Roman Women and Family Life
Women had much more freedom and rights in the Roman World than in the Greek or Egyptian. Classes of Women included Wives, daughters, concubines, freedwomen and slaves. Aristocrats often had different laws from Plebs. For example, a concubine was forbidden to touch the altar of Juno. If she touched the altar of Juno, she was required to sacrifice, with her hair unbound, a ewe lamb to Juno. A woman remained subject to either her father's power (called potestas) or her husband's (called manus) or, lacking both, to that of a tutor or guardian. If she was of age, and her father and husband dead she might become legally emancipated. "They remained under guardianship, except Vestal Virgins, who shall be free from guardianship." -The Twelve Tables. Rome, 450 B.C.
The Vestal Virgins were conferred with high honours, among which was the right of making their own will while their fathers yet lived, and they could engage in all other juristic acts without a guardian. Whenever there was need for a replacement Vestal Virgin, the Pontifix Maximus would choose 20 well born girls between 7 and 10 years of age who showed promise of developing great beauty and talent.
To give the goddess the opportunity to express her preference, the final winner was chosen by lot. Vestal Virgins signed on for thirty years. The first ten years were spent learning the job, the second carrying out the duties of a Vestal Virgin, and the final ten were devoted to teaching the newcomers.
They would be around 40 years of age at most by the end of their term and free to marry, but most chose to remain in service, for rumor had it that the few ex-Vestals who did marry had not done well.
The Vestals kept secure any important documents, and Wills entrusted to them in the temple for safekeeping. They had taken a vow of chastity and would be executed if they broke that vow or allowed the sacred flame to go out, but otherwise they lived a life of great privilege.
The priestesses of Ceres also had privileges almost as great as those of the Vestals.
A daughter's consent was needed for an engagement as it was for a marriage. A daughter who did not oppose her father's will as regards her engagement, was taken to agree. While fourteen was the normal age for a girl to become bethrothed, some were even betrothed as young as seven years old. Either side was free to break the engagement at any time without giving a reason or incurring a penalty. Care went into choosing the date of the marriage for there were days that were considered lucky and days that were considered unlucky. Even more important was deciding whether the new bride would enter into the manus of her husband or remain under the power of her father.
Marriage in the later Republic and Empire was always consensual. It existed if the man and woman intended their relationship to be a marriage, symbolized usually by the husband carrying her over the threshold of his house. Women in marital subordination usually ceased to be in the power of their father. Four things were necessary: the bride and groom must be free citizens and be past the age of puberty; they must intend and consent to being husband and wife; and they must have the consent of any relevant guardian. The bride must then be escorted into her new husband’s home, and it is this deed that completed the marriage. Written documentation of a wedding was not necessary.
The typical “bridal dress” was a hemless tunic (tunica recta) with a double knotted woolen girdle around her waist. A saffron colored cloak (palla) was worn over the tunic and her sandals were often dyed the same saffron color. Her hair style was the parting of the hair into six locks that was symbolic of a good wife. The outfit was completed by a flaming orange veil (flammenum) that covered her head and the upper part of her face. The bride's "flame-colored" veil was meant to imitate the Flaminica Dialis, a priestess whose sacred role was as wife to the Flamen Dialis. There was only one such priestly couple in Rome at any time. The marriage itself was sacred - if she died, he lost the priesthood. Because the Flaminica's marriage could not be dissolved, Roman brides wore her veil as a symbol of their intent to remain married for life.
There were three methods by which a women became married. Respectively these are Usus, Confarreatio, and Coemptio. Usus is by by usage. Cohabitation with a free woman was considered marriage not concubinage, unless she was a prostitute. A woman would be married by usage if she lived with her husband for a continuous period of one year. For after a year's possession, she would pass into her husband's kin in the relationship of a daughter. The Twelve Tables therefore provided that if any woman did not wish to become subordinate to her husband in this way, she should each year absent herself for a period of three consecutive nights, and in this way interrupt the usage of each year. Under this form of marriage she remained legally in the power of her father, not her husband. Or if her father was dead she was legally emancipated.
The second type of marriage is confarreatio, by the sharing of bread. This was the most formal and sacred arrangement, Originaly for the priests, especially the Flamen Dialis. This ritual requires sacrifices made to Jupiter of the Grain, in which coarse grain bread is used, for which reason it is also called the sharing of bread. The bride and groom's parents had to have been married by married with confarreatio. The ceremony also required the the saying of specific and solemn words in the presence of ten witnesses. The higher priests, that is the priests of Jupiter, of Mars, and of Quirinus, are chosen only if they have been born in marriage made by the sharing of bread, and they themselves cannot hold priestly office without being married by the sharing of bread. An early Law attributed to Romulus stated: "A woman united with her husband by a sacred marriage shall share in all his possessions and in his sacred rites."
The following is a full Confarreatio Ceremony:
I. READING OF THE OMENS
One or more male friends to perform this duty. Any adult male could do it, though the most prestigeous was performed by the Flamen Dialis, one of the chief priests of Rome, whose marriage was considered sacred to the city. It could be done by examining the entrails of a sacrificed animal, by augury (watching the skies) or by breaking an egg into a bowl.
II. OPENING INVOCATION
The Celebrator will invoke Iuppiter Feretrius, god of contracts, and Iuno Pronuba, goddess of marriage, to bless the couple.
III. ESTABLISHMENT OF CONUBIUM
Conubium meant the couple had the legal right to marry. In an ancient Roman ceremony, this would have been established by the father of the bride and either the bridegroom or his father, before the engagement was contracted.
IV. INVOCATION FOR PURITY
Evil spirits are ordered away from the couple.
V. INVOCATION TO THE GENIUS LOCI
The spirits native to this place are asked to lend their blessing.
VI. INVOCATION TO THE GENIUS DOMI
The goddess of the household is asked to lend her blessing.
VII. INVOCATION TO THE GENIUS FOCI
The spirit of the sacred fire is invoked to bless the couple.
VIII. INVOCATION OF IANUS
Ianus, the two-faced god of doorways and gateways, was invoked for new beginnings or for passing from one place to another.
IX. CONFARREATIO
The binding of the hands. It is performed by the matron of honor, representing Iuno Pronuba, the goddess of marriage. The couple then shares the sacred grain bread to seal their bond.
Ubi ti Gaius, ego Gaia:
A formula spoken by Roman brides. Literally, "Where you are Gaius, I am Gaia." It signified the bride's role of supporting and following her husband.
X. SACRIFICE TO IUPPITER
The god of the grain receives an offering of thanks. While animal sacrifice was common in the Roman world, it was perfectly appropriate to honor a god or goddess with a sacrifice of wine, incense or grain.
XI. RITE OF ATONEMENT
Roman priests were very concerned about doing things right so as to please the gods. But they realized that a mistake might slip through unnoticed. So their rituals ended with a formula to ask that the gods forgive any inadvertent errors.
XII. PROCESSION
The wedding ceremony would have taken place at the bride's father's house, with a procession afterward to the groom's house. This was a public part of the event, and any passerby could join in the procession, though strangers would be expected not to come inside the house. The groom went first, and then the bride led by attendants, who carried pine torches. The other participants sang bawdy songs, made obscene jokes, danced and made merry. At the entrance of her husband’s house, the bride would anoint the doorway with fat or oil. Traditionally, wolf fat was used but later this became pig’s fat or olive oil. She then tied woollen threads about the door to ensure good luck.
She could enter the house but not by herself. Two male attendants had to lift her to ensure she did not trip over the threshold, which would have been a very bad sign. She would touch fire and water to purify herself and wash away her strangeness and any remains of the numen or spirit of her father's house as well as any bad influences she may have picked up upon the way.
XIII. LARARIUM RITE
The Lararium was the religious center of the home; here the couple make their first offerings together, to the spirits of the home (Lares and Penates), their ancestors and the goddess Vesta (who ruled the hearth). She would then offer a coin to her husband and in return receive the keys to the house.
The third type of marriage is by coemptio, that is by a contrived sale in the presence of not less than five adult Roman citizens as witnesses, and also a scale-holder. It is a small token payment, the man to whom the woman becomes subordinate 'buys' her. Women who have married by a contrived sale are freed from their parent's power. Also if a woman wishes to set aside the guardians she has and to get another, she makes a contrived sale of herself to the man she wishes to be with, he becomes her husband and guardian. Formerly a contrived sale used also to take place for the purpose of making a will; for at one time women, with certain exceptions like the Vestals, had no right to make a will unless they had made a contrived sale. The law concerning wills was changed by Hadrian who persuade the Senate to change it.
A dowry was a part of most marriages. The father was more or less required, either by custom or law, to provide his daughter with a dowry appropriate to his means. If he were unable to do so a relative or a family friend might offer to help provide one. If the woman were independent (suae iuris) she could contribute her own property. The dowry was handed over to the husband or his paterfamilias as the bride’s contribution to the establishment of a new household. The husband, or technically his father if still alive, had full control of the household’s assets, including the wife’s dowry. Under Julian law he was not allowed to sell any part of the dowry without his wife’s permission.
In practice this applied most often to land and buildings. He was under the absolute obligation of being able to return its equivalent value when required to do so, and the wise man kept it in a separate account. The two major reasons a man could keep part of a dowry are if he was able to prove his wife had been an “adulteress, or a preparer of poison."
There was no stigma attached to divorce, and both could easily remarry. If the husband initiated the divorce he had to return the full dowry. The bigger the dowry the more power the wife had in the relationship. A woman convicted of adultery lost half of her dowry along with a third of any other property she possessed. Later in the Empire a woman could lose her entire dowry in the event of adultery.
The eary Republic Law did not permit a wife to divorce her husband, but gave him "power to divorce her for the use of drugs, or magic, on account of children, or for counterfeiting the house keys, or for adultery. The law ordered that if he should divorce her for any other cause, part of his estate should go to the wife and that another part should be dedicated to Ceres. Anyone who sold his wife was to be sacrificed to the gods of the underworld."
Publius Sempronius Sophus divorced his wife merely because she dared attend the games without his knowledge.
In the Roman Empire Notification (repudium) meant telling the other party that the notifier no longer had the intention to be married, whereupon divorce took effect without more formality. Divorce (divertere) means going one's own way, and since if one spouse goes his or her own way, they are no longer going the same way, either spouse could divorce the other (and originally either spouse's father could do so if the child remained in his power). There was no requirement of mutual consent to divorce, and it made no legal difference.
The Julian marriage laws:
In 18 B.C., the Emperor Augustus turned his attention to social problems at Rome. Extravagance and adultery were widespread. Among the upper classes, marriage was increasingly infrequent and, many couples who did marry failed to produce offspring. Augustus, who hoped thereby to elevate both the morals and the numbers of the upper classes in Rome, and to increase the population of native Italians, enacted laws to encourage marriage and having children (The lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus), including provisions establishing adultery as a crime. The law against adultery made the offence a crime punishable by exile and confiscation of property. Fathers were permitted to kill daughters and their partners in adultery. Husbands could kill the partners under certain circumstances and were required to divorce adulterous wives. Augustus himself was obliged to invoke the law against his own daughter, Julia, and relegated her to the island of Pandateria.
Augustus established Prizes for marriage and having children. (Dio Cassius, History of Rome 54.16.1-1)
Since there were more males than females among the nobility, he permitted anyone who wished (except for senators) to marry freedwomen, and decreed that children of such marriages be legitimate.
Augustus assessed heavier taxes on unmarried men and women. Some examples of how the Inheritance Laws were affected by the Augustan changes: A free-born Roman woman who has an estate of 20,000 sesterces, so long as she is unmarried, pays a hundredth part annually; and a freedwoman who has an estate of 20,000 sesterces pays the same until she marries.
Romans who have more than 100,000 sesterces, and are unmarried and childless, do not inherit; those who have children, do inherit.
When he found that the law was being side-stepped through engagements to young girls and frequent divorces, he put a time limit on engagements and clamped down on divorce.
The Augustan social laws regarding marriage and inheritance were badly received and some were modified in 9 A.D. by the Lex Papia Poppaea, named for the two bachelor consuls of that year
From the time of Augustus after 9 AD up until Septimius Severus in 193 AD, a Roman soldier was not allowed to marry during the 25 years of his militarty service.
Epigraphic evidence shows that, despite Augustus' ban, some soldiers married anyways, and risked consequences that presumably never came. Many, if not most, soldiers had common-law wives. These women were variously free-born Roman women, slave girls, or civilians who had been taken on campaign. Soldiers made wide use of female slaves and prisoners, who were used as sexual partners and companions.
Epigraphic evidence from the 2nd Century also mentions a number of cases of men capturing or buying their future wives during a war before marrying them after their service was over. Tombstones were erected and inscribed by girls who had lived as common-law wives of the deceased, and appeared to have legitimately mourned his passing. The discharge-certificate of a soldier in an auxiliary cohort reveals much about the illegitimate families that Roman soldiers could form. Lucco, son of Trenus, enlisted in c. 85 AD. His unit - the Cohors I Britannicae - was transferred to Pannonia for Domitian's Dacian War shortly thereafter. Here, he took up with a local girl - Tutula - and she bore him three children, Similis, Lucca, and Pacata. All of them were granted Roman citizenship during the reign of Trajan - and the men of the family summarily bore the praenomen and nomen Marcus Ulpius, to honor the Emperor. The centurion Probius Sanctus buried his "incomparable and well-deserving" wife Antonia Cara. She had died at the age of twenty-eight.
Some of the Laws regarding Roman Children:
A child born within ten months of the father's death shall enter into the inheritance.
If a female slave conceives, and has a child after she has been freed, the child will be free. If a free woman conceives and has a child after having become a slave, the child will be free.
Children born of a concubine would not be legitimate and would therefore bear the name of their mother.
A midwife who tries to introduces the child of another in order to substitute it for another shall be punished with death. The law forbids the burial of a pregnant woman who has died before the child is extracted from her womb. Whoever violates this law is deemed to have destroyed the child's potential expectancy of life along with the mother.
From the time of Romulus Roman citizens are compelled to rear every male child and the first-born of the females. It was forbidden to put to death any child under three years of age, unless it was a cripple or a monster from birth. This did not prevent the parents from exposing such children, provided that they had displayed them first to the five nearest neighbours and had secured their approval. For those who disobeyed the law the prescribed penalty was the confiscation of half of their property.
Children, male or female, were given a bulla on the day of birth. This was an elaborate locket made of gold for the wealthy and leather for the poor. It contained charms to ward off the power of the evil numina, such as the evil eye. A boy removed his bulla only after he received his toga virilis, signifying his Roman citizenship. A girl only removed hers on her wedding day. More important than the day of birth of a child, was the dies lustricus, the day when the baby was to be named.
The praenomen was the given first name. The nomen, or second name, referred to the gens, or clan, of the child's family. The cognomen was the third name, referring to the family branch. (Marcus Tullius Cicero as an example.)
All children, whether male or female, who are in the power of their father could be mancipated by him in the same way as slaves can. If he died before his children reached puberty, considered to be 12 years of age for girls and 14 for boys, they would required a guardian. The father’s nearest male relative, or another man appointed by his will, served as tutela impuberum, whose job was to safeguard their property until such time as they were old enough to manage it.
Marcus Aurelius was the first emperor to require birth registration. A boy was not enrolled as a citizen until he put on a man's toga, but his father had to register the child's name and the date of its birth within thirty days.
The coming of age ceremony occurred close to the birthday that was nearest to March 17, the Liberalia (the festival of Liber). It began when the boy laid his bulla and bordered toga before the lares of the house. A sacrifice was offered. The bulla was hung up. The boy then dressed in a white tunic, adjusted by his father. If he was the son of a senator, this had two wide crimson stripes; if his father was a knight the tunic had two narrow ones. Over this was draped the toga virilis (toga of the grown man), also called the toga libera.
When the boy was ready, the procession to the Forum began. The father had gathered his slaves, freedmen, clients, relatives and friends, using all his influence to make his son's escort numerous and imposing. The boy's name was added to the list of citizens, and formal congratulations were extended. Then the family climbed up to the temple of Liber on the Capitoline Hill, where an offering was made to the god. Finally they all returned to the house, where the day ended with a dinner party in honour of the new Roman citizen.
Women in Rome also developed the concept of microcredit, that is, a loan of small amounts of money that allows people without independent resources to borrow money for business purposes. A study conducted by Carmen Lázaro, professor of Roman Law at the Universitat Jaume I, Valencia (Spain), shows that women managed to get around the legal rules that excluded them from activities related to banking and money-lending. They created credit contracts for small amounts of money made by and for women and guaranteed repayment by accepting pledges of personal property as collateral.
Two wax tablets found together with some silver vessels near the Palaestra Baths at Pompeii relate to a business deal between two women dating to 61 CE. A freedwoman, Poppaea Note, had borrowed money -- 1,450 sestertii (small brass coins) -- from the well-off woman Dicidia Margaris. As security she temporarily transferred ownership of two of her own male slaves to her creditor:
"Poppaea Note, freedwoman of Priscus, has sworn that the slaves Simplex and Petrinus, or by whatever names they are known, are hers and that she owns them and that these slaves are not pledged to anyone, nor does she share them with anyone else…"
If Poppaea doesn't repay the loan by the next year, Dicidia Margaris has the right to sell Simplex and Petrinus at the slave auction held "at the Forum in Pompeii in broad daylight" and collect the debt that way.
Inscriptions found in the Granio House at Pompeii, for example, reflect such financial transactions made between women. A tough old bird named Faustilla was a money-lender and a pawnbroker. Three graffiti record sums that some female clients borrowed from her -- typically between 15 and 20 denarii (silver coins, each worth 4 sestertii) -- and the interest rate they paid in return: from 3% per month and up to 45% annually. Faustilla and other female money-lenders took personal items, such as jewellery or cloths or coats, as collateral. Since money and jewellery were freely exchangeable, as Prof. Lázaro points out, these loans avoided the need to be approved by the guardians and therefore were not subject to legal formalities.
The Tomb of Claudia
"Friend, I have not much to say, stop and read it.
This tomb, which is not fair, is for a fair woman.
Her parents gave her the name Claudia.
She loved her husband in her heart.
She bore two sons, one of whom she left on earth, the other beneath it.
She was pleasant to talk with. She walked with grace.
She kept the house. She worked in wool.
That is all. You may go."
To give the goddess the opportunity to express her preference, the final winner was chosen by lot. Vestal Virgins signed on for thirty years. The first ten years were spent learning the job, the second carrying out the duties of a Vestal Virgin, and the final ten were devoted to teaching the newcomers.
They would be around 40 years of age at most by the end of their term and free to marry, but most chose to remain in service, for rumor had it that the few ex-Vestals who did marry had not done well.
The Vestals kept secure any important documents, and Wills entrusted to them in the temple for safekeeping. They had taken a vow of chastity and would be executed if they broke that vow or allowed the sacred flame to go out, but otherwise they lived a life of great privilege.
The priestesses of Ceres also had privileges almost as great as those of the Vestals.
A daughter's consent was needed for an engagement as it was for a marriage. A daughter who did not oppose her father's will as regards her engagement, was taken to agree. While fourteen was the normal age for a girl to become bethrothed, some were even betrothed as young as seven years old. Either side was free to break the engagement at any time without giving a reason or incurring a penalty. Care went into choosing the date of the marriage for there were days that were considered lucky and days that were considered unlucky. Even more important was deciding whether the new bride would enter into the manus of her husband or remain under the power of her father.
Marriage in the later Republic and Empire was always consensual. It existed if the man and woman intended their relationship to be a marriage, symbolized usually by the husband carrying her over the threshold of his house. Women in marital subordination usually ceased to be in the power of their father. Four things were necessary: the bride and groom must be free citizens and be past the age of puberty; they must intend and consent to being husband and wife; and they must have the consent of any relevant guardian. The bride must then be escorted into her new husband’s home, and it is this deed that completed the marriage. Written documentation of a wedding was not necessary.
The typical “bridal dress” was a hemless tunic (tunica recta) with a double knotted woolen girdle around her waist. A saffron colored cloak (palla) was worn over the tunic and her sandals were often dyed the same saffron color. Her hair style was the parting of the hair into six locks that was symbolic of a good wife. The outfit was completed by a flaming orange veil (flammenum) that covered her head and the upper part of her face. The bride's "flame-colored" veil was meant to imitate the Flaminica Dialis, a priestess whose sacred role was as wife to the Flamen Dialis. There was only one such priestly couple in Rome at any time. The marriage itself was sacred - if she died, he lost the priesthood. Because the Flaminica's marriage could not be dissolved, Roman brides wore her veil as a symbol of their intent to remain married for life.
There were three methods by which a women became married. Respectively these are Usus, Confarreatio, and Coemptio. Usus is by by usage. Cohabitation with a free woman was considered marriage not concubinage, unless she was a prostitute. A woman would be married by usage if she lived with her husband for a continuous period of one year. For after a year's possession, she would pass into her husband's kin in the relationship of a daughter. The Twelve Tables therefore provided that if any woman did not wish to become subordinate to her husband in this way, she should each year absent herself for a period of three consecutive nights, and in this way interrupt the usage of each year. Under this form of marriage she remained legally in the power of her father, not her husband. Or if her father was dead she was legally emancipated.
The second type of marriage is confarreatio, by the sharing of bread. This was the most formal and sacred arrangement, Originaly for the priests, especially the Flamen Dialis. This ritual requires sacrifices made to Jupiter of the Grain, in which coarse grain bread is used, for which reason it is also called the sharing of bread. The bride and groom's parents had to have been married by married with confarreatio. The ceremony also required the the saying of specific and solemn words in the presence of ten witnesses. The higher priests, that is the priests of Jupiter, of Mars, and of Quirinus, are chosen only if they have been born in marriage made by the sharing of bread, and they themselves cannot hold priestly office without being married by the sharing of bread. An early Law attributed to Romulus stated: "A woman united with her husband by a sacred marriage shall share in all his possessions and in his sacred rites."
The following is a full Confarreatio Ceremony:
I. READING OF THE OMENS
One or more male friends to perform this duty. Any adult male could do it, though the most prestigeous was performed by the Flamen Dialis, one of the chief priests of Rome, whose marriage was considered sacred to the city. It could be done by examining the entrails of a sacrificed animal, by augury (watching the skies) or by breaking an egg into a bowl.
II. OPENING INVOCATION
The Celebrator will invoke Iuppiter Feretrius, god of contracts, and Iuno Pronuba, goddess of marriage, to bless the couple.
III. ESTABLISHMENT OF CONUBIUM
Conubium meant the couple had the legal right to marry. In an ancient Roman ceremony, this would have been established by the father of the bride and either the bridegroom or his father, before the engagement was contracted.
IV. INVOCATION FOR PURITY
Evil spirits are ordered away from the couple.
V. INVOCATION TO THE GENIUS LOCI
The spirits native to this place are asked to lend their blessing.
VI. INVOCATION TO THE GENIUS DOMI
The goddess of the household is asked to lend her blessing.
VII. INVOCATION TO THE GENIUS FOCI
The spirit of the sacred fire is invoked to bless the couple.
VIII. INVOCATION OF IANUS
Ianus, the two-faced god of doorways and gateways, was invoked for new beginnings or for passing from one place to another.
IX. CONFARREATIO
The binding of the hands. It is performed by the matron of honor, representing Iuno Pronuba, the goddess of marriage. The couple then shares the sacred grain bread to seal their bond.
Ubi ti Gaius, ego Gaia:
A formula spoken by Roman brides. Literally, "Where you are Gaius, I am Gaia." It signified the bride's role of supporting and following her husband.
X. SACRIFICE TO IUPPITER
The god of the grain receives an offering of thanks. While animal sacrifice was common in the Roman world, it was perfectly appropriate to honor a god or goddess with a sacrifice of wine, incense or grain.
XI. RITE OF ATONEMENT
Roman priests were very concerned about doing things right so as to please the gods. But they realized that a mistake might slip through unnoticed. So their rituals ended with a formula to ask that the gods forgive any inadvertent errors.
XII. PROCESSION
The wedding ceremony would have taken place at the bride's father's house, with a procession afterward to the groom's house. This was a public part of the event, and any passerby could join in the procession, though strangers would be expected not to come inside the house. The groom went first, and then the bride led by attendants, who carried pine torches. The other participants sang bawdy songs, made obscene jokes, danced and made merry. At the entrance of her husband’s house, the bride would anoint the doorway with fat or oil. Traditionally, wolf fat was used but later this became pig’s fat or olive oil. She then tied woollen threads about the door to ensure good luck.
She could enter the house but not by herself. Two male attendants had to lift her to ensure she did not trip over the threshold, which would have been a very bad sign. She would touch fire and water to purify herself and wash away her strangeness and any remains of the numen or spirit of her father's house as well as any bad influences she may have picked up upon the way.
XIII. LARARIUM RITE
The Lararium was the religious center of the home; here the couple make their first offerings together, to the spirits of the home (Lares and Penates), their ancestors and the goddess Vesta (who ruled the hearth). She would then offer a coin to her husband and in return receive the keys to the house.
The third type of marriage is by coemptio, that is by a contrived sale in the presence of not less than five adult Roman citizens as witnesses, and also a scale-holder. It is a small token payment, the man to whom the woman becomes subordinate 'buys' her. Women who have married by a contrived sale are freed from their parent's power. Also if a woman wishes to set aside the guardians she has and to get another, she makes a contrived sale of herself to the man she wishes to be with, he becomes her husband and guardian. Formerly a contrived sale used also to take place for the purpose of making a will; for at one time women, with certain exceptions like the Vestals, had no right to make a will unless they had made a contrived sale. The law concerning wills was changed by Hadrian who persuade the Senate to change it.
A dowry was a part of most marriages. The father was more or less required, either by custom or law, to provide his daughter with a dowry appropriate to his means. If he were unable to do so a relative or a family friend might offer to help provide one. If the woman were independent (suae iuris) she could contribute her own property. The dowry was handed over to the husband or his paterfamilias as the bride’s contribution to the establishment of a new household. The husband, or technically his father if still alive, had full control of the household’s assets, including the wife’s dowry. Under Julian law he was not allowed to sell any part of the dowry without his wife’s permission.
In practice this applied most often to land and buildings. He was under the absolute obligation of being able to return its equivalent value when required to do so, and the wise man kept it in a separate account. The two major reasons a man could keep part of a dowry are if he was able to prove his wife had been an “adulteress, or a preparer of poison."
There was no stigma attached to divorce, and both could easily remarry. If the husband initiated the divorce he had to return the full dowry. The bigger the dowry the more power the wife had in the relationship. A woman convicted of adultery lost half of her dowry along with a third of any other property she possessed. Later in the Empire a woman could lose her entire dowry in the event of adultery.
The eary Republic Law did not permit a wife to divorce her husband, but gave him "power to divorce her for the use of drugs, or magic, on account of children, or for counterfeiting the house keys, or for adultery. The law ordered that if he should divorce her for any other cause, part of his estate should go to the wife and that another part should be dedicated to Ceres. Anyone who sold his wife was to be sacrificed to the gods of the underworld."
Publius Sempronius Sophus divorced his wife merely because she dared attend the games without his knowledge.
In the Roman Empire Notification (repudium) meant telling the other party that the notifier no longer had the intention to be married, whereupon divorce took effect without more formality. Divorce (divertere) means going one's own way, and since if one spouse goes his or her own way, they are no longer going the same way, either spouse could divorce the other (and originally either spouse's father could do so if the child remained in his power). There was no requirement of mutual consent to divorce, and it made no legal difference.
The Julian marriage laws:
In 18 B.C., the Emperor Augustus turned his attention to social problems at Rome. Extravagance and adultery were widespread. Among the upper classes, marriage was increasingly infrequent and, many couples who did marry failed to produce offspring. Augustus, who hoped thereby to elevate both the morals and the numbers of the upper classes in Rome, and to increase the population of native Italians, enacted laws to encourage marriage and having children (The lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus), including provisions establishing adultery as a crime. The law against adultery made the offence a crime punishable by exile and confiscation of property. Fathers were permitted to kill daughters and their partners in adultery. Husbands could kill the partners under certain circumstances and were required to divorce adulterous wives. Augustus himself was obliged to invoke the law against his own daughter, Julia, and relegated her to the island of Pandateria.
Augustus established Prizes for marriage and having children. (Dio Cassius, History of Rome 54.16.1-1)
Since there were more males than females among the nobility, he permitted anyone who wished (except for senators) to marry freedwomen, and decreed that children of such marriages be legitimate.
Augustus assessed heavier taxes on unmarried men and women. Some examples of how the Inheritance Laws were affected by the Augustan changes: A free-born Roman woman who has an estate of 20,000 sesterces, so long as she is unmarried, pays a hundredth part annually; and a freedwoman who has an estate of 20,000 sesterces pays the same until she marries.
Romans who have more than 100,000 sesterces, and are unmarried and childless, do not inherit; those who have children, do inherit.
When he found that the law was being side-stepped through engagements to young girls and frequent divorces, he put a time limit on engagements and clamped down on divorce.
The Augustan social laws regarding marriage and inheritance were badly received and some were modified in 9 A.D. by the Lex Papia Poppaea, named for the two bachelor consuls of that year
From the time of Augustus after 9 AD up until Septimius Severus in 193 AD, a Roman soldier was not allowed to marry during the 25 years of his militarty service.
Epigraphic evidence shows that, despite Augustus' ban, some soldiers married anyways, and risked consequences that presumably never came. Many, if not most, soldiers had common-law wives. These women were variously free-born Roman women, slave girls, or civilians who had been taken on campaign. Soldiers made wide use of female slaves and prisoners, who were used as sexual partners and companions.
Epigraphic evidence from the 2nd Century also mentions a number of cases of men capturing or buying their future wives during a war before marrying them after their service was over. Tombstones were erected and inscribed by girls who had lived as common-law wives of the deceased, and appeared to have legitimately mourned his passing. The discharge-certificate of a soldier in an auxiliary cohort reveals much about the illegitimate families that Roman soldiers could form. Lucco, son of Trenus, enlisted in c. 85 AD. His unit - the Cohors I Britannicae - was transferred to Pannonia for Domitian's Dacian War shortly thereafter. Here, he took up with a local girl - Tutula - and she bore him three children, Similis, Lucca, and Pacata. All of them were granted Roman citizenship during the reign of Trajan - and the men of the family summarily bore the praenomen and nomen Marcus Ulpius, to honor the Emperor. The centurion Probius Sanctus buried his "incomparable and well-deserving" wife Antonia Cara. She had died at the age of twenty-eight.
Some of the Laws regarding Roman Children:
A child born within ten months of the father's death shall enter into the inheritance.
If a female slave conceives, and has a child after she has been freed, the child will be free. If a free woman conceives and has a child after having become a slave, the child will be free.
Children born of a concubine would not be legitimate and would therefore bear the name of their mother.
A midwife who tries to introduces the child of another in order to substitute it for another shall be punished with death. The law forbids the burial of a pregnant woman who has died before the child is extracted from her womb. Whoever violates this law is deemed to have destroyed the child's potential expectancy of life along with the mother.
From the time of Romulus Roman citizens are compelled to rear every male child and the first-born of the females. It was forbidden to put to death any child under three years of age, unless it was a cripple or a monster from birth. This did not prevent the parents from exposing such children, provided that they had displayed them first to the five nearest neighbours and had secured their approval. For those who disobeyed the law the prescribed penalty was the confiscation of half of their property.
Children, male or female, were given a bulla on the day of birth. This was an elaborate locket made of gold for the wealthy and leather for the poor. It contained charms to ward off the power of the evil numina, such as the evil eye. A boy removed his bulla only after he received his toga virilis, signifying his Roman citizenship. A girl only removed hers on her wedding day. More important than the day of birth of a child, was the dies lustricus, the day when the baby was to be named.
The praenomen was the given first name. The nomen, or second name, referred to the gens, or clan, of the child's family. The cognomen was the third name, referring to the family branch. (Marcus Tullius Cicero as an example.)
All children, whether male or female, who are in the power of their father could be mancipated by him in the same way as slaves can. If he died before his children reached puberty, considered to be 12 years of age for girls and 14 for boys, they would required a guardian. The father’s nearest male relative, or another man appointed by his will, served as tutela impuberum, whose job was to safeguard their property until such time as they were old enough to manage it.
Marcus Aurelius was the first emperor to require birth registration. A boy was not enrolled as a citizen until he put on a man's toga, but his father had to register the child's name and the date of its birth within thirty days.
The coming of age ceremony occurred close to the birthday that was nearest to March 17, the Liberalia (the festival of Liber). It began when the boy laid his bulla and bordered toga before the lares of the house. A sacrifice was offered. The bulla was hung up. The boy then dressed in a white tunic, adjusted by his father. If he was the son of a senator, this had two wide crimson stripes; if his father was a knight the tunic had two narrow ones. Over this was draped the toga virilis (toga of the grown man), also called the toga libera.
When the boy was ready, the procession to the Forum began. The father had gathered his slaves, freedmen, clients, relatives and friends, using all his influence to make his son's escort numerous and imposing. The boy's name was added to the list of citizens, and formal congratulations were extended. Then the family climbed up to the temple of Liber on the Capitoline Hill, where an offering was made to the god. Finally they all returned to the house, where the day ended with a dinner party in honour of the new Roman citizen.
Women in Rome also developed the concept of microcredit, that is, a loan of small amounts of money that allows people without independent resources to borrow money for business purposes. A study conducted by Carmen Lázaro, professor of Roman Law at the Universitat Jaume I, Valencia (Spain), shows that women managed to get around the legal rules that excluded them from activities related to banking and money-lending. They created credit contracts for small amounts of money made by and for women and guaranteed repayment by accepting pledges of personal property as collateral.
Two wax tablets found together with some silver vessels near the Palaestra Baths at Pompeii relate to a business deal between two women dating to 61 CE. A freedwoman, Poppaea Note, had borrowed money -- 1,450 sestertii (small brass coins) -- from the well-off woman Dicidia Margaris. As security she temporarily transferred ownership of two of her own male slaves to her creditor:
"Poppaea Note, freedwoman of Priscus, has sworn that the slaves Simplex and Petrinus, or by whatever names they are known, are hers and that she owns them and that these slaves are not pledged to anyone, nor does she share them with anyone else…"
If Poppaea doesn't repay the loan by the next year, Dicidia Margaris has the right to sell Simplex and Petrinus at the slave auction held "at the Forum in Pompeii in broad daylight" and collect the debt that way.
Inscriptions found in the Granio House at Pompeii, for example, reflect such financial transactions made between women. A tough old bird named Faustilla was a money-lender and a pawnbroker. Three graffiti record sums that some female clients borrowed from her -- typically between 15 and 20 denarii (silver coins, each worth 4 sestertii) -- and the interest rate they paid in return: from 3% per month and up to 45% annually. Faustilla and other female money-lenders took personal items, such as jewellery or cloths or coats, as collateral. Since money and jewellery were freely exchangeable, as Prof. Lázaro points out, these loans avoided the need to be approved by the guardians and therefore were not subject to legal formalities.
The Tomb of Claudia
"Friend, I have not much to say, stop and read it.
This tomb, which is not fair, is for a fair woman.
Her parents gave her the name Claudia.
She loved her husband in her heart.
She bore two sons, one of whom she left on earth, the other beneath it.
She was pleasant to talk with. She walked with grace.
She kept the house. She worked in wool.
That is all. You may go."
Presentation by Lisa Clark at the Waikato Museum, Hamilton, New Zealand for Roman Machines: Julius Caesar - Military Genius & Mighty Machines, April 2014
http://waikatomuseum.co.nz/exhibitions-and-events/view/262
http://waikatomuseum.co.nz/exhibitions-and-events/view/262
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Ancient Greek and Roman women
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