"Thus the barbarians with incestuous love,
Fathers their daughters, sons their mothers wed,
Brothers their sisters; and no law restrains
Their sinful passion."—
Or if they were once permitted in Greece, it is certain they grew entirely out of use with posterity, as that passage of Sextus Empiricus sufficiently proves: "The Egyptians contracted marriage with their sisters, which, amongst us, is disallowed by law." The same author says, in another place, "In our country we esteem it contrary to all right and decency to make a wife of a mother or of a sister." Yet he chargeth both those practices on the Persians; as do also Strabo, Laertius, Curtius, and Lucian. Though the answer given by the Judges to Cambyses in Herodotus, plainly shows that the wise men, even in the Persian nation, were of a very different opinion.
Puffendorf, it is hardly necessary to state, refers to all his authorities, so that his readers can easily examine for themselves.
We have seen, that, among other prohibitions of the ancient Romans, was the marriage of an aunt; and that, by prohibiting that of cousin-germans, they went even beyond the Levitical law.
