Notes and Queries, Number 190, June 18, 1853 | Page 7

words, however, are to be found in Sallust: but the correct expression is in Tacitus (Hist., iv. 1.):
"Quippe in turbas et discordias pessimo cuique plurima vis; pax et quies bonis artibus indigent."
Sir A. Alison quotes, in the same note, as from Thucydides (l. iii. c. 39.), the following:
"In the contests of the Greek commonwealth, those who were esteemed the most depraved, and had the least foresight, invariably prevailed; for being conscious of this weakness, and dreading to be overreached by those of greater penetration, they went to work hastily with the sword and poniard, and thereby got the better of their antagonists, who where occupied with more refined schemes."
This paragraph is certainly not in the place mentioned; nor can I find it after a diligent search through Thucydides. Will Sir A. Alison, or any of his Oxford friends, be good enough to point out the author, and indicate where such a passage is really to be found?
T. J. BUCKTON.
Birmingham.
"Bis dat, qui cito dat" (Vol. vi., p. 376.).--"Sat cito, si sat bene."--The first of these proverbs reminded me of the second, which was a favourite maxim of Lord Chancellor Eldon. (See The Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon, vol. i. p. 48.) I notice it for the purpose of showing that Lord Eldon followed (perhaps unconsciously) the example of Augustus, and that the motto is as old as the time of the first Roman emperor, if it is not of more remote origin. The following is an extract from the Life of Augustus, Sueton., chap. XXV.:
"Nil autem minus in imperfecto duce, quam festinationem temeritatemque, convenire arbitrabatur. Crebrò itaque illa jactabat, [Greek: Speude brade?s]. Et:
'[Greek: asphalês gar est' amein?n ê thrasus stratêlatês].'
Et, 'Sat celeriter fieri, quicquid fiat satis bene.'"
Perhaps T. H. can give us the origin of these Greek and Latin maxims, as he has of "Bis dat, qui cito dat" (Vol. i., p. 330).
F. W. J.
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Queries.
HOUSE-MARKS.
Are there traces in England of what the people of Germany, on the shores of the Baltic, call Hausm?rke, and what in Denmark and Norway is called bolm?rke, bom?rke? These are certain figures, generally composed of straight lines, and imitating the shape of the cross or the runes, especially the so-called compound runes. They are meant to mark all sorts of property and chattels, dead and alive, movable and immovable, and are drawn out, or burnt into, quite inartistically, without any attempt of colouring or sculpturing. So, for instance, every freeholder in Praust, a German village near Dantzic, has his own mark on all his property, by which he recognises it. They are met with on buildings, generally over the door, or on the gable-end, more frequently on tombstones, or on epitaphs in churches, on pews and old screens, and implements, cattle, and on all sorts of documents, where the common people now use three crosses.
The custom is first mentioned in the old Swedish law of the thirteenth century (Uplandslagh, Corp. Jur. Sveo-Goth., iii. p. 254.), and occurs almost at the same period in the seals of the citizens of the Hanse-town Lubeck. It has been in common use {595} in Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sleswick, Holstein, Hamburgh, Lubeck, Mecklenburgh, and Pomerania, but is at present rapidly disappearing. Yet, in Holstein they still mark the cattle grazing on the common with the signs of their respective proprietors; they do the same with the haystacks in Mecklenburgh, and the fishing-tackle on the small islands of the Baltic. In the city of Dantzic these marks still occur in the prayer-books which are left in the churches.
There are scarcely any traces of this custom in the south of Germany, except that the various towers of the city-wall of Nurnberg are said to bear their separate marks; and that an apothecary of Strasburg, Merkwiller, signs a document, dated 1521, with his name, his coat of arms, and a simple mark.
Professor Homeyer has lately read, before the Royal Academy of Berlin, a very learned paper on the subject, and has explained this ancient custom as significant of popular law, possibly intimating the close connexion between the property and its owner. I am sorry not to be able to copy out the Professor's collection of runic marks; but I trust that the preceding lines will be sufficient in order to elicit the various traces of a similar custom still prevalent, or remembered, in the British isles; an account of which will be thankfully received at Berlin, where they have lately been informed, that even the eyder-geese on the Shetlands are distinguished by the marks of their owners.
[alpha].
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Minor Queries.
"Seductor Succo."--Will any of your readers oblige me by giving me either a literal or poetical translation of the following lines, taken from Foulis, Rom. Treasons, Preface, p. 28., 1681?
"Seductor Succo, Gallo Sicarius; Anglo Proditor; Imperio Explorator; Davus Ibero;