Note 242 — Chapter II · THE SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF THE PRIMITIVE POPULUS
Reading edition
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.