[17] Cicero, De orat., I, 40, 56: Geffcken, op. cit., 12.
[18] By the Lex Julia de adulteriis of ca. 18 B. C.: Geffcken, op. cit., 15; Jörs, Die Ehegesetze des Augustus, 36-39. For the best analysis of the Lex Julia, with an account of the preceding history, see Esmein, Mélanges, 71-169; and compare Bennecke, Ehebruch, 2-6.
[19] Geffcken, op. cit., 15.
[20] By the Lex Julia et Papia Poppaea of 9 B. C.; but even this restriction was narrowed in various ways: Geffcken, op. cit., 15; Wächter, op. cit., 143 ff. It should be noted, however, that the husband was compelled to put away a wife guilty of adultery. On this law see Jörs, Die Ehegesetze des Augustus, 49 ff.; Combier, Du divorce, 55.
[21] "Scheidung zufolge friedlicher Übereinkunft (divortium consensu) sowie einseitige Scheidung aus einem rechtmässigen Grunde, ohne dass eine Verschuldung des entlassenen Gatten vorlag (divortium bona gratia), war durchaus erlaubt und hatte für keinen der sich Trennenden nachteilige Konsequenzen, bei willkürlicher Scheidung (repudium iniustum) traf ihren Urheber, bei der durch Schuld des einen Teils, namentlich durch Ehebruch veranlassten Scheidung den Schuldigen Nachteil an Geld und Gut."—Geffcken, op. cit., 15, 16; ap. Ulpian, VI, 13. See Rein, Das Privatrecht, 433 ff. Forfeiture of property rights for adultery was prescribed by the Lex Julia de adulteriis: Esmein, Mélanges, 114; Unger, Die Ehe, 86; Glasson, Le mariage civil et le divorce, 178, 179. On the legislation of Augustus compare Woolsey, Divorce, 47, 49, 88, 89, 92-94; and Jörs, Die Ehegesetze des Augustus.
[22] Glasson, op. cit., 176, 178. Poisoning became a frequent substitute for divorce, especially where marriage by confarreatio had been contracted: ibid., 177; Woolsey, op. cit., 42, 43.
[23] Aulus Gellius, Noctes atticae, I, 6.
[24] "We find Cicero repudiating his wife Terentia, because he desired a new dowry; Augustus compelling the husband of Livia to repudiate her when she was already pregnant, that he might marry her himself; Cato ceding his wife, with the consent of her father, to his friend Hortensius, and resuming her after his death; Mæcenas continually changing his wife; Sempronius Sophus repudiating his wife, because she had once been to the public games without his knowledge; Paulus Æmilius taking the same step without assigning any reason, and defending himself by saying, 'My shoes are new and well made, but no one knows where they pinch me.'... Christians and Pagans echoed the same complaint. According to Tertullian 'divorce is the fruit of marriage.' Martial speaks of a woman who had already arrived at her tenth husband; Juvenal, of a woman having eight husbands in five years. But the most extraordinary recorded instance of this kind is related by St. Jerome, who assures us that there existed at Rome a wife who was married to her twenty-third husband, she herself being his twenty-first wife."—Lecky, Hist. of European Morals, II, 306, 307, who cites the authorities in the margin. For other illustrations see Woolsey, op. cit., 39-49; Thwing, The Family, 36 ff.
[25] The evidence of the satirists, jurisconsults, and other writers regarding the abuses of divorce, with full citation, is collected by Marquardt, Das Privatleben der Römer, I, 66-80; and Glasson, op. cit., 175 ff. See, for example, Juvenal, Sat., XI, 229; VI, 230; Plautus, Mercat., 805; Quintilian, V, 11, 35.
[26] Lecky, Hist. of European Morals, II, 307. Cf. Seneca, De Benef., III, 16; also Plutarch, Lives (London, 1890), 526, 531, 532 (Cato of Utica).