In the Latin, Certè captus est. Habet. Terence borrowed this expression (habet) from the amphitheatre at Rome, where men called gladiators, who were (for the chief part) captives and slaves, fought before the people: who looked with great delight on these combats, which often terminated in death to half the persons engaged. When a gladiator was wounded, the people exclaimed Habet, he has it, and thus the word was often used at Rome, in the sense adopted by Terence.
[NOTE 74.]
He paid his share, and supped with the rest.
In the Latin symbolum dedit, he gave his ring as a token, or pledge. This phrase is an allusion to a custom which prevailed chiefly at Rome. When a party agreed to dine together at their own expense, or, in other words, to club together for an entertainment: each of the party gave his ring to him who had the care of providing the feast, as a symbol or token that he, the owner of the ring, was to join the company, and defray his share of the expense. Hence, he who paid nothing, was called asymbolus. Rings were also given in contracts instead of a bond: and used for tokens of various kinds. The Greeks also seem to have called rings by the same name, σύμβολα.
[NOTE 75.]
To give his daughter to Pamphilus with a large dowry.
The word dowry, which is called, in Greek, προὶξ, or μείλια, or ἕδνα, originally meant the sum which a man gave to the family of the woman he married, and with which he might be said to purchase his wife: but, as the Greeks grew more refined, and also more wealthy, this custom was wholly abolished; and the dowry was given by the wife’s relations to the husband, to assist him in the maintenance of her and of her children. The dowries of women were, in Athens, considered a subject of great importance; and many laws were framed by the Athenian legislators, (particularly by Solon,) to provide for the well ordering of women’s fortunes. An heiress could be disposed of in marriage, only by her father, grandfather, or brother: if she had neither of these relations, the archons determined who was to be her husband; and it was held so important to keep her estate in the family, that at one time a law prevailed, that if an heiress had no children by her first husband, she was taken from him by the authority of the archons, and given to her nearest relation. A wife, who brought a fortune to her husband, was called γυνὴ; she who brought none παλλακὴ. Solon, apprehensive of mercenary unions, at one time, passed a law, that a woman should carry to her husband only some furniture, and four or five changes of dress. But this seems to have been little observed.
The large dowry which Simo says Chremes offered with Philumena, we may fairly suppose to have been twenty talents, as Chremes imagined he had but one daughter to portion off; when he had discovered Glycera, he gave her a dowry of ten talents; and we must suppose that he reserved as much more for Philumena. This will give us an idea of what the portions of the Athenian women usually were, and of the fortune of a citizen.
Twenty Greek talents were nearly equal to 5,000l. sterling, according to some authors, though writers differ widely as to the amount of the Attic talent; Dr. Arbuthnot makes it equal to 193l. 15s., Mr. Raper to 232l. 3s. It is agreed on all sides that the Attic talent consisted of 6,000 drachmæ; but the value of the drachma was never correctly ascertained. Vide the table of monies in [Note 208].
[NOTE 76.]
I contracted my son.
The Athenian youth were not allowed to dispose of themselves in marriage without consulting their parents, who had almost unlimited authority over them: if they had no parents, guardians, called ἐπίτροποι, were appointed to control them.
But it does not appear that any particular ceremonies were used in Athens, in contracting a bride and bridegroom, previous to the day of marriage; and I rather imagine, Terence, in order to make the subject clear to his Roman auditors, alluded, by the word despondi, to the Roman custom of betrothing, called sponsalia, which they performed as follows:—