Note 206 — Chapter V · PERSONAL RANK. THE FREEMAN. THE NOBLE.
Reading edition
Tac. Germ. x. “Si publice consuletur, Sacerdos civitatis, sin privatim, ipse paterfamiliae, precatus Deos....” This seems to indicate, at the commencement, an independent priestly power in the paterfamilias. Compare the remarkable history in Judges, cap. xvii, xviii.