But the institution of the dowry as obligatory and inalienable by the husband, the power of the woman to marry while remaining in the paternal family, to have her paraphernalia, to inherit property of her father, to control both of these, and also the great facility of divorce, ended by rendering the Roman, or at least the patrician matron, almost independent. Under the empire Roman marriage had become in fact a sort of free union, in which money considerations played the predominant part. Plautus already speaks of the dotal-slave, a creature of the wife’s, managing her property and ruling the husband-- “_Argentum accepi, dote imperium vendidi._”[616] Horace mentions the wife ruling by means of her dowry--“_dotata regit virum conjux_” (_Od._ iii. 18). Martial declares that he wishes no rich marriage; it does not suit him, he says, to be married by his wife--“_uxori nubere nolo meae_” (_Epig._ viii. 12). From Seneca to Saint Jerome, who both speak of it, the dotal-slave is advantageously replaced by the frizzed steward (_Procurator calamistratus_) managing the affairs of my lady.[617] They went further still, and as it happens in Russia at the present day, they concluded fictitious marriages; but at Rome, these false marriages, contracted for ready money, had no other object than to elude the laws against celibacy.[618] VI. _Barbarous Marriage and Christian Marriage._ In order to avoid being too incomplete in this rapid survey of marriage among all races, I will say a few words on barbarous marriage outside the Greco-Roman world. The barbarians of ancient Europe, more or less monogamous, have differed little from any others. Their marriage resembles that of their fellows of all races and all times; that which chiefly characterises it is the subjection of woman. Barbarous women, says Plutarch, neither ate nor drank with their husbands, and never called them by their name.[619] Among the Germans, who were more often monogamous, as Tacitus says,[620] the wife was purchased; then the purchase-money was transformed into a dower accorded to the bride under the name of _morgengabe_ or oscle (_osculum_), the price of the first kiss.