Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1855-03-02


of the shores of the Danube, when he says
that the frost penetrates the ground to the
depth Of seven ellis, and that the wines
freeze SO as that they may be cut with a
batehet If this should be thought poe
tical license, it may be supported by the
testimony of other ancient authors. When
Commodus was on the banks of the Da-
nube, his courtiers, who wished him
to return to Rome, asked him if he would
/ never cease to drink water hardened by
/ the frost, and if he meant for ever to re-.
main in country which was doomed to
perpetual winter The same writer He.
rodian) says, in the History Of Alexander
Severus, that the Rhine aud the Danube
are navigable in summer, but that in win
ter these rivers are so covered with ice,
that people pass then. on horseback and
that those who would drink of them do no,
carry pitchers, but hatchets to break the
ice, the pieces of which they carry like so
many stones. He says too, that Aquileia
and its neighborhood was cold country.
Pliny the younger, when describing his
couutry-house in Tuscany, says, that the
air was cold and frosty during winter so
that myrtles would not grow, nor olives,
and other trees that require mild air.
The laurel, says he, resists :he cold, and
does not perish here oftener tAan it does at
Rome. This description is more applicable
to Paris at present, than to modern Rome,
or even to Tuscany. 1t may be objected,
that Pliuy's country-seat was placed on an
elevated situation, the temperature Of
which corresponded to that Of northern
| climate This house was near Tisernum,
now Cina di Costello, near the Tioer, and
in place, as be says himself, which was
at the foot of hill, and that the ground
rose towards it with an imperceptib.e as
cent. Thus, then, Tuscany and the envi-
rons of Rome do not seem to have differed
in temperature from Paris at present and
the testimony Of Pliny justi6es that of
Horace, who describes the streets of Rome
in winter covered with frost and snow, aud,
what is still more extraordinary, he speaks
of the rivers as frozen. Neither is Horace
the only one who mentions the rivers Of
Rome and Italy in this condition. Juve-
nal, describing bis supersttious woman,
represents her breaking the ice of the IT,
ber to perform her ablutions.
These accounts of the cold in ancient
times, sbew it to have been much more
severe than i. is at present. The rivers
and the Tiber, which are said to have been
frozen, do not freeze now; and the cold
is thought long and rigorous at Rome when
snow lies two days on the ground Ovid
talks of the severity of the climate and ri
gor of the cold of Tomos, as we talk at pres
ent of the climate and cold of Petersburg.
Yet tthe temperatureofT Tomos is equal to that
of the mildest provinces in France; and the
celebrated Tournefort, in his Voyage to the
Levant, says, that he never saw a milder.
That part of the Danube over which Trajan
threw his bridge, does not freeze at this
day; the six feet of snow is no longer
found in the rout that Caesar must have
taken from Languedoc to Auvergne. The
rivers in France, it is true, sometimes
freeze quite over; but in the years 1909,
l766, aud l76s, when they we're frozen,
it can not be said that armies With their
equipage attempted to cross them. We
ought therefore to conclude, that the cold
is less intense at present than it was eigh-
teen hundred years ago; and yet the follow
ing facts, which are not less certain, seem
to contradict such a conclusion.
History and traditions inform US, that
in ancient times degree Of heat prevail
cd superior to that We now feel We 6ud
that several places in the northern parts
of France yielded good wine, though now
what they afford US is exceedingly bad.
Such is the vine of Surrene, which the
emperor Julian thought excellent. There
are some cantons where We are certain that
wine was made, and where now the vine
is not cultivated, as the grapes will not
ripen. Even in places where much wine
was produced in the year 1861, there is
not now heat enough to color the grapes.
In the 10th century We find a great
number of vine yards established, the
ground-rent of which was to be paid in
wine, and the term Of payment fixed at
the feas, of St. Michael, the 29th of Sep.
tember now it is an immemorial custom
to pay these rents in new wine, that is, in
wine made in the month of October follow
ing, which is the ordinary season Of the
vintage. On this circumstance, which at
first sight seems very surprising, it is to
be observed that these establishments we're
antecedeut to the reformation of the Ca
lendar by Pope Gregory, so that the 2S,h
Of September, Old Style, is the same with
9Th of October in the New; and consequent