MARRIAGE IN OLD ROME iniptiac (marriages of the highest kind) and the wife was not justa uxor nor did the father have full authority over the children. As the offspring of a citizen and a foreigner, or a slave, did not become a citizen, both the State and society were indifferent as to what relations might exist between a Ro man and an alien woman or a slave. Yet these unions with foreigners could not be completely ignored, so by "the laws of na tions" they were treated as marriages: the wife could bring an action for her dower when she left her husband, and he could take proceedings for adultery if she proved unfaithful; and he was bound to support the children. The female slave was treated simply as a cow or a sheep; if she produced healthy children it was so much gain to the master; in such case he cared little who was the father, — all the offspring were his property. Sometimes slaves were allowed, sometimes even compelled, to live together; but such a union was not marriage, only concubin age; nor had they any rights in their chil dren. In olden days the slave woman who bore three children was freed from hard work. If she had more she sometimes ob tained her freedom. The Roman family in its early history was an association hallowed by religion, and held together not by might merely but by conjugal affection, parental piety, and filial reverence. " Prima societas in ipso conjugio est," Cicero said; and Justinian de fined marriage as "the joining together of a man and a woman, carrying with it a mode of life in which they are inseparable. This life implying a community of rank and position, of sacred and human law, but not necessarily of property." By this union the wife was said to pass into or under the hands of her husband; leaving her old home she renounced her rights and privileges as a member of her father's family; but it was only that she might enter her husband's family in a lifelong partnership with him and be associated with him in all his familv
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interests whether religious or temporal, sa cred and profane. The husband was the priest in his house, but his wife and chil dren alike had sacred duties to perform, attended and assisted in the family prayers and took part in the sacrifices to the lares and penates of the household. In the old Vedic times in India, the wife had charge of the sacred vessels, prepared the sacrifice, and even sometimes composed the hymn. As the old Jewish Rabbi called his wife, "Home," and as the Greek usually called his spouse the "House-mistress" (despoira), so did the Roman citizen speak of his wife as his ."Mater-familias," "house-mother." The wife was treated as her husband's equal, socially. In the regal period with the patrician, at least, this union could only be made with the divine approval which was ascertained by the flight of birds and other omens. (The Siamese, Hindoos, and other nations also tried to find out the pleasure of the gods in this important matter by omens and auguries.) The world was not all before him whence to choose his partner, his choice was limited to a woman with whom he had "connubium," and this the State settled; and, in the days of the kings, Roman citizens could have it outside their own bounds, only with members of those countries with whom they were in alliance and with whom they were connected by a bond of common religious observances. A patrician, therefore, if his marriage was to be reckoned lawful (justae nupiiae), had to wed either a fellow patrician or a woman who was a member of an allied community. The attendant ceremony for the confarreate marriage was a complex one, much was of a religious nature and conducted by the high priest. After the haruspices or augurs had announced that the omens were favorable, the wedding began. The pronuba (a matron living with' her first husband) brought the bride and groom together, join ing their right hands, in the presence of ten witnesses (representing the ten curiae
