Chapter St. Simonism to Saliens of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Salic Law The law so called is one chapter of the Salian code regarding succession to salic lands, which was limited to heirs male to the exclusion of females, chiefly because certain military duties were connected with the holding of those lands. In the fourteenth century females were excluded from the throne of France by the application of the Salic law to the succession of the crown.

“Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany called Meisen.”
Shakespeare: Henry V., i. 2.

    Philippe VI. of France, in order to raise money, exacted a tax on salt, called Gabelle, which was most unpopular and most unjustly levied. Edward III. called this iniquitous tax “Philippe's Salic law.” (Latin, sal, salt.)

Saliens (The). A college of twelve priests of Mars instituted by Numa. The tale is that a shield fell from heaven, and the nymph Egeria predicted that wherever that shield was preserved the people would be the dominant people of the earth. To prevent the shield from being surreptitiously taken away, Numa had eleven others made exactly like it, and appointed twelve priests for guardians. Every year these young patricians promenaded the city, singing and dancing, and they finished the day with a most sumptuous banquet, insomuch that saliares coena became proverbial for a most sumptuous feast. The word “saliens” means dancing.

“Nunc est bibendum ...
... nunc Saliaribus
Ornare pulvinar Deorum
Tempus erat dapibus.”
Horace: 1 Odes, xxxvii. 2-4.