These debaucheries assumed such dimensions in the Roman empire, that they threatened its very existence. The bad example set by men, was followed by women. There were women, so Seneca[26] reports, who did not count years by the consuls, as was customary, but by the number of their husbands. Adultery was general, and in order to escape the severe penalties attached to it, women had themselves registered as prostitutes. Even some of the most aristocratic ladies of Rome were among these. Besides these debaucheries, civil wars and the system of the latifundia caused such a marked decline of the marriage and birth-rate, that the number of Roman citizens and patricians was greatly diminished. In the year 16 B. C. Augustus enacted the so-called Julian law;[27] that placed a penalty upon the unmarried state of Roman citizens and patricians, and rewarded them for having children. Whoever had children was deemed of higher station than childless or unmarried persons. Unmarried persons could not inherit property from anyone except their nearest relatives. People who had no children could only claim half of an inheritance, the other half was turned over to the state. Women who had been convicted of adultery, were compelled to give a part of their dowery to their deceived husbands. This provision caused some men to marry with a desire for adultery on the part of their wives. That caused Plutarch to remark: “Romans do not marry to have heirs, but to become heirs.” Later on the Julian law was still increased in severity. Tiberius issued an edict that no woman whose grandfather, father or husband had been or was a Roman knight, might prostitute herself. Married women, who had their names entered in the lists of prostitutes, should be banished from Italy. For the men, of course, no such punishments existed. As Juvenal reports, husband-murder by poison was a frequent occurrence in Rome of his day. [23] “Mosaic Law,” by John David Michaelis. [24] Born 106 B. C. [25] From 527 to 565 A. D. [26] Seneca lived from 2 to 65 A. D. [27] Augustus, the adopted son of Caesar, was by adoption a member of the Gens Julia, from which the Julian law derived its name. CHAPTER III. Christianity.