Roman Marriage

1
Roman Marriage

• matrimonium

2
Legal Marriage iustum matrimonium

• by legal marriage we mean legal as in Roman
  law.
• Could only be contracted between Roman citizens
  with conubium (legal right to form a marriage)
• Purpose - procreation
• Transmission of property
• Family alliances

3
Forms of Legal Marriage

• Cum manu or in manum into the hand
• a woman moves from the potestas of her father
  into the potestas (control) of her husband
• In early Rome 3 ways a) by usus, by farreum by
  coemptio

4
By usus

• by Usus if she remained married for a year - a
  form of occupancy because her husbands potestas
  was seen as a physical power over something that
  he intended to possess

5
Marriage by confarreatio

• Confarreatio old form a formal way in which
  manus was created by a form of sacrifice of some
  sacrificial grain cake, involved presence of
  priests.
• Restricted to marriage of patricians and later to
  only those who wanted to become priests.

6
Marriage by Coemptio

• Legal formality in form of a imaginary sale in
  presence of 5 or more witnesses (adult males),
  and a scale holder

7

• A woman in manu takes the place of a daughter (In
  loco filia) in her husbands household
• Her dowry was absorbed into the husbands, but by
  the late Republic it was distinguishable and
  recoverable
• This form of marriage was rare by the late
  Republic

8
Sine Manu Marriage(without the hand)

• A woman stays in the potestas of her father
• She remains an outsider in her husbands family
• Becomes sui iuris at death of her father
• Most common form of marriage by late Republic