ove and
cherish you, immortal]

[Footnote 2: Page 6, l. 9.]

[Footnote 3: Page 16, l. 19.]

[Footnote 4: Page 5, l. 12. Page 42, l. 13.]

[Footnote 5: Oeuv. div. du Sieur D'Espreaux, p. 246.]

[Footnote 6: Martial.]

[Footnote 7: Parnass. Franc, p. 97.]

[Footnote 8: Bayle Dict. Art. Ammon.]

[Footnote 9: Menagian, t. i. p. 26.]

[Footnote 10: Patinian, p. 106.]

[Footnote 11: Rec. de Partic. p. 318, ed. 4.]

[Footnote 12: Scaliger, p. 409.]

[[Footnote 12a: Propertius I.i.1-2.]]

[Footnote 13: Bayle Dict. Art. Buchan. D.]

[Footnote 14: Ep. xxxiii. centur. 3.]

[Footnote 15: Ep. xxvi. centur. 3.]

[Footnote 16: Lett. Chois. lib. ii. lett. 5.]

CHAP. XVI.

OF NATIONS THAT USED TO GET DRUNK.

The plot now begins to thicken upon us, and we are come to give an
account of such nations with whom the custom of getting drunk was
heretofore very much in vogue; and of those with whom this same custom
reigns at this very day.

When we consult ancient histories upon this point, we learn from
Plato[1], that the Scythians, Thracians, Celtae and Iberians, were the
greatest drinkers that ever were. AElian[2] says the same in relation to
the Thracians and Illyrians. It is also reported of the Parthians[3],
that the more they drink the more thirsty they grow.

Athenaeus[4] also assures us, that the Thracians were great drinkers; and
he says the same thing of the Milesians, Illyrians, Lydians, Persians,
Carthaginians, Gauls, and Spaniards.

The Tapyrians were so much given to wine, that they past their whole
lives in drinking, and even bathed their bodies in wine[5].

The Tarentins used to drink from morning till night, and got quite drunk
in public[6].

The Leontins, a people in Sicily, were such great drunkards, that they
occasioned this proverb, viz. the Leontins are always near a cup of
wine[7].

The Byzantins must not be refused a place in this chapter. AElian
reports[8], that Leonides, their general, being besieged, and unable to
make his men keep their posts, which they quitted every moment to go and
get drunk at the taverns, he immediately gave orders that the vintners
should repair with all their liquors to the ramparts, by which stratagem
he kept them to their duty.

But as it may be said that the nations we have already mentioned were
all barbarous, we shall, for that reason, verify what Montaigne says,
that amongst