Natural History of Gaius Plinius Secundus, Vol. 2

...celebrated, and for food indeed, but also very rich in juice. From these come the primary wines of the East, which are harmful to the head, whence the fruit has its name. But just as there is abundance and fertility there, so there is nobility in Judea, and not in the whole of it, but especially in Jericho. Although they are also praised at Archelais, and Phaselis, and Livias, valleys of that same people. The chief merit of these is their syrupy, milky juice, and a certain flavor of wine in a very sweet honey. The nicolai are drier in this kind, but of exceptional size; four of them make the length of a cubit. Less beautiful, but sisters of the caryotae in flavor, for this reason called adelphides, they have a similar sweetness, though not the same. The third kind among these, the pateton, abounds in excessive liquid; the drunkenness of the fruit itself even bursts it while still on its mother, similar to crushed fruit. Its own kind among the drier crowd is the dates, which are sometimes curved in their extreme length and slenderness. For those which we give for the honor of the gods, Judea called Chydeos, a people distinguished for their insults to the gods. Entirely parched are the Theban and Arabic [dates], with a lean, thin body, and the constant heat scorching them, covering them with a crust rather than a skin. In Ethiopia itself, this is grated (such is the dryness) and thickened like flour into bread. It grows on a shrub with branches a cubit long, with a broader leaf and a round fruit, but larger than the size of an apple: they call it cycas. They ripen in three years. And the shrub always has fruit with another beginning to grow. The fruit of the Theban [palm] is stored in jars immediately; the spirit of its own heat, unless this is done, quickly expires: and it shrivels if not re-toasted in ovens. Of the remaining kind, they seem to be commoners. The Syrians and Juba call them tragemata. For in another part, they are called by us by the common name of the Phoenicians and Cilicians...