All posts in GENERAL LAW

Some Effects of Marriage A woman married with manus was effectively in the position of an adopted daughter in relation to the pater of the familia. She had no legal independence and no independent property. A wife in a free marriage was legally independent of her husband (although possibly still . . . Read more

Divorce Divorce in the classical period was easy.1 As marriage was based on consent, so the will of either of the consenting parties in free marriage to renounce it sufficed. As we have seen, until Marcus Aurelius, ‘consenting party’ included the pater. From the point of view of the man, . . . Read more

Marriage In a society with an advanced level of agriculture, an economy capable of producing, at certain levels, a significant surplus, and a clearly defined hierarchical social order, one should expect to find that the arrangements for marriage, as for transmission of property by inheritance, show a concern to maintain . . . Read more

Children Roman family law was originally created for a society in which marriage was almost always accompanied by the entry of the wife into manus, divorce was very rare, and women had little or no control over the testamentary disposal of their property. In consequence, the law had little to . . . Read more

Dowry The provision of dowry was basically a contribution, customary though not compulsory, from the wife’s family to the expenses of the household of the husband. It was also one of the mechanisms by which Roman families, like those in many other pre-industrial societies, maintained their social status relative to . . . Read more

Sexual Offences Under the Republic, although some attempt was made to protect women against unwelcome sexual approaches, the law for the most part did not concern itself with the sexual activities of consenting individuals; most undesirable behaviour was dealt with, if at all, within the family. Things were very different . . . Read more

The Guardianship of Women With a few exceptions, all Roman women were for their entire lives subject to some degree of limitation on their capacity for independent legal action. Authority to act must either be obtained from, or was vested in, a man—father, husband or guardian (tutor). Until the time . . . Read more

The Emancipation of Roman Women The title of this chapter is ambiguous. The question with which it will mainly be concerned is whether Roman women were ‘emancipated’ in the sense of possessing a notably high degree of economic and social independence and self-determination. A distinct but related question is whether . . . Read more