[324]. Deut. Staatsges. i. 72, § 15.
[325]. Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, p. 320, with the numerous examples there given. So Fleta. “Fiunt autem homines servi de iure gentium captivitate: bella enim orta sunt, et captivitates sequutae. Fiunt etiam de iure civili, per confessionem in curia fisci factam.” Lib. i. c. 3. § 3.
[326]. A whole army may be devoted as victims by the conquerors. “Sed bellum Hermunduris prosperum, Cattis exitiosius fuit, quia victores diversam aciem Marti ac Mercurio sacravere, quo voto equi, viri, cuncta, victa occidioni dantur.” Tac. Annal, xiii. 57. “Lucis propinquis barbarae arae, apud quas tribunos ac primorum ordinum centuriones mactaverant: et cladis ... superstites, pugnam aut vincula elapsi, referebant ... quot patibula captivis, quae scrobes,” etc. Tac. Annal. i. 61.
[327]. Hist. Eccles. iv. 22.
[328]. This is confirmatory of the statement in the last chapter, that, strictly speaking, the Comes could not marry. One cannot see why the assertion should have been made on any other grounds: his great anxiety was to prove himself not a comes or minister, and as one argument, he states himself to be “uxoreo nexu constrictus.”
[329]. After a battle between Ragnachari and Chlodowich, in which the former was taken prisoner, the victor thus addressed him: “Cui dixit Chlodoveus, Cur humiliasti gentem nostram, ut te vinciri permitteres? Nonne melius tibi fuerit mori? Et elevata bipenne, in caput eius defixit, et mortuus est. Conversusque ad fratrem eius, ait: Si tu solatium fratri tuo praebuisses, ille ligatus non fuisset! Similiter et ipsum in capite percussum interfecit, et mortuus est.” Gest. Reg. Franc. (Script. Rer. Gall. et Francic. ii. 555.) It was the interest of Chlodowich to put these princes to death, but there must still have been some right acknowledged in him to do so. He seems however to rest it upon the disgrace which they had brought upon the mǽgburh, gens or family, by suffering themselves to be captured and bound.
[330]. “Quod Ariovistus ... in eorum finibus consedisset, tertiamque partem agri Sequani qui esset optimus totius Galliae, occupavisset; et nunc de altera parte tertia Sequanos decedere iuberet.” Cæs. Bell. Gall. i. 32. The same proportion of a third, sometimes however in produce, not land, occurs in other cases: Eichhorn, Deut. Staatsges. i. 161 seq. § 23, with the accompanying quotations.
[331]. This is the condition of the Perioecians in Laconia, with the exception that these were called upon for military service. The Helotae or Penestae were more nearly praedial serfs.
[332]. This led by degrees to the vast power and influence of all the clergy, who were originally Roman, and who, whatever their nation might be, lived under the Roman law, “per clericalem clericalem[clericalem]