By agnati generally in Roman law were meant relations by the father's side; here it
signifies
children born after there was already an heir to the name and property of the father.
Tacitus
vii.
]
112 (return)
[ The Germans had a great regard for the hair, and looked upon cutting it off as a heavy disgrace; so that this was made a punishment for certain crimes, and was resented as an injury if practised upon an innocent person. ]
113 (return)
[ From an epistle of St. Boniface, archbishop of Mentz, to Ethelbald, king of England, we learn that among the Saxons the women themselves inflicted the punishment for violated chastity; "In ancient Saxony (now Westphalia), if a virgin pollute her father's house, or a married woman prove false to her vows, sometimes she is forced to put an end to her own life by the halter, and over the ashes of her burned body her seducer is hanged: sometimes a troop of females assembling lead her through the circumjacent villages, lacerating her body, stripped to the girdle, with rods and knives; and thus, bloody and full of minute wounds, she is continually met by new tormenters, who in their zeal for chastity do not quit her till she is dead, or scarcely alive, in order to inspire a dread of such offences. " See Michael Alford's Annales Ecclesiae Anglo-Saxon. , and Eccard. ]
114 (return)
[ A passage in Valerius Maximus renders it probable that the Cimbrian states were of this number: "The wives of the Teutones besought Marius, after his victory, that he would deliver them as a present to the Vestal virgins; affirming that they should henceforth, equally with themselves, abstain from the embraces of the other sex. This request not being granted, they all strangled themselves the ensuing night. "—Lib. vi. 1. 3. ]
115 (return)
[ Among the Heruli, the wife was expected to hang herself at once at the grave of her husband, if she would not live in perpetual infamy. ]
116 (return)
[ This expression may signify as well the murder of young children, as the procurement of abortion; both which crimes were severely punished by the German laws. ]
117 (return)
[ Quemquam ex agnatis.
By agnati generally in Roman law were meant relations by the father's side; here it signifies children born after there was already an heir to the name and property of the father. ]
118 (return)
[ Justin has a similar thought concerning the Scythians: "Justice is cultivated by the dispositions of the people, not by the laws. " (ii. 2. ) How inefficacious the good laws here alluded to by Tacitus were in preventing enormities among the Romans, appears from the frequent complaints of the senators, and particularly of Minucius Felix; "I behold you, exposing your babes to the wild beasts and birds, or strangling the unhappy wretches with your own hands. Some of you, by means of drugs, extinguish the newly-formed man within your bowels, and thus commit parricide on your offspring before you bring them into the world. " (Octavius, c. 30. ) So familiar was this practice grown at Rome, that the virtuous Pliny apologises for it, alleging that "the great fertility of some women may require such a licence. "—xxix. 4, 37. ]
119 (return)
[ Nudi ac sordidi does not mean "in nakedness and filth," as most translators have supposed. Personal filth is inconsistent with the daily practice of bathing mentioned c. 22; and nudus does not necessarily imply absolute nakedness (see note 4, p. 293). ]
120 (return)
[ This age appears at first to have been twelve years; for then a youth became liable to the penalties of law.
112 (return)
[ The Germans had a great regard for the hair, and looked upon cutting it off as a heavy disgrace; so that this was made a punishment for certain crimes, and was resented as an injury if practised upon an innocent person. ]
113 (return)
[ From an epistle of St. Boniface, archbishop of Mentz, to Ethelbald, king of England, we learn that among the Saxons the women themselves inflicted the punishment for violated chastity; "In ancient Saxony (now Westphalia), if a virgin pollute her father's house, or a married woman prove false to her vows, sometimes she is forced to put an end to her own life by the halter, and over the ashes of her burned body her seducer is hanged: sometimes a troop of females assembling lead her through the circumjacent villages, lacerating her body, stripped to the girdle, with rods and knives; and thus, bloody and full of minute wounds, she is continually met by new tormenters, who in their zeal for chastity do not quit her till she is dead, or scarcely alive, in order to inspire a dread of such offences. " See Michael Alford's Annales Ecclesiae Anglo-Saxon. , and Eccard. ]
114 (return)
[ A passage in Valerius Maximus renders it probable that the Cimbrian states were of this number: "The wives of the Teutones besought Marius, after his victory, that he would deliver them as a present to the Vestal virgins; affirming that they should henceforth, equally with themselves, abstain from the embraces of the other sex. This request not being granted, they all strangled themselves the ensuing night. "—Lib. vi. 1. 3. ]
115 (return)
[ Among the Heruli, the wife was expected to hang herself at once at the grave of her husband, if she would not live in perpetual infamy. ]
116 (return)
[ This expression may signify as well the murder of young children, as the procurement of abortion; both which crimes were severely punished by the German laws. ]
117 (return)
[ Quemquam ex agnatis.
By agnati generally in Roman law were meant relations by the father's side; here it signifies children born after there was already an heir to the name and property of the father. ]
118 (return)
[ Justin has a similar thought concerning the Scythians: "Justice is cultivated by the dispositions of the people, not by the laws. " (ii. 2. ) How inefficacious the good laws here alluded to by Tacitus were in preventing enormities among the Romans, appears from the frequent complaints of the senators, and particularly of Minucius Felix; "I behold you, exposing your babes to the wild beasts and birds, or strangling the unhappy wretches with your own hands. Some of you, by means of drugs, extinguish the newly-formed man within your bowels, and thus commit parricide on your offspring before you bring them into the world. " (Octavius, c. 30. ) So familiar was this practice grown at Rome, that the virtuous Pliny apologises for it, alleging that "the great fertility of some women may require such a licence. "—xxix. 4, 37. ]
119 (return)
[ Nudi ac sordidi does not mean "in nakedness and filth," as most translators have supposed. Personal filth is inconsistent with the daily practice of bathing mentioned c. 22; and nudus does not necessarily imply absolute nakedness (see note 4, p. 293). ]
120 (return)
[ This age appears at first to have been twelve years; for then a youth became liable to the penalties of law.
