[295] Coemption became in time purely symbolic. The bride was delivered to the husband, who as a formality gave a few pieces of silver as payment; but the ceremony proves how completely the woman was regarded as the property of the father.
[296] Romulus, says Plutarch, gave the husband power to divorce his wife in case of her poisoning his children, or counterfeiting his keys, or committing adultery (Romulus, XXXVI.). Valerius Maximus affirms that divorce was unknown for 520 years after the foundation of Rome.
[297] Hobhouse, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 211 (note). He states, "The concubinate we hear of in Roman Law is a form of union bereft of some of the civil rights of marriage, not the relation of a married man to a secondary wife or slave-girl."
[298] Donaldson, op. cit., p. 88. He remarks in a note, "The story may not be historical, but the Romans regarded it as such." Wives were prohibited from tasting wine at the risk of the severest penalties.
[299] St. Augustine, Confessions, Bk. IX. Ch. IX.
[300] Letourneau, Evolution of Marriage, pp. 244, 245. In the ancient law, when the crime of the woman led to divorce she lost all her dowry. Later, only a sixth was kept back for adultery, and an eighth for other crimes. In the last stages of the law the guilty husband lost the whole dowry, while if the wife divorced without a cause, the husband retained a sixth of the dowry for each child, but only up to three-sixths.
[301] Psychology of Sex, Vol. VI. p. 396.
[302] Hecker, History of Women's Rights, p. 12.
[303] Ellis, op. cit., p. 395.
[304] Hobhouse, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 213.