CHAP. 60. (27.)—OMPHACIUM.
Omphacium[1] is also a kind of oil, which is obtained from
two trees, the olive and the vine, by two different methods.
It is produced from the former by pressing the olive while it
is still in the white state. That is of an inferior quality which
is made from the druppa—such being the name that is given
to the olive before it is ripe and fit for food, but already
beginning to change its colour. The difference between them
is, that the latter kind is green, the former white. The omphacium that is made from the vine is extracted from either
the psythian[2] or the Aminean grape, when the grapes are
about the size of a chick-pea, just before the rising of the Dogstar. The grape is gathered when the first bloom is appearing
upon it, and the verjuice is extracted, after which the residue[3]
is left to dry in the sun, due precautions being taken against
the dews of the night. The verjuice, after being collected, is
put into earthen vessels, and then, after that, stored in jars
of Cyprian copper.[4] The best kind is that which is of a
reddish colour, acrid, and dry to the taste? The price at
which it sells is six denarii per pound. Omphacium is also
made another way—the unripe grape is pounded in a mortar,
after which it is dried in the sun, and then divided into
lozenges.
1. From the Greek o)mfa/kion, being made of unripe grapes. As Fée
remarks, that made from the olive is correctly described as a kind of oil,
but that made from the grape must have been a rob, or pure verjuice.
These two liquids must have had totally different qualities, and resembled
each other in nothing but the name. That extracted from the olive is
mentioned again in B. xxiii. c. 4, in reference to its medicinal properties.
2. These grapes are described in B. xiv. c. 4 and c. 11.
3. "Reliquum corpus." It is not clear what is the meaning of this.
The passage is either in a corrupt state, or defective.
4. A singular metal, one would think, for keeping verjuice in.