The History of Rome, Book I: The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the MonarchyMommsen, Theodor
History
The History of Rome, Book I: The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy
Mommsen, Theodor
Rome -- History
1. This was not merely the case under the old religious marriage
(-matrimonium confarreatione-); the civil marriage also (-matrimonium
consensu-), although not in itself giving to the husband proprietary
power over his wife, opened up the way for his acquiring this
proprietary power, inasmuch as the legal ideas of "formal delivery"
(-coemptio-), and "prescription" (-usus-), were applied without
ceremony to such a marriage. Till he acquired it, and in particular
therefore during the period which elapsed before the completion of
the prescription, the wife was (just as in the later marriage by
-causae probatio-, until that took place), not -uxor-, but -pro
uxore-. Down to the period when Roman jurisprudence became a
completed system the principle maintained its ground, that the wife
who was not in her husband's power was not a married wife, but only
passed as such (-uxor tantummodo habetur-. Cicero, Top. 3, 14).
2. The following epitaph, although belonging to a much later period,
is not unworthy to have a place here. It is the stone that speaks:--
-Hospes, quod deico, paullum est. Asta ac pellige. Heic est
sepulcrum haud pulcrum pulcrai feminae, Nomen parentes nominarunt
Claudiam, Suom mareitum corde dilexit sovo, Gnatos duos creavit,
horunc alterum In terra linquit, alium sub terra locat; Sermone
lepido, tum autem incessu commodo, Domum servavit, lanam fecit.
Dixi. Abei.-
(Corp. Inscr. Lat. 1007.)
Still more characteristic, perhaps, is the introduction of wool-spinning
among purely moral qualities; which is no very unusual occurrence
in Roman epitaphs. Orelli, 4639: -optima et pulcherrima, lanifica
pia pudica frugi casta domiseda-. Orelli, 4861: -modestia probitate
pudicitia obsequio lanificio diligentia fide par similisque cetereis
probeis femina fuit-. Epitaph of Turia, i. 30: domestica bona
pudicitiae, opsequi, comitatis, facilitatis, lanificiis [tuis
adsiduitatis, religionis] sine superstitione, ornatus non conspiciendi,
cultus modici.
3. I. III. Clan-villages
4. Dionysius affirms (v. 25) that lameness excluded from the supreme
magistracy. That Roman citizenship was a condition for the regal
office as well as for the consulate, is so very self-evident as to
make it scarcely worth while to repudiate expressly the fictions
respecting the burgess of Cures.
5. I. III. Clan-villages
6. Even in Rome, where the simple constitution of ten curies otherwise
early disappeared, we still discover one practical application of
it, and that singularly enough in the very same formality which we
have other reasons for regarding as the oldest of all those that
are mentioned in our legal traditions, the -confarreatio-. It seems
scarcely doubtful that the ten witnesses in that ceremony had the
same relation to the constitution of ten curies the thirty lictors
had to the constitution of thirty curies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account