Living together, prenuptial agreements, divorce, religious wedding ceremonies, and legal commitments all had a place in ancient Rome. Judith Evans Grubbs said that the Romans were unlike other Mediterranean peoples to make marriage a union between social equals and do not value the submission in women
- "more shameful Marriage that adultery '.. Slave Mistress Relations, "mixed marriages", and the end of Roman law, "by Judith Evans Grubbs; Phoenix Vol 47, No. 2 (summer 1993), pp. 125-154
wedding Reasons
in ancient Rome, if you plan to run for office, you could increase your chances of winning by creating an alliance policy by the marriage of your children. Parents arranged marriages to produce offspring to reach the ancestral spirits. the name matrimonium with the root mater (mother) shows the main goal the institution, the creation of children. marriage could also improve the social status and wealth. Some Romans even married for love.
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the legal status of marriage
the marriage was not an affair of state - at least until Augustus his business. It was private, between husband and wife, their families, and between parents and their children. However, there were legal requirements. It was not automatic. People marry must have the right to marry on connubium .
Connubium is defined by Ulpian (Frag. V.3) being "uxoris swear ducendae facultas" or the faculty by which a man can make a woman his lawful wife. - Matrimonium
had the right to marry
In general, all Roman citizens and non-citizens Latins connubium ?. However, there was no connubium between patricians and plebeians to the Lex Canuleia (445 BC.). The consent of both patres familias (Patriarchs) was necessary. Married must have reached puberty. Over time, the examination to determine puberty has given way to normalization to 12 years for girls and 14 for boys. Eunuchs, who would never reach puberty, were not allowed to marry. Monogamy was the rule, so an excluded existing marriage connubium as did some blood and legal relations.
The Engagement Rings, dowry, and commitment
Engagement and commitment of the parties were optional, but if a commitment was made, then saved to, breach of contract would have financial consequences. The family of the bride would give the part of the commitment and the formal engagement ( sponsalia ) between the groom and the bride-to-be (who was now sponsa ). Dowry, payable after the marriage has been decided. The groom could give his bride an iron ring ( anulus pronubis ) or some money ( arra ).
How Roman Matrimonium Deferred Modern Western Marriage
This is in terms of property that the Roman marriage seem more familiar. Communal property was not part of marriage, and the children were their father. If a wife died, the husband had the right to keep a fifth of its dot for each child, but the rest would be returned to his family. A woman was treated as a daughter of paterfamilias who owned it, if that was his father or the family into which she married.
Distinctions between confarreatio, coemptio, Usus, and sine Manu
Who had control of the bride depended on the type of wedding. A marriage in manum gave the bride to the groom's family with all his possessions. It is in manum meant the bride was still in control of his paterfamilias . It was to be faithful to her husband as long as she lived with him, however, or face divorce. Laws on dowry were probably created to deal with such marriages. A marriage in manum it was the equivalent of a daughter ( filiae loco ) in the house of her husband.
There were three types of marriage in manum
- confarreatio
- confarreatio was a religious ceremony developed
- with ten witnesses
- on flamen dialis (marry confarreatio ) and
- pontifex maximus present.
- Only the children of married parents confarreatio were eligible
- grain far was baked in a special wedding cake ( farreum ) for the occasion; hence the name confarreatio .
- coemptio
- In coemptio , the woman wore a dowry in marriage,
- but was formally purchased by his husband in front of at least five witnesses.
- She and her property belonged to her husband.
- This was the type of marriage in which, according to Cicero, it was thought that the woman said ubi you gaius, ego Gaia generally thought to mean "you [are] Gaius, I [am] Gaia, "although gaius and Gaia should not be praenomina or nomina *.
- Usus
- After a year of cohabitation, the woman came in manum her husband
- if she stayed away for three nights ( trinoctium abesse ).
- As she was not living with her paterfamilias and
- since it has not in the hands of her husband,
- she gained some freedom.
Sine manu (not in manum ) marriages began in the third century BC has become the most popular of the first century AD There was also a marital arrangement for slaves ( contuberium ) and among the freedmen and slaves ( concubinatus ).
Next page What do you know about Roman Marriage
see also Latin vocabulary Marriage
Some references online
- Cicero - Flamen Dialis
- Matrimonium, Nuptiae
* "Ubi you gaius, ego gaia 'New Light. on Old Saw Roman Legal, "by Gary Forsythe; Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte Bd 45, H. 2, pp. (Q2. 1996). 240-241.