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1381 u c h a p t e r i x u Of the Right of Postliminy. I. 1. As the Lawyers of latter Ages have writ almost nothing reasonably of Things taken from Enemies, so neither have they of the Right of Postliminy. This Subject has been treated of by the old Roman Lawyers somewhatmore accu-rately,butoftentimestooconfusedly;sothat the Reader could not well distinguish, what they attributed to the civil Law, and what to the Law of Nations. 2. The Opinion of Servius Sulpicius of the Word Postliminium, is to be rejected, who takes the latter Part of it to be only an Extension of no Signification; but that of Scaevola to be approved, who compounds 1 it I. (1) As Cicero informs us, who recites both Etymologies: Sed quum ipsius Postliminii vis quaeritur, & verbum ipsum notatur: In quo Servius noster, ut opinor, nihil putat esse notandum, nisi post, & liminium illud, productionem esse verbi vult, ut in finitimo, legitimo, aeditimo, non plus inesse timum, quam in Meditullio, tullium. Scaevola autem P. F. junctum putat esse verbum, ut sit in eo & post, & limen: Ut quae a nobis alienata sunt, quum ad hostem pervenerint, & ex suo tamquam limine exierint, deinquum redierintpost adidemlimen,postliminiovideanturrediisse.Topic. (Cap. VIII.) For this Reason Tertullian used the Word Postliminium in a metaphorical Sense, to express the return or Re-establishment, by which a Sinner is received into the Peace of the Church: Incesto fornicatori postliminium largitus pacis Ecclesiasticae &c. De Pudicitia, Cap. XV. Festus says in regard to Limen: Limus, obliquus id est, transversus: Unde & Limina. See also Servius, upon the twelfth Book of the Aeneid, (Ver. 120.) and Donatus upon the Eunuch of Terence, Act. III. Scen. V. (Ver. 53.) Isidorus says with respect to Limes & Limen: Limites adpellati, antiquo verbo transversi. Nam transversa omnia antiqui Limadicebant:Aquo&limina ostiorum, per quae foris & intus itur; & limites quod per eos foras in agros eatur. Orig. Ling. Lat. Lib. XV. Cap. XIV. And in the old Glossary, (published by Henry Stephens .) Limes is explained by Plagía o ÿdóc. Grotius. The Passage of Servius referred to by our Author in this Note, but withoutmarkI . The Original of the Word Postliminium. 1382 chapter ix of Post, 2 thatmaysignifyaReturn,andLimen, whichsignifiesFrontiers; for Limen, and Limes, differ only in Termination and manner of declining , for they are both derived from the old WordLimus, thatsignifies oblique, or across, and in the primitive Notion are the same; as Materia and Materies, Pavus and Pavo, 3 Contagio and Contages, Cucumis, and Cucumer; tho’ afterwards, Limen was particularly applied to the Entrance of private Dwellings, and Limes to that of the Lands of the State. So the Antients called banishing of a Person Eliminare, andBanishment they termed 4 Eliminium, thrusting out of their Bounds, or Limits. ing the Verse where it is found, tends to prove that Limus signifies oblique, what goes across. AndtheGrammarianspeaksof ituponOccasionof aWordof thePoet,which some Antients believed corrupted Lino, instead of which they were for readingLimo, the Ablative of Limus taken as a Substantive. And by Limus they understood a Kind of Vestment bordered with watered Purple, which reached from the Navel down to the Feet. This, by the way, is a Word omitted in the Dictionaries, tho’ found in the Grammarian, who has commented upon Virgil, and in Isidorus, who informs us further thatthis VestmentwaspeculiartotheSlavesof thePublick.SeealsoHyginus, De limitib. constituendis, p. 151. and the Notes of the late Mr. Goes upon him, p. 162, 163. as also Laurent. Pignorius, De Servis, p. 29, 30. Edit. Patav. 1656. As to the Word Limen, which our Author believesto have signifiedof oldthesameastheWord Limes, following a Remark contained in a Passage of the Institutes, whichwillbecited upon the next Paragraph, Note 2. The learned Salmasius has taken upon him to refute this Opinion in his Observationes ad jus Atticum & Romanum: And Menage agrees with the latter in his Amoenitates Juris Civilis, Cap. XXXIX. p. 331. Edit. Lips. But as Mr. Schulting observes, upon the Institutions of Cajus, Lib. I. Tit. VI. § 2. p. 49. the very Passages, alledged by Menage, prove, that the Word Limen was used to express the Frontiers or Bounds of a State, by other antient Authors, than those followed by Tribonianus. 2. From whence came the Name of a Goddess, called Postvorta. Grotius. She was one of the Goddesses who presided at the Birth of Children. See Aulus Gellius, Noct. Attic. Lib. XVI. Cap. XVII. 3. Compago and Compages, a Joint, which was formerly Compagen, as the Genitive Case shews, and...

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