The above account refers to Athenian customs. At Sparta the betrothal of the bride by her father or guar- dian (Ki'iptoc) was requisite as a preliminary of marriage, as well as at Athens. Another custoin peculiar to the Spartans, and a relic of ancient times, was the seizure of the bride by her intended husband, but of course with the sanction of her parents or guardians. She was not, however, immediately domiciled in her husband's house, but cohabited with him for some time clandestinely, till he brought her, and frequently her mother also, to his home.
The (ireeks, generally speaking, entertained little re- gard for the female character. They considered women, in fact, as decidedly inferior to men, qualified to dis- charge only the subordinate functions in life, and rather necessary as helpmates than agreeable as companions. To these notions female education for the most part cor- responded, and, in fact, it confirmed them ; it did not sup-
ply the elegant accomplishment and refinement of man- ners whicli permanently engage the affections when other attractions have passed away. Aristotle states that the relation of man to woman is that of the gov- ernor to the subject; and Plato, that a woman's virtue may be summed up in a few words, for she has only to manage the house well, keeping what there is in it, and obeying her husband. Among the Dorians, however, and especially at Sparta, women enjoyed much more es- timation than in the rest of Greece.
2. Roman — A legal Eoman marriage was called juste niqitiw, justum matrimonium, as being conformable to jus (civile) or to law. A legal marriage was either cu7n conventione uxoris in mitnmn riri, or it was without this conventio. But both forms of marriage agreed in this : there must be connubium between the parties, and con- sent. The legal consequences as to the power of the father over his children were the same in both.
Connubium is merely a term which comprehends all the conditions of a legal marriage. Generally it may be stated that there was only connubium between Eo~ man citizens ; the cases in which it at any time existed between parties not both Eoman citizens, were excep- tions to the general rule. Originally, or at least at one period of the republic, there was no connubium between the patricians and the plebeians ; but this was altered by the Lex Cannleia (B.C. 445), which allowed connu- bium between persons of those two classes. There were various degrees of consanguinity and affinity within which there was no connubium. An illegal union of a male and female, though affecting to be, was not a mar- riage : the man had no legal wife, and the children had no legal father ; consequently they were not in the pow- er of their reputed father. The marriage cum conven- tione differed from that sine conventione in the relation- ship which it effected between the husband and the viife ; the marriage cum conventione was a necessary condition to make a woman a materfamilias. 'By the marriage -cum conventione the wife passed into the fa- milia of her husband, and was to him in the relation of a daughter, or, as it -was expressed, in manum convenit. In the marriage sine conventione the wife's relation to her own familia remained as before, and she was merely uxor. " Uxor,'' says Cicero, " is a genus of which there are two species : one is malcrfamiiias, qua in manum convenit ; the other is uxor only." Accordingly a ma- terfamilias is a wife who is in manu, and in the familia of her husband. A wife not in manu was not a member of her husband's familia, and therefore the term could not apply to her. Matrona was properly a wife not in manu, and equivalent to uxor ; and she was called ma- trona before she had any children. But these words are not always used in these their original and proper meanings.
It does not appear that any forms were requisite in the marriage sine conventione ; and apparently the evi- dence of such marriage was cohabitation matrimonii causa. The matrimonii causa might be proved by va- rious kinds of evidence. In the case of a marriage cum conventione, there were three forms : (1) Usus, (2) Far- reum, and (3) Coemptio.
(1.) Marriage was effected by vsus if a woman lived with a man for a whole year as his wife ; and this was by analogy to usucaption of movables generally, in which usus for one year gave ownership. The law of the Twelve Tables provided that if a woman did not wish to come into the manus of her husband in this manner, she should absent licrself from him annually for three nights {trinoctium'), and so break the usus of the year.
(2.) Farreum was a form of marriage in which cer- tain words were used in the presence of ten witnesses, and were accompanied by a certain religious ceremony, in which panis farreus was employed ; and hence this form of marriage was also called confarreaiio. It ap- pears that certain priestly offices, such as that of Flamen Dialis, could only be held by those who were born of
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parents who had been married by tliis ceremony (con- farrt'dti parenies).
(3.) Coemptio was effected by mancipatio, and conse- qiieiitly the wife was in mancipio. A woman who was cohabiting with a man as uxor, might come into liis maniis by this ceremonj^, in which case the coemptio was said to be matrimonii causa, and she who was for- merly uxor became apud maritain-Jilini loco.