Everyday Consumption
Wine by far the main alcoholic drink. It was consumed with meals and at parties, regarded as a source of good conversation and praised in poems by some of Greece and Rome's greatest writers. The Greeks regularly drank wine but related drunkenness with overindulgence and a lack of discipline. Due to this, the wine was thinned with water and rarely with juices or fruit. Romans mimicked the Greek custom of diluting the wine with water; a common belief was that only Barbarians would drink it unadulterated. The water volume depended on the setting, during daily family meals water to wine ratio was about 3:1, while at taverns the wine content was much higher. Wine was often consumed because it was safer to drink that water, since the acids and alcohol prevented the growth of bacteria.
Wine was commonly introduced to individuals before the age of 5, however, since it was so diluted the alcohol had little to no effect. While wine was not the only drink consumed by the Romans and Greeks, it was certainly the most prominent one. The wine consumed during symposia, daily meals, and celebrations were most likely all different, this is regarding the type of wine and how much it was diluted. People from all social classes drank wine, it was regarded as the drink of the poeple, what mainly varied was the quality.