To the third[1262] rank belonged the various wines of Alba, in the vicinity of the City, remarkable for their sweetness, and sometimes, though rarely, rough[1263] as well: the Surrentine[1264] wines, also, the growth of only stayed vines, which are especially recommended to invalids for their thinness and their wholesomeness. Tiberius Cæsar used to say that the physicians had conspired thus to dignify the Surrentinum, which was, in fact, only another name for generous vinegar; while Caius Cæsar, who succeeded him, gave it the name of “noble vappa.”[1265] Vying in reputation with these are the Massic wines, from the spots which look from Mount Gaurus towards Puteoli and Baiæ.[1266] As to the wines of Stata, in the vicinity of Falernum, there is no doubt that they formerly held the very highest rank, a fact which proves very clearly that every district has its own peculiar epochs, just as all other things have their rise and their decadence. The Calenian[1267] wines, too, from the same neighbourhood, used to be preferred to those last mentioned, as also the Fundanian,[1268] the produce of vines grown on stays, or else attached to shrubs. The wines, too, of Veliternum[1269] and Priverna,[1270] which were grown in the vicinity of the City, used to be highly esteemed. As to that produced at Signia,[1271] it is by far too rough to be used as a wine, but is very useful as an astringent, and is consequently reckoned among the medicines for that purpose. The fourth rank, at the public banquets, was given by the late Emperor Julius—he was the first, in fact, that brought them into favour, as we find stated in his Letters[1272]—to the Mamertine wines, the produce of the country in the vicinity of Messana,[1273] in Sicily. The finest of these was the Potulanum,[1274] so called from its original cultivator, and grown on the spots that lie nearest to the mainland of Italy. The Tauromenitanum also, a wine of Sicily, enjoys a high repute, and flaggons[1275] of it are occasionally passed off for Mamertinum.