Restrictions in Forest Use. 15 



Restrictions in the use of woods were not entirely 

 absent, but with the exception of reserving ship timber 

 in the State forests, they refer only to special classes of 

 forest. 



In the frontier forests reserved for defensive purposes, 

 and in the holy groves set aside by private or public 

 declaration, no wood could be cut thereafter, being 

 considered nobody^s property but sanctified and dedi- 

 cated to religious use (res sacra), and whoever removed 

 any wood from them was considered a "patricide," ex- 

 cept the cutting be done for purposes of improvement 

 (thinnings) and after a prescribed sacrifice. 



With the extension of Christendom the holy trees and 

 groves became the property of the emperors, who some- 

 times substituted Christian holiness for the pagan, and 

 retained the restrictions which had preserved them. 

 Thus the cutting and selling of cypress and other trees in 

 the holy grove near Antioch, and of Persea trees in 

 Egypt generally (which had been deemed holy under 

 the Pharaos) was prohibited under penalty of five 

 pounds gold, unless specially permitted. 



In Attica as well as in Eome the theory that the 

 State cannot satisfactorily carry on any business was 

 well established. Hence the State forests were rented 

 out, under a system of time or perpetual rent, the 

 renters after exploiting the timber subletting merely 

 the pasture, except where coppice could be profitably 

 utilized. The officials with titles referring to their con- 

 nection with the woods, as the Eoman saltuarii or the 

 Greek hyloroi (forestguards) and vilUciis silvarum, the 

 overseer, both slaves, had hardly even police functions. 



