seems to be regarded as belonging to a pauper's diet.83 This
is the purport, too, of a passage in Philostratos, which tells of finding oroboi on sale
in the market only when the rich men had shut up all the grain.84 The point of the
answer to Plutarch's 46th Greek Question, " Why is it that the people of Tralles call
orobos 'purifier ' and make particular use of it for ritual cleansings and purifications?
", is that orobos was lacking in value as a food.8" Finally, the same may be
inferred from a passage in Demosthenes.86 He says about a time of great scarcity
in the last war with Sparta, " You know that oroboi were sold for food."
Pliny refers to a flour of bitter vetch used as leavening in barley bread.87 Athe
naeus cites Phainias of Eresos in his work On Plants as referring to the use of orobos
as fodder for plough-cattle.88
74 Athenaeus, II, 67 c.
75 Xenophon, Anab., II, 3, 14; Pliny, H.N., XIV, 103; Columella, XII, 5 and 17; Geoponika,
VIII, 33.
76J. Nicole, Les papyrus de Geneve, Geneva, 1896.
77 A dichoron equals eight choes.
78 Col. III, 5.
79 See Fournier in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s. v. Cibaria, 1144 b; V. Hehn, Kulturpflanzen
und Hausthiere, 7th edition, Berlin, 1902, pp. 213 ff.; and Olck, R.E., s.v. Erbse.
80
II, 54 f.
81
Theophrastos (H.P., II, 4, 2) states that only vetches sown in spring are digestible.
82 Cf. Aristophanes, Pax, 1136.
83 Kock, C.A.F., II, 447.
84 Vit. Apoll., I, 15.
85 See W. R. Halliday, Greek Questions of Plutarch, Oxford, 1928, pp. 189-190.
86 XXIII, Against Aristokrates, 115.
87 H.N., XVIII, 104.
88
IX, 406 c. Cf. Aristotle, H.A., III, 522 b, 28; VIII, 595 b, 5.