But evidently through mistake; for though historians pretend that the Parthian monarchs would drink of no water save that of the Choaspes, to which Pliny[566] adds the Eulæus, it is by no means said that they enjoyed a monopoly of those streams. Perhaps our great poet confounded the Choaspes with those Golden Waters which, in Athenæus, are said to have been wholly reserved for the use of the king and his eldest son.[567] ----- Footnote 563: Il. β. 824, seq. Footnote 564: Pind. Olymp. vi. 85. Footnote 565: Paradise Regained, iii. 288, seq. Footnote 566: Hist. Nat. xxxi. 21. “Parthorum reges,” says this writer, “ex Choaspe et Eulæo tantum bibunt; et eæ quamvis in longinqua comitatur eos.” Hence Tibullus has the following verses in his Panegyric of Messala, iv. 1. 142: “Nec quâ vel Nilus vel _regia lympha_ Choaspes Profluit.” Herod. i. 188. Æl. Var. Hist. xii. 40. Cf. Strabo. 1. xv. c. 3. t. iii. p. 318. Footnote 567: Athen. xii. 9. Ἀγαθοκλῆς δ᾽, ἐν τρίτῳ Περὶ Κυζίκου, ἐν Πέρσαις φησὶν εἶναι καὶ χρυσοῦν καλούμενον ὕδωρ. εἶναι δὲ τοῦτο λιβάδας ἑβδομήκοντα, καὶ μηδὲνα πίνειν ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ ἢ μόνον βασιλέα, καὶ τὸν πρεσβύτατον αὐτοῦ τῶν παίδων. τῶν δ᾽ ἄλλων ἐάν τις πίῃ, θάνατος ἡ ζημία. ----- Wine, however, was invented very early in the history of the world; and the virtue of sobriety was born along with it; for, until then, it had been no merit to be sober. With whomsoever its use began, wine was well known to Homer’s heroes, one of whom speaks of it, in conjunction with bread, as the chief root of man’s strength and vigour.[568] Yet the warriors of those ages by no means exhibited that selfish parsimony which led the Romans to debar their matrons the use of wine.[569] In Homer we find women, even while very young, permitted the enjoyment of it: for example, Nausicaa and her companions, who, in setting forth on their washing excursion, are furnished by the queen herself with a plentiful supply of provisions, and a skin of wine.[570] Boys, likewise, in the heroic ages, met with similar indulgence; for Phœnix is represented permitting Achilles to join him in his potations before the little urchin knew how to drink without spilling it over himself.[571] This practice, however, is very properly condemned by Plato, who considered that no person under eighteen should be allowed to taste of wine, and even then but sparingly.[572] After thirty, more discretion might, he thought, be granted them; though he recommended sobriety at all times, save, perhaps, on the anniversary festival of Dionysos, and certain other divinities, when a merry bowl was judged in keeping with the other ceremonies of the day.[573] ----- Footnote 568: Iliad, ι. 702. τ. 161. Footnote 569: Athen. x. 33. Footnote 570: Od. ζ. 77, seq. Footnote 571: Iliad. ι. 487. Footnote 572: