With the Longobards, as with all the Germanic nations, woman was never released from tutelage (_mundium_), never became her own mistress (_selbmundia_). The man who desired to make her his wife must first of all pay the price of the _mundium_ or guardianship which the marriage would give him over her; next he must bind himself to make good the _meta_, a species of dowry noticed by Tacitus when he remarks that, among the Germans, the husband brought the dower to the wife, instead of the wife bringing it to the husband. To the _meta_, also known afterwards under the name of _dotalitium_, _dos_, _sponsalicium_, &c., there was added the _faderfium_, which the father might, if he chose, give to his daughter. On the morning of the day after the wedding the husband presented his bride with a gift (_morgengab_), attended, according to a very questionable interpretation, as the price of her virginity. When Longobard customs came to be affected by the growing influence of the Roman law, the amount of the _meta_ and of the _morgengab_ was restricted. In the age of the communes, the _faderfium_, now transformed into a dower, was also limited by law. The _meta_, _faderfium_, and _morgengab_ belonged to the wife, who could require them to be given up to her on her husband's death. But by a peculiarity of the Germanic law, retained in its entirety even by the Longobards, the Roman regulation, which made the dower the separate and independent property of the wife [even during her husband's lifetime], was never accepted. The only property owned absolutely and exclusively by the woman was what was given her by the husband. The Germanic law favoured the principle of common ownership. As to this, Gans observes:--"It is not necessary with us, as with the Romans, that a woman should have separate property of her own in order to assert her juridical personality, and prove her equality with her husband. She possesses what her husband possesses, and her equality rests on the mutual affection which makes all differences disappear." In the ordeal by combat the husband represented the wife, since she was under the protection of his sword; if she were taken in adultery he might put her to death. All her possessions, movable or immovable, including even nuptial gifts made to her by friends, became the property of her husband, who had only to provide against the contingency of the marriage being dissolved by death: whence the necessity of the _meta_ and the _donatium_. If the wife died without issue, everything went to the husband; on the husband's death, the wife was entitled to receive the _meta_ and _morgengab_ (donation). For anything more she was entirely dependent on the generosity of her husband, who, at a later period, was permitted to leave her the half, and, eventually, the whole usufruct of his possessions.