Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
45.
_What is the reason that upon the festivall day in the honour of_ Venus, _which solemnitie they call_ Veneralia, _they use to powre foorth a great quantitie of wine out of the temple of_ Venus. IS it as some say upon this occasion, that _Mezentius_ sometime captaine generall of the Tuscans, sent certeine embassadors unto _Aeneas_, with commission to offer peace unto him, upon this condition, that he might receive all the wine of that [141]yeeres vintage. But when _Aeneas_ refused so to doe, _Mezentius_ (for to encourage his souldiers the Tuskans to fight manfully) promised to bestow wine upon them when he had woon the field: but _Aeneas_ understanding of this promise of his, consecrated and dedicated all the said wine unto the gods: and in trueth, when he had obteined the victorie, all the wine of that yeere, when it was gotten and gathered together, he powred forth before the temple of _Venus_. Or, what if one should say, that this doth symbolize thus much: That men ought to be sober upon festivall daies, and not to celebrate such solemnities with drunkennesse; as if the gods take more pleasure to see them shed wine upon the ground, than to powre overmuch thereof downe their throats?
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