Note 76 — Chapter II · THE MARK.

Tacitus says of the Semnones: “Stato tempore in silvam, auguriis patrum et prisca formidine sacram, omnes eiusdem sanguinis populi legationibus coeunt, caesoque publice homine celebrant barbari ritus horrenda primordia. Est et alia luco reverentia. Nemo nisi vinculo ligatus ingreditur, ut minor, et potestatem numinis prae se ferens. Si forte prolapsus est, attolli et insurgere haud licitum, per humum evolvuntur: eoque omnis superstitio respicit, tanquam inde initia gentis, ibi regnator omnium deus, cetera subiecta atque parentia.” Germ. 39. Again: “Apud Naharvalos antiquae religionis lucus ostenditur.” Ibid. 43. Without asserting the existence of the Mark among the Greeks with all the peculiar German characteristics, we may borrow from them an illustration and definition of its nature. Between the territories of the Athenians and Megareans lay a tract of land, the cultivation of which by the latter formed the pretext or justification of the excommunication launched against them by “Olympian” Pericles, which ultimately led to the Peloponesian war, and the downfal of Athens. The Athenians, Thucydides tells us, refused to rescind their intemperate decree, ἐπικαλοῦντες ἐπεργασίαν Μεγαρεῦσι τῆς γῆς τῆς ἱερας καὶ τῆς ἀορίστου· (Lib. i. 139), where the Scholiast explains ἀορίστου by οὐ σπειρομένης. Sacred and not divided into plots for cultivation by the plough, is the exact definition of a Teutonic Mark. Compare χοίριος νάπη (silva porcina) between Laconia and Messenia. Paus. iv. 1. In the legend of St. Gúðlác, the saint is said to occupy the desert wilderness, mearclond, the mark (Codex Exoniensis, p. 112, l. 16), and this is accurately defined as ídel ⁊ ǽmen, éðelrihte feor, empty and uninhabited, in which there were no rights of property. Ibid. p. 115. l. 9.