Note 27 — FIRST SECTION.

Bk. XI. p. 532. Ἀλλὰ καὶ θυγατέρας οἱ ἐπιφανέστατοι τοῦ ἔθνους ἀνιεροῦσι παρθένους, αἷς νόμος ἐστὶ, καταπορνευθείσαις πολὺν χρόνον παρὰ τῇ θεῷ μετὰ ταῦτα δίδοσθαι πρὸς γάμον. (Moreover the chief men of the nation consecrate their daughters when still virgins, and it is the custom for these, after acting as prostitutes for a long time in the service of the goddess, then to be given in marriage). Hence the Scholiast also to Juvenal, Satir. I. 104, “Mesopotameni homines effrenatae libidinis sunt in utroque sexu, ut Salustius meminit,” (The inhabitants of Mesopotamia are people of unbridled lustfulness in either sex, as Sallust records); and Cedrenus, Chaldaeorum et Babyloniorum leges plenae sunt impudicitiae atque turpitudinis, (the laws of the Chaldaeans and Babylonians are full of indecency and foulness).