The Historical Child / Paidology; The Science of the Child

by Oscar Chrisman

"If we make a general survey of the facts which have been noted above, it is clear that Roman women took an active part in the literary and religious life of the time, and in many of the cults held priesthoods or officially recognized positions from very early times. Their interest in literature, however, was not serious, and they have produced very little of permanent value. In the practice of law they never succeeded in getting a sure foothold. Women of the lower classes entered freely into the medical profession and the trades, but so far as medicine is concerned women confined their practice to members of their own sex. The principal branches of business which they took up were those connected with the manufacture of wearing apparel. The pursuits of the shopkeeper and the artisan were naturally left to the lower classes, but women of standing in society engaged in industries organized on a large scale, as we can see clearly enough in the case of the brick business."[183]

In the early days of Rome, while the people were struggling to maintain themselves and the nation, the virtue of the women stood out strong. But as the days of hardships passed and comfort and ease and luxury came in with the conquests, laxity of morals arose till under the empire, if the writers of the times may be believed, licentiousness and not virtue was the dominant trait of the women as well as the men. Yet there were many good women, as is shown in the quotations a few pages back.

The social vices of Asia found place in Rome and while heretofore only the foreign women were of evil character, at the time of the empire the citizen-women entered into the life, and in 19 A. D. even a woman of prætorian birth registered herself at the ædile's as a prostitute. This created quite a feeling at Rome and a decree was made by the Senate that any woman whose grandfather, father, or husband had been a knight should not be enrolled as a public woman.

The public life of the times, too, tended toward the lowering of the standard of women. The circus, the theater, and the amphitheater were open to them and they attended in great numbers and witnessed the indecent and obscene acts and the debasing fights and slaughters. It became the fashion for women even of the highest rank to interest themselves in the actors, athletes, circus-drivers, gladiators, stage-singers, vocalists, and musicians, and often going into excesses. Pantomime dancers were the favorites with the women as they "were very beautiful young men, whose art lent them fresh grace. About 22 or 23 A. D. they were banished from Italy, on account of the factions they caused, and their relations with women, who must have been of high rank, otherwise no such ordinance would have been passed."[184] Also there were the banquets, which gave further opportunities for the meeting of the women with the men. With their obscene songs and dances and stories added to enflaming food and drinks, they helped to debase women and to arouse their passions.

Marriage.

To understand marriage at Rome, it is needed to keep in mind that a woman was always considered to be under the control of a man—father, husband, or guardian. Marriage might or might not mean the transfer of this right to the husband, so that there were two general kinds of marriage contracts. By the one, cum conventione, the wife passed from her father's family into the family of her husband, in manum convenit, and stood in relation to her husband as a daughter, she surrendered her patrimony and became one of her husband's legal heirs. In the second, sine conventione, the wife remained under the rule of her father, as before the marriage, and retained her own property and her right of inheritance in her father's estate. In the first case, the wife became a materfamilias while in the second she was simply an uxor.

In the marriage, sine conventione, there was, perhaps, no form required as cohabitation of the man and woman constituted the marriage. In the marriage, cum conventione, there were three forms—usus, coemptio, and confarreatio. Marriage by usus prevailed among the plebian, common people; marriage by coemptio was the one commonly practised by the middle classes; and marriage by confarreatio was the favorite form in the highest social circles.

Marriage by usus was the simplest form, in which the wife entered into her husband's manus, if she lived a whole year in the man's house, both parties agreeing to the relation. In this case then the father's power was gone and he could not even compel the wife to leave her husband's home. But should the woman absent herself from the man's house for three nights in succession during the year, then the bond was broken. In the times when divorce was denied to the woman, she would often avail herself of this right of remaining away three nights in a year, so that if need arose she could have herself claimed by her father or guardian and in this way she could leave her husband.

In marriage by coemptio, there was a kind of mutual purchase, a fictitious sale, which the couple made to each other of their person, in which each delivered to the other a small piece of money and repeated certain words. The father emancipated his daughter in favor of her future husband and she came to sustain to the husband the relation of a daughter, took his name, gave up all her goods to him, and declared that she entered into the union of her own free will.

Marriage by confarreatio was the only form that required religious ceremonies. This was the most solemn and stately form of marriage as well as the oldest. By it the wife came into the absolute power of the husband by sacred laws but likewise she became a partner in all his substance and in his sacred rights. In case of the husband's death without will the wife inherited equally with the children and if no children then she inherited his whole fortune. This was a public ceremony, conducted by the pontifex maximus or the flamen dialis, in the presence of at least ten witnesses, and the bridal couple tasted a cake made of a sort of wheat called far, which with a sheep, was offered in sacrifice to the gods. The priests themselves had to be married by this ceremony and none but the children of such marriage could ever become flamen of Jupiter, Mars, or Quirinus, or vestal virgins.