AJ. PAPALAS History Department East Carolina University

PRAMNIAN WINE AND THE WINE OF ICARIA*

Icaria, an island in the Sporades west of Samos, one of the more remote islands in the Aegean, was a relatively prosperous member of the Greek world in classical anti­ quity. A famous temple of Artemis stood on the northwest corner and an excellent Hellenistic tower was built on the eastern tip. Two cities, Thermae and Oenoe, paid tribute to the Delian League1. Oenoe, the more prosperous of the two, was known for its wine, and it is the aim of this study to assess the importance of Icarian wine in the Graeco-Roman World. Oenoe, the modern village of Campos, is on the northwest coast of Icaria a few miles outside of the port city of Evdilos. The citadel of Oenoe, a few hundred yards from the sea, was near a river that has silted up. The surface of the ancient acropolis is thick with potsherds dating from the fifth century B.C. to the Antonine Age. A Roman basilica, referred to by the local inhabitants as the Byzantine palace, stands on the southeast slope, and on the northwest slope stands the church of Saint Irene, and next to it a small museum. Fragments of classical architecture, perhaps from a temple of Dionysus, were built into the church as well as into a stable which lies on the plain below2. This area, still considered the garden of Icaria, was quite productive in the fifth century B.C. In 453 B.C. the citizens of Oenoe paid 1 talent 2000 drachmae to the Delian League, a figure that dropped to 4000 drachmae in the 440's, but rose to 1 talent in the 430's. Icaria was known for its thick forest as well as viticulture, but it was wine, we must assume, and not timber that enabled the inhabitants of Oenoe to pay a respec­ table tax to the Delian league3. There is not, however, one single literary source from the fifthcentur y B.C. to support the inscriptional evidence. When Alcibiades traveled in Ionia he drank Lesbian and not Icarian wine4. By the fourth century B.C. there are several literary references to Icarian wine. The comic poet Amphis, ca. 350 B.C., suggested that Icaria was proverbial for its wine, and Eparchides, a native of Oenoe, who wrote a history of Icaria sometime in the fourth century, referred to Icarian wine as Pramnian. According to the Icarian historian Pram- nian was a dry, strong drink produced by the native Dionysian vine which outsiders called «sacred». Semos of Delos, ca. 200 B.C., probably relying on Eparchides noted that the celebrated Icarian vine grew on a mountain, presumably on terraced slopes, behind a Pramnian rock and the wine itself had medicinal qualities3. Jacoby dismissed the therapeutic value of the beverage as well as the existence of the so-called Pramnian rock6.

* This study was in part made possible by a grant given to me by the East Carolina University Research Council, and by an invitation of the Greek Ministry of Culture to participate in the 6th. Aegean Symposium held in Icaria in August 1980. 50

In the fifth century B.C. Icarian may not have been associated with Pramnian wine, but Pramnian, according to Aristophanes, had medicinal properties7. Machaon, Homer's surgeon at Troy, drank Pramnian which may explain its medicinal reputation. Pramnian was therefore desirable to the sort of sick people who visited the hot springs at Thermae. The Icariane probably publisized the medicinal qualities of their wine as they today do of their water with the aim of selling it to the people taking the cure at Thermae. As for the Pramnian rock there is nothing in the vicinity of Campos to sug­ gest Semus' topographical description, though the section of the mountain some three kilometers from Campos is today called Pramnius. Homeric heroes drank their Pramnian wine mixed with grated goat's cheese and barley meal, or with honey and barley meal. Melas assumed that Homer's beverage is Icarian arguing that this proves that the island was a prosperous member of the Mycenaean and Homeric worlds. There is, however, no archeological material to link Icaria with these early periods. It was not until the middle of the 8th. century B.C. that Miletus established the first Greek settlements on Icaria, and these were mère staging points to facilitate Milesian commerce with the Pontic region10. Homer knew of the Icarian Pelagos, but not of the insignificant settlements on the island nor of Icarian wine. The bard's Pramnian came from either Smyrna, Ephesus or Lesbos, areas with traditions going back to the Mycenaean Period. The Icarians began to produce their celebrated beverage after Homer. By the 7th. century B.C. Ionian trade with the Pontus became important, and it is quite likely that the northern region of Icaria began to export wine at this time11. The mountainous terrain of Icaria, with the exception of the small plains at Oenoe and Dracanum (on the southeast tip), was unfit for grain though ideal for vineyards and the grazing of goats and sheep. The island seems to have maintained a level of prosperity by trading its desirable wine along with cheese, honey and timber for grain and other necessities12. And while Oenoe was the center of this prosperity villages throughout the island were thriving. The most impressive find from ancient Icaria is a funerary monu­ ment from the village of Kataphidion, erected ca. 460 B.C., several miles north of Ther­ mae13. There are ancient terraces there, as there are throughout the island, presumably vineyards, suggesting that viticulture flourished far beyond Oenoe. The maintaining of vineyards required an enormous labor supply. Perhaps Icaria like its neighbor Chios, which had the largest non-Greek slave population in the Hellenic World, relied on slaves from the Pontus supplied by Milesian merchants trading Icarian wine. Semus and Amphis assumed that their readers were familiar with the wine of Icaria; the island had by the fourth century a secure reputation as one of the superior wine regions of Greece, a reputation which the Icarians tried to enhance. They called their wine Pramnian, and issued a coin with a vine on one side and Dionysus on the other15. But they, apparently, failed to exploit one of the best means of advertising - ex­ porting their wine in Icarian amphorae. Lesbos, Chios, Rhodes and other well-known wine regions exported their product in amphorae with distinctive stamps on the handles, and out of the approximately 40,000 extant stamped handles there is not one which can be indentified as Icarian. In the museum of Campos and Agios Kyrikos, the modern capital of Icaria, among the dozens of unmarked amphorae there are several from Chios and Lesbos. If the citizens of Oenoe felt like Eparchides and plumed themselves 51 on their pramnian, and issued coins to publisize it why did they not export wine with an Icarian symbol stamped on the handles of the containers? It may have something to do with what Eparchides meant by Pramnian. Didymus, the Alexandrian scholar who wrote over 3500 books, thought that Pramnian came from a Pramnian vine. There were several other explanations. Some thought it applied to all dark wines; others to wines that kept well, and still others thought of Pramnian as a strong wine that had a soporific effect17. Dioscorides Pedanius, an army physician who flourished ca. A.D. 50, in his Materia Medica (5.9) recommended Pramnian as a good antidote against certain poisons, and wrote that it came from the juice produced by oozing grapes before they were pressed. It was an essence which could be taken in small quantities for medicinal purposes, or used to flavor good wines. It is quite possible that Icarian wine was ship­ ped in unmarked amphorae to the producers in Lesbos and Chios, or that it was of limited quantity and not one marked container survived. By the Roman period Icaria not only lost its connection with Pramnian but it was no longer regarded as a prime wine region. Caesar, in his first two triumphs, offered the people Chian and Falerian, and in his third consulship served Chian, Lesbian, Mamer- tine and Falerian18. Dioscurides, who did not associate Pramnian with Icarian, praised (Materia Medica 5. 11-12) Chian and Lesbian but wrote nothing of Icarian wine. Pliny, a contemporary of Dioscurides, wrote (NH 14. 6. 55) that Homer's Pramnian, still es­ teemed in his day, came from Smyrna. At some point in the Hellenistic Period the viticulture of the island was ruined. A series of unspecified disasters hit Icaria in the fourth and third centuries. Alexander in what seems to have been an effort to lure displaced Icariane to the east named an island in the Persian Gulf after Icaria19. If there were homeless Icariane they came from Ther­ mae, for the city disappeared sometime in the third century B.C. The Samians, under the name of Asclepieis, revived Thermae and in 205 B.C. delegates from the new city went to the festival of Artemis Leucopherne at Magnesia-on-the-Meander20. Asclepieis did not last long. It was most likely destroyed by Philip V who in 202 B.C. sailed into the Aegean plundering the Cyclades and besieging Samos. His course would have taken him along the lees of Icaria past the unwalled Asclepieis which as a Samian possession would have been fair game21. Thus by the end of the third century the southern part of Icaria was in that desolate condition that Strabo (14. 1. 19) reported at the end of the first century B.C. Oenoe, however, managed for some fiftyyear s to avoid the fate of its sister polis. It had a better citadel than Thermae, and being on the windward side was not readily accessible by sea in July and August. At the beginning of the second century B.C., despite the problems in the southern half of the island, the wine of Oenoe was still held in high esteem, if we can trust Semus, though the historian from Delos may have been merely citing Eparchides. We can only guess at the reason for the decline of Oenoe and the disappearance of Icarian Pramnian. The vineyards may have suffered from bad weather or disease, but social and economic problems were doubtless the determining factors. In 132 B.C. the illegitimate son of Eumenes II of Pergamum led the depressed classes in a rebellion on a large work force to maintain the vineyards, the very sort of class that would support Aristomenes. In 130 B.C. the Samians thanked Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, a legate of the consul Manius Aquilius for reparing the temple of Artemis at Nao23. It 52 seems that the northern half of Icaria was in ruins and that the Samians had taken it over. They were clearly more successful in reviving Oenoe than they had been with Thermae. The Samians in Oenoe enjoyed an ephebic institution, honored Roman Em­ perors and expanded the city24. The new inhabitants of Icaria did not produce an export wine. By the first century B.C. the competition in wine trade was very keen because certain. Italian wine had become as good as Greek wine, and this may have discouraged the Samians of Icaria, but it did not deter the old rivals of Oenoe25. Lesbos, Smyrna and Chios continued to produce a desirable wine, and indeed viticulture was thriving throughout Ionia, ap­ parently at the expense of other agricultural activity. In ca. A.D. 80 the Emperor Domi- tian decreed that half of the existing vineyards were to be destroyed and forbade the planting of new ones. Smyrna, which now enjoyed the exclusive claim to Pramnian, sent the famous orator Scopelian to Domitian, who managed to persuade the emperor to repeal the decree26. There is scarcely a reference to Icarian wine in the Roman period. The Samians of Oenoe preferred ranching to viticulture, and there were several good reasons why they did. It would have been very expensive to repair the terraced vineyards in Oenoe and throughout the island and a very risky investment at a time when imperial restrictions might limit the production of wine. Furthermore, Icaria, without sufficient plains, could not produce enough grain to maintain the large labor force necessary for viticulture in mountainous terrain27. Chios, Lesbos and Smyrna had extensive level regions for both grain and grape crops. The not only needed fewer hands but produced more food and thus enjoyed a measure of autarkia which Icaria lacked. Thus the Samians found it more profitable to convert Icaria into a grazing land for their animals than to revive the wine industry of Oenoe.

Περίληψις

Ό Πράμνιος οίνος έχει έξυμνηθή ύπο τοΰ 'Ομήρου, Πλάτωνος, Πλινίου, καθώς και ύπο άλλων, και διετή ρήσε τήν φήμην του αρκούντως κατά την Ρωμαϊκή ν αύτοκρατορικήν περίοδον. Ή Σμύρνη, Λέσβος, Χίος και ή Οινόη έν 'Ικαρία, διετέλουν υπερήφανοι τοΰ Πραμνίου των. Ή Οίνόη, ήτις διεφήμιζεν το προϊόν της έπί των νομισμάτων της, άνεπτύχθη κατά τον 5ον π.Χ. αίώνα, είς ένα πλουσιοπάροχον μέλος της κοινωνίας του Αιγαίου, και κατά τον έπόμενον αίώνα, οί Έπαρχίδης, Σήμος και "Αμφις συνεδύασαν τον Πράμνιον μετά της 'Ικαρίας. Ό Ίκάριος Πράμνιος, έν τούτοις, δέν ήτο ό οίνος δν έπήνεσεν ό Όμηρος. Κατά τον 2ον π.Χ. αίώνα, ένώ ή αμπελουργία ήνθησεν είς τήν Σμύρνην, Λέσβον και Χίον, έξέσβησεν είς τήν Ίκαρίαν, ήτις μετεβλήθη είς κτήμα βοσκής ύπο των Σαμίων. Ή 'Ικαρία, έν αντιθέσει προς τους συναγωνιστάς της, δέν κατώρθωσε ποτέ νά εδραίωση μίαν ΐσορροπημένην οΐκονομίαν καί δέν ήδυνήθη νά ανάρρωση έκ των οίκονομικών δυσχερειών του τέλους τής Ελληνιστικής εποχής. 53

ΣΗΜΕΙΩΣΕΙΣ

1. L. Brüchner, PW, 9,1 (1965), «Ikaros», 978 ff., collects the relevant ancient sources and comments on them. L. Robert, «Les Asklépieis de l'Archipel,» REG 46 (1933), 423 ff, notes several mistakes in Briichner's account and provides a good summary of ancient Icaria. Epaminondas J. Stammatiadis, Ίκαρνακά ήτοι Ιστορία της νήσου 'Ικαρίας (Samos, 1983), cites several interesting inscriptions. Ch. G. Pamphile, 'Ιστορία της Νήσου Ικαρίας (Athens 1921), and J. Mêlas, 'Ιστορία της Νήσου Ικαρίας (Athens 1958), both have a good knowledge of local topography, but neither one is a trained historian or classicist. Nikolas M. Kontoleon, Aspects de la Grèce Préclassique (Paris 1970), pp. 1-22, gives a summary of Icarian history up to 460 B.C. in commenting on an impressive funerary monument found at Kataphedion, a village several kilometers above Thermae. A. J. Papalas, «The Early History of Icaria», Ellenika 33 (1981), forthcoming, provides a full account of the preclassical period. 2. Albert Rehm, PW, 17, 2 (1962), «Oine», 2190 ff., is mistaken in locating the temple of Artemis on the site of Saint Irene. For this temple see, L. Politis, Ικαρία - ΠΑΕ (1939), 139-141. For more recent ex­ cavations on the island, see N. S. Zapheropoulos, «Ικαρία» 18 1963, 273; 'Ικαρία Προσπέρα, Κάμπος, ΑΔ, 25 (1970), 420-422. 3. For a convenient summary of the tribute of Oenoe and Thermae listed by B. D. Meritt, Η. T. Wade Gery and M. F. McGregor in the Athenian Tribute Liste (Cambridge, Mass. 1938), I, see R. Meiggs, The Athenian Empire (Oxford 1978), p. 540. Plutarch (Table Talk 675 D) wrote than pines good for ship­ building thrived on soil good for vineyards. Icaria was well known for its thick forest from antiquity to the modern era, see Arrian, Anabasis 7. 20. 5 and James Emerson, Letters from the Aegean (New York 1829), p. 135. 4. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 12. 534 D; Plutarch Alcibiades 12. 5. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 1. 30 B-C. 6. Jacoby, FGrH 3 b. 437. 7. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 1. 30. C. 8. Iliad 11. 39; Odyssey 10. 236. 9. Melas, Icaria, pp. 36 ff. 10. Kontoleon, Aspects, pp. 1-7. Papalas, «Early History of Icaria», forthcoming, argues that Miletus, involved in almost continual bickering with Samos, would not always take the traditional route north - along the coast of Asia.Minor - and therefore used Icaria as an alternate way to the Pontus. 11. One assumes, though there is no archeological evidence, that Icarian wine was sold in the traditional export markets - in the Pontus region and Egypt. C. L. Huxley, The Early Ionians (New York 1966), pp. 64-69, discusses the development of the Pontic trade. Ε. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks (Cam­ bridge 1913), p. 359, notes the abundance of wine jars from Thasos, Rhodes, Cnidus and Paros in the Eux- ine. There was a brisk trade with Egypt as well. Herodotus (3. 6. 1) saw a multitude of Greek amphoras in the sands of Egypt. Many of these probably came from the Aegean and were part of the trade noted by Strabo 17. 1.33 and Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 13 596 B. Samos was part of this trade, see V. R. Grace, «Exceptional Amphora Stamps», Studies in Classical Archaelogy - A Tribute to Peter Heinrick von Blackenhagen (New York 1971), pp. 118-120. 12. L. Casson, «The Grain Trade of the Hellenistic World», Trans, of the American Philological Association 85 (1954), 168-87, argues that wine exports supplemented with other agricultural products could purchase the necessary grain for regions unable to cultivate adequate amounts of cereals. In the 17th. century when there were a few small villages on the island the inhabitants of Icaria were obliged to import their grain, see J. Georgirenes, A Description of the Present State of Samos, Nicaria, Patmos and Mount Athos (London 1677), pp. 59-61. 13. Kontoleon, Aspects, pp. 1-21. 14. Virgil, Georgics 2. 414-433; Pliny 17. 35; Varrò De agri. 1. 31. 15. Β. V. Head, Historia Numorum2 (London 1911), 602. 16. Virginia R.' Grace, Amphoras and the Ancient Wine Trade - Excavations of the Athenian Agora no. 6 (Princeton 1960), pp. 8 ff. 17. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 1. 30 D-E. 18. Pliny 14. 97. 54

19. Aman, Anabasis 7. 20. 5. 20. Robert, «Asklépieis», 423 ff. 21. According to Polybius 16. 2. 9, Philip had sailed across the Aegean to Samos. He presumably sailed pass the lee of Icaria. For a discussion of Polybius' Aegean policy, see F. Walbank, Philip V of Macedon (Cambridge 1940), pp. 108-137. 22. Florus 1. 35. 4. M. Rostovzeff, Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World (Oxford 1941), p. 807, and Joseph Vogt, Ancient Slavery and the Ideal of Man (Oxford 1974),j>p. 39-75, emphasize the class character of the uprising. L. Ross, Reisen auf den griechischen Inseln des Agäischen Meeres (Stuttgart 1843), III, 134 ff., visited Icaria in 1842 and saw a dispute between the upper and lower classes on the island. 23. IGR V 968. 24. Stamatiadis, Ikariaka, pp. 21-22. 25. Suetonius, Domitian 7. 2; and Philostratus VS 1. 520. T. Franken Economic Survey of Ancient Rome - Rome and Italy of the Empire (New Jersey 1959), sees the edict in the context of declining Italian cereal culture. M. Rostovzeff, The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (Oxford 1966), I, 202-203, II, 628, maintains that Domitian aimed at protecting Italian viticulture, and that the measure was carried out to some extent in the provinces. 26. Aelian NA 15 28, writing in the second century A.D. was refering to an earlier writer, probably Eparchides. 27. Theophrastus H.P. 2. 5. 7, noted that low-ground was best for viticulture.

VIII Συνεδριον της FI£.C.

To VIII Συνεδριον της Διεθνούς 'Ομοσπονδίας των Εταιρειών Κλασσικών Σπουδών θα συνέλθη είς το Δουβλίνον άπό 27 Αυγούστου έως 1 Σεπτεμβρίου 1984. Έκτος τών θεμάτων της κλασσικής φιλολογίας θα εκτεθούν είς παράλληλα Col­ loquia και θέματα Παπυρολογίας, αρχαίας φιλοσοφίας, επιγραφικής, Μυκηνολογίας κλπ. ΟΙ επιθυμούντες να μετάσχουν δέον να απευθυνθούν εΐς τήν διεύθυνσιν: Prof. G. Watson, Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland, δια της ακολού­ θου τυπικής αίτήσεως. FIEC Congress 1984 I wish to receive further information of the 1984 Congress Name Title Address