Living together, prenuptial agreements, divorce, religious wedding ceremonies, and legal commitments all had a place in ancient Rome. Judith Evans-Grubbs says that the Romans were unlike other Mediterranean people in making marriage a union between social equals and not valuing submissiveness in the women.
- "'Marriage More Shameful Than Adultery': Slave-Mistress Relationships, "Mixed Marriages", and Late Roman Law," by Judith Evans-Grubbs; Phoenix Vol. 47, No. 2 (Summer, 1993), pp. 125-154
Motives for Marriage
In ancient Rome, if you planned to run for office, you could increase your chances of winning by creating a political alliance through the marriage of your children. Parents arranged marriages to produce descendants to tend the ancestral spirits. The name matrimonium with its root mater (mother) shows the principle objective of the institution, the creation of children. Marriage could also improve social status and wealth. Some Romans even married for love.
The Legal Status of Marriage
Marriage was not a state affair -- at least until Augustus made it his business. It was private, between husband and wife, their families, and between parents and their children. Nonetheless, there were legal requirements. It wasn't automatic. People getting married had to have the right to marry, the connubium.
Connubium is defined by Ulpian (Frag. v.3) to be "uxoris jure ducendae facultas", or the faculty by which a man may make a woman his lawful wife. -- Matrimonium
Who Had the Right to Marry?
Generally, all Roman citizens and some non-citizen Latins had connubium. However, there was no connubium between patricians and plebeians until the Lex Canuleia (445 B.C.). The consent of both patres familias (patriarchs) was required. Bride and groom must have reached puberty.
Over time, examination to determine puberty gave way to standardization at age 12 for girls and 14 for boys. Eunuchs, who would never reach puberty, were not permitted to marry. Monogamy was the rule, so an existing marriage precluded connubium as did certain blood and legal relationships.
The Betrothal, Dowry, and Engagement Rings
Engagements and engagement parties were optional, but if an engagement were made and then backed out of, breach of contract would have had financial consequences. The bride's family would give the engagement party and formal betrothal (sponsalia) between the groom and the bride-to-be (who was now sponsa). Dowry, to be paid after the marriage, was decided on. The groom might give his fiancee an iron ring (anulus pronubis) or some money (arra).
How Roman Matrimonium Differed from Modern Western Marriage
It's in terms of property ownership that Roman marriage sounds most unfamiliar. Communal property was not part of marriage, and the children were their father's. If a wife died, the husband was entitled to keep one fifth of her dowry for each child, but the rest would be returned to her family. A wife was treated as a daughter of the pater familias to whom she belonged, whether that was her 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 marriage. A marriage in manumconferred the bride on the groom's family along with all her property. One not in manum meant the bride was still under the control of her paterfamilias. She was required to be faithful to her husband as long as she cohabited with him, however, or face divorce. Laws regarding dowry were probably created to deal with such marriages. A marriage in manum made her the equivalent of a daughter (filiae loco) in her husband's household.
There were three types of marriages in manum:
- Confarreatio
- Confarreatio was an elaborate religious ceremony,
- with ten witnesses,
- the flamen dialis (himself married confarreatio) and
- pontifex maximus in attendance.
- Only the children of parents married confarreatio were eligible.
- The grain far was baked into a special wedding cake (farreum) for the occasion; hence, the name confarreatio.
- Coemptio
- In coemptio, the wife carried a dowry into the marriage,
- but was ceremoniously bought by her husband in front of at least five witnesses.
- She and her possessions belonged to her husband.
- This was the type of marriage in which, according to Cicero, it is thought the wife declared ubi tu gaius, ego gaia, usually thought to mean "where you [are] Gaius, I [am] Gaia," although gaius and gaianeed not be praenomina or nomina*.
- Usus
- After a year's cohabitation, the woman came under her husband's manum,
- unless she stayed away for three nights (trinoctium abesse).
- Since she wasn't living with her paterfamilias, and
- since she wasn't under the hand of her husband,
- she acquired some freedom.
Sine manu (not in manum) marriages began in the third century B.C. and became the most popular by the first century A.D. There was also a marital arrangement for slaves (contuberium) and between freedmen and slaves (concubinatus).
Next page What do you know about Roman Marriage?
Also, see Latin Marriage Vocabulary
Some Online References
*"'Ubi tu gaius, ego gaia'. New Light on an Old Roman Legal Saw," by Gary Forsythe;Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte Bd. 45, H. 2 (2nd Qtr., 1996), pp. 240-241.
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