Note 223 — Chapter VI · THE KING.
Reading edition
Even in war the general had not at first the power of punishing the freeman. The very urgencies of military discipline were subordinated to the divine authority of the priests. “Duces exemplo potius quam imperio, si prompti, si conspicui, si ante aciem agant, admiratione praesunt. Ceterum neque animadvertere, neque vincire, ne verberare quidem nisi sacerdotibus permissum; non quasi in poenam, nec ducis jussu, sed velut deo imperante, quem adesse bellantibus credunt.” Tac. Germ. vii.