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The great antiquity of this custom is proved by the 17th Art. of the Capitulars of Pepin, in the year 752, which bears a direct allusion to it: inasmuch as that article established as a principle that the impotency of a husband should be considered as a lawful cause for divorce, and that the proof of such impotency should be given, and the fact verified at the foot of the Cross exeant ad crucem, et si verum fuerit, separantur.
Not used in this sense by Cic., Caes. and Liv., though frequent in T. Gr. Cf. note on the same, 27. Obliquare. Others translate obliquare by twist. Many ancient writers speak of this manner of tying the hair among the Germans, cf. Sen. de Ira. 3, 26.; Juv. 13, 164. A servis separantur. Separantur==distinguuntur. Servants among the Suevi seem to have had their hair shorn.
Insigne gentis obliquare crinem nodoque substringere: sic Suevi a ceteris Germanis, sic Suevorum ingenui a servis separantur in aliis gentibus, seu cognatione aliqua Suevorum, seu quod saepe accidit, imitatione, rarum et intra juventae spatium; apud Suevos, usque ad canitiem, horrentem capillum retro sequuntur, ac saepe in ipso solo vertice religant.