[239] Seebohm, Tribal System in Wales, 134 f.
[240] As in Wales; Seebohm, ibid. 139; cf. the Inca grandees, who all claimed descent from the founder of the monarchy; Letourneau, Sociology, 479.
[241] Tac. Germ. 13. 3: “Insignis nobilitas aut magna patrum merita principis dignationem etiam adulescentulis adsignant.” It is clear that the family of a youth who receives an office or dignity because of the merits of his ancestors is coming near to nobility.
[242] A certain man of illegitimate birth, hence of inferior social standing, through martial skill and daring becomes a leader of warriors, acquires wealth, marries the daughter of a notable, “waxes dread and honorable” among his countrymen, who elect him to a high military command by the side of their hereditary chief; the taint of his birth is forgotten; Od., xiv. 199; cf. Bernhöft, Röm. Königsz. 123.
[243] Livy viii. 39. 12; x. 38. 7: “Nobilissimum quemque genere factisque,” with reference to the Samnites; some were nobles by birth, others by prowess; cf. 46. 4: “Nobiles aliquot captivi clari suis patrumque factis ducti;” some of these captives were noble through their own prowess, others through that of their ancestors. The Samnite nobility was in the formative stage like that of the German nobility in the time of Tacitus. The Yakonan of California are in this condition; Farrand, Basis of American History, 129.
[244] Maine, Early Hist. of Inst. 135 f.; Giddings, Principles of Sociology, 294 f.
[245] Cf. Giddings, ibid.
[246] Maine, ibid. 136.
[247] Laws of Athelstan.
[248] Giddings, Principles of Sociology, 296; cf. Maine, Early Hist. of Inst. 141. Thus in the time of Tacitus the German youth of common blood who entered the comitatus of a chief had a fair opportunity to become noble; Germ. 13. 3-5; 14. 1 f. Among the Danes, too, some noble families were once peasant; Maine, ibid. 135.