While the Romans retained their primitive simplicity, mothers nursed their own babes, and would have considered it a great misfortune or reproach, to have employed another to fulfil that tender office; but as luxury increased, indolence and love of pleasure so far conquered maternal affection, that women of rank almost universally consigned their children to the care of female slaves.
Education kept pace with the changing character of the people. At first, children were brought up in habits of laborious industry. When the arts and sciences were introduced, the cultivation of the mind and manners received a considerable degree of attention; and we know that girls shared in these privileges, because when Claudius wished to seize the beautiful Virginia as a slave, in order to deliver her to the infamous Appius, he arrested her as she returned from school, attended by her governante. In the last days of Rome, personal habits were exceedingly luxurious, and education became showy and superficial, because it was acquired from vanity, rather than a love of knowledge. The power of Roman fathers was excessive. They could imprison their children, load them with fetters, make them work with the slaves, sell them, and even put them to death; but mothers had no legal share in this authority. A story is told of a Roman girl, who was starved to death by her father, because she picked the lock of a wine chest, to get at the wine.
The habit of adopting children, even when the parents on both sides were living, was very common. The adopted were subject to the same authority, and received the same share of inheritance, as real sons and daughters. They generally retained the name of their own family, in addition to the one into which they were adopted.
Though the Romans rivalled all preceding nations in justice and kindness toward women, yet husbands were intrusted with a degree of power, which modern nations would consider dangerous. A man might divorce his wife, if she violated the matrimonial vow, poisoned his offspring, brought upon him suppositious children, counterfeited his private keys, or drank wine without his knowledge. Valerius Maximus says that Egnatius Metellus, having detected his wife drinking wine out of a cask, put her to death, and was acquitted by Romulus.
The ancient Romans did not allow women to inherit property; but as wealth increased, fathers did not like to leave their fortunes to distant male relatives, while their daughters were left portionless; they therefore managed to elude the law, by making such provision for their children, as rendered the estates so taken of little value. The people, vexed at these proceedings, passed the Voconian law, by which no woman could inherit an estate, even if she were an only child; but after a time, the right of succession, both in moveables and land, was granted to females after the death of their brothers.
Women could not dispose of property, or transact any business of importance, without the concurrence of a parent, husband, or guardian. Sometimes a man appointed a guardian to his widow, or daughters, and sometimes they were allowed to choose for themselves. In some cases, discreet elderly women were appointed guardians. No women, except the vestal virgins, were allowed to give evidence in a court of justice concerning wills. The favorite attendants of noble Romans were sometimes intrusted with an extraordinary degree of power over the wives of their masters. Justinian’s principal eunuch threatened to chastise the empress, if she did not obey his orders. These facts show that Roman women were by no means admitted to the social equality, which characterizes the intercourse of the sexes at the present time; but they ate and drank with the men, were present at convivial entertainments, enjoyed the evening air in the public groves, accompanied by fathers, husbands, or brothers, and enjoyed many privileges to which the women of neighboring nations were entire strangers.
The Romans treated female captives with shameless brutality. Queens and princesses were compelled to submit to the grossest personal indignities, and were often dragged through the streets chained to the conqueror’s chariot wheels. The stern ferocity that mingled with their better qualities is shown in the story of one of the Horatii, who killed his sister, merely because she wept for her lover slain by his hand; and the example of Marcia, wife of Regulus, who shut up some Carthagenian prisoners in a barrel filled with sharp nails, to revenge her husband, who had been put to death in Carthage. It is, however, true that these actions were not sanctioned by public opinion; for Horatius was punished, and the senate interfered to check the wanton cruelty of Marcia.
The Romans followed the common practice of hiring mourning women to sing funeral songs in praise of the dead. The nearest female relations sometimes tore their garments, and covered their hair with dust. In the funeral procession, sons veiled their faces, and daughters went with uncovered heads and dishevelled hair, contrary to the usual practice of both. They followed the Grecian custom of burning the corpse, and depositing the ashes in an urn. Infants, that died before they had teeth, were buried, not burned; and all children not weaned were carried to the grave by their mothers. The sepulchres were covered with flowers and garlands, and a small altar was placed near, on which libations were made, and incense burnt.
It was thought dishonorable for men to mourn; but the law prescribed that women should mourn ten months for a parent, or a husband. During this time they laid aside ornaments, and purple garments, and staid at home, avoiding all amusements; some even refrained from kindling a fire in the house on account of its cheerful appearance. Under the republic, women dressed in black like the men; but under the emperors, when party-colored garments came in fashion, they wore white for mourning. If a widow married within ten months after her husband’s decease, she was held infamous. Indeed second marriages were never esteemed honorable in women. Even in the most corrupt days of the empire, those who had been married but to one husband were treated with peculiar deference; hence Univira is often found on ancient sepulchres, as an epithet of honor.
Plutarch says maidens never married on festivals, nor widows on working-days, because marriage was honorable to the one and seemed not to be so to the other; for which reason they celebrated the marriage of widows in presence of a few, and on days that called off the attention of the people to other spectacles. Those who remained widows had the first place in certain solemn ceremonies. The crown of chastity was decreed to them; and if they married again, they were never after allowed to enter the temple of that divinity.