The old Hebrews, however, made wonderful strides while practicing polygamy, an institution established by Lamech, in the sixth generation after Adam, which grew apace with the progress of the race, until in Solomon’s time, the king had acquired a round thousand women, from the different nationalities of the world, seven hundred princesses as wives and three hundred concubines.[13] Polygamy was also practiced in Persia and is to-day, in Turkey and other Oriental countries, but under Roman rule it slowly died out in the east. It was prohibited by Diocletian and other preceding Emperors and except in the single instance of the Mormons, in Utah, it has never reappeared in any countries subject to either the Roman or Teutonic laws.[14] Polyandry no doubt had its origin in unfertile regions, in the endeavor to limit the population to the resources of the district; it is almost an obsolete custom, but is still practiced in parts of India, Thibet and Ceylon.[15] The marriage customs of the Romans furnish the basis for the marriage laws of the civilized world, and even the Hebrew and Teutonic influence is small compared to that exerted upon this institution, by the Roman law. The general conception of the marriage relation, by the Romans, was an exalted one, as it was regarded as an equal partnership in the whole of life, effecting an equal distribution in both the secular and sacred rights of the individuals.[16] The three forms of marriage, by the early Roman law, were (1) _Confarreatio_, consisting of a religious ceremony, ending in the sacrifice of an ox, and the distribution of a broken wheaten cake, by a priest; (2) _Coemptio in manum_, a conveyance or formal sale of the woman, to the man, and (3) _Usus_, or the right of a wife, by prescription, arising from the cohabitation of the wife with the husband, for one year, without an absence for over three consecutive nights.[17] If the woman lived with the man without either the religious ceremony or the formal sale, she did not become his wife, unless she had lived with him for a year, without absenting herself for three consecutive nights.[18] This latter form was called “passing into the hand” of her husband and until this Hand power had been created, the property rights of the wife remained unaffected by the marriage. Marriages with Hand in an early day were almost universal, however, for the women did not prefer the free marriage, which would place them, in law, outside the legal family of the husband.[19] Marriages within the Levitical degrees were prohibited by the early Roman Emperors, and while first cousins might lawfully marry, until the end of the Republic,[20] the Emperor Theodosius prohibited their marriage under pain of death by burning.[21] Uncles and nieces and aunts and nephews were prohibited from marrying, until the period of the Emperor Claudius, who desired to marry his brother’s daughter, Agrippina, and so passed a decree of the Senate allowing such a marriage.[22]