a name given by the ancients to a sort of malt liquor or ale. It was made of barley, and, according to the account of Dioscorides, was drunk by the people of many nations instead of wine. He accuses it of causing pains in the head, generating bad juices, and disordering the nervous system; and he also says, that in the western part of Iberia, and in Britain, such a sort of liquor was in his time prepared from wheat instead of barley.