Nuptiae: Roman marriages

by: M. Horatius Piscinus

So saying, she set the love-lit heart ablaze,

Mail to Frien Made bold the wavering mind, and banished shame.
First they approach the shrines, and pardon seek
Amid the altars, duly chosen ewes to Ceres…
Juno before all, mistress of wedlock.
~Virgil Aeneid IV.53-55.

Forms of Roman Marriages

Marriage in ancient Rome took various forms. Some were no

more than a contractual arrangement without ceremony,
while a confarreatio involved a solemn ritual. An early form of
Roman marriage, known as usus, involved the transfer of a
father’s authority (manus) over a woman to her husband and
did not require any ceremony. Manus is an authority to
manage property, different from the potestas that included a
father’s power of life or death over his children (ius vitae
necisque). Through a father’s potestas he could order a son or
daughter to marry.1 It was not unusual for a girl of around age
sixteen to be given in her first marriage to a man in his late
twenties or early thirties. One example has, "Ennia
Fructuosa…took the name wife at age fifteen.2." In a usus the
woman was simply given by her father to a man quite literally
"to use," although the arrangement was usually made with the
woman’s consent. All that was required from the husband was
a statement of honorable intent to marry (adfectus maritalis)
and the man and woman would then cohabit. After a full year
of cohabitation the couple were considered married, where as
a woman might end the arrangement at any time during that
first year by remaining away from her husband for three
consecutive nights.3 Allowing that the wife remained for a full
year, the couple would then be married, but technically the
father’s manus did not transfer to the husband until the death
of the wife’s father.
An arrangement of usus involved the payment of a "bride’s
price" by her future husband. This was the same as buying the
right to use property of another man and what ceremony
attended such arrangements was that used for any contractual
arrangement. Along with the use of a bride came a dowry.
Among the poorer classes a woman’s dowry might be no more
than her household utensils. A woman might instead be given
to a man to use as a concubine (praelex), basically sold to the
man without adfectus maritalis, in which case the
arrangement was not regarded to be a legal marriage. If in the
arrangement the bride was herself given as a dowry, it was still
considered to be a legal marriage, although it brought great
shame to the woman. A wealthier woman might instead have
a dowry of property that would be paid over time in three
annual installments. Upon the death of the woman’s father,
his manus was then transferred to her husband, along with
control over any property she might have. A special situation
arose in a usus marriage where a father might put into his will
that a daughter would be free of his authority upon his death;
she became suae iuris. This free form of marriage had certain
advantages for a woman, in that she retained a right to
manage her own property rather than her husband, and she
could initiate divorce. Since a marriage by usus involved a
contractual arrangement, the gods were called to witness as
they would for any business transaction. If the husband should
later divorce his wife, the husband was expected to make a
personal sacrifice to the Di inferi since divorce meant a
breaking of vows to Tellus, by whom he had sworn his
promises of marriage.4 By the end of the Republic the usus had
become an obsolete arrangement and was replaced by a more
formal form of marriage.

The coemptio formalized the arrangements of a usus. This

form of Roman marriage involved a written agreement on
tabula legitima. As in a usus, the agreement was made
between those who held potestas over the bride and groom. It
involved a legal contract that provided for the dowry and
other arrangements. Around the signing of the agreement a
ceremony grew, since it involved making a sacrifice to the gods
called to witness, and auspices were taken to see if the gods
approved of the arrangement. Unlike in the augury of the
cultus civile where auspices were taken on behalf of the state
only under the authority of Jupiter, private auspices were
regarded to come from Picumnus, Pilumnus, Feronius, Vesta
or other deities.5 Birds that were not considered as auspices in
state augury, such as swans or doves, could be regarded as
auspices in private auguries.6 The direction from which birds
flew could have the opposite meaning in private auguries than
is generally stated for state auguries.7 Each family kept their
own books on auspices, with their own traditional form of
private augury. The bride would be called forward to give her
formal consent. The groom would have to purchase his bride,
paying for the transfer of the manus from her father. This
nummus usus, or bride’s price, later became a token payment
of a single copper coin to the bride’s father. A coemptio
required five witnesses to sign the agreement before it could
be considered a legal contract and a legitimate marriage.

A still more formal form of marriage was the confarreatio. This

ceremony required the presence of ten witnesses, including
the Pontifex Maximus, flamen Dialis and his wife, the
flamenica Dialis. Unlike other forms of Roman marriage a
confarreatio was conducted as a sacred rite by which a
husband and wife were placed into a union for all time.
"Among religious rites, there is none more sacred.8" Divorce
was generally not permitted from a confarreatio, due to its
sacred nature. Servius, commenting on Virgil’s Aeneid, tries to
distinguish between the union of Aeneas and Dido from a
confarreatio where "it is unlawful to willingly separate." The
confarreatio, Servius says, "is superior and certainly extended
to posterity." Even in the death of one spouse, the bond of a
confarreatio was considered to remain. The priestly office of
the flamen Dialis could only be held by a man who was born of
parents that had been married by a rite of confarreatio, and
who had himself married by this rite. Should his wife
subsequently die, the flamen Dialis was required to resign his
office as he could not take a second wife by confarreatio. Later
there did develop a form of divorce from a confarreatio, called
a diffarreatio, of which little is known. In a confarreatio part of
the ceremony involved the sharing of a special spelt cake. In a
diffarreatio another spelt cake was made and then the
husband and wife would cast it aside in sight of a priest.
However, for the most part, it was said, "They shall ever after
be intermingled like the abundant clouds and by this
(confarreatio) either be in shame or in marriage.9"

Proscribed Days
It was forbidden to perform marriage ceremonies on the
kalends, nones, or ides of each month, or on the following day.
Marriages could not take place in the month of May, or during
the periods of 13-21 February, 1-20 March, or during 5-15 June
before the purification of Vesta’s temple.10 Days dedicated to
the Manes, or on which the mundus was opened (24 August, 5
October, and 8 November) were prohibited as well, as were
the atri (black days) of unfortunate dates like 18 July (Roman
defeat at Allia) or 2 August (Cannae) when "religious law
forbade sacred acts".11 Other dates, considered unfortunate in
a family according to their particular cultus gentilis would also
rule out days on which to hold marriage ceremonies. At one
time marriages were predominately held in April, seen
perhaps by the Carmentalia of 15 January, when the goddess
of childbirth was invoked.

The Sponsalia

A preliminary to any Roman marriage was the engagement

ceremony called a Sponsalia. This took place at the house of
the bride’s parents. Both families would draw up an
agreement designating who were to be the bride and groom,
this portion of the marriage contract being called the
ducenda.12 Other stipulations might be on the bride’s dowry,
generally to be paid over three annual installments.
Overseeing the handing over of a dowry was the goddess
Afferenda. Three coins, called aurei, were used in marriage
ceremonies (see below) that probably represented the bride’s
promised dowry.13 In some forms of Roman marriage the
groom would also pay a "bride’s price." The Coemptio involved
a ritual purchasing of the bride using bronze and scales. In
front of witnesses the bride would give her consent to the
arrangement, and then both parties would sign a document of
intent, called a tabula legitima.14 At this time the groom would
place an iron ring (anulus pronubis) on the bride’s finger as a
pledge of fidelity.15 Then a Pronuba, who was matron that had
married only once before, guided by the goddess Manturna,
would join together the right hands (dextrarum junctio) of the
bride and groom. The intended bride would say, "Nubo,"
meaning, "I veil myself," to signify she was then promised to a
man.16 At that time she became known as a sponsa, pacta,
dicta, or a "hoped for" sperata, and her future husband was
called the sponsus, while together they were called nova
petantur, or "newly promised".17 Afterward there was a
betrothal dinner at which speeches were given on the general
benefits of marriage, without mention of any particular
advantages in the proposed marriage.

The Nuptiae

Inspired by this joyful day

Sing wedding songs with your shrill voice
And shake the ground with your dancing.
In your hand brandish the pine torch.
For as Venus once approached Paris
Now Junia approaches
Manilius; a good maiden
Will marry with good omens.
Come forward, new bride. Do not be afraid.
Hear our words. See our torches
Burn like golden hairs.
Come forward new bride.
As the grapevine
Embaces the nearby tree,
So will you fold the new husband in your embrace.
But the day is waning, come forward new bride.
~Catullus

Domum Deductio

The Nuptia was another ceremony, occurring within a week

after the Sponsalia. It began with the bride (nova nupta) being
taken from her mother’s house and led in procession (domum
deductio) to the house of her groom (novus maritus). It was by
this Nuptia that the "newly promised were conjoined" in
marriage.18 On the eve of her wedding procession a bride
offered her toga praetexta to Fortuna Virginalis19 while her
toys and other children’s attire were offered to her family’s
Lares and Penates, or else to Venus. "We will lay them on the
hearth in homage to our Lar familiaris, so that he may grant
my daughter a happy marriage.20" At dawn an auspex
nuptiarum would take the auspices for the marriage, and
sacrifices would be offered. With favorable auspices, the
agreement written on the tabula legitima was carried out. The
bride would be embraced by her mother or friends before
departing, and then there was a ritual enactment of the groom
seizing his bride from her mother, evoking the legend of the
rape of the Sabine women in the days of Romulus.

For the procession, the bride was dressed in a traditional

costume. She wore a white robe with a purple fringe, or else
one decorated with ribbons. It was called a tunica recta as it
was vertically woven in an old style, and had no hem.21
Beneath her white tunica recta she was bound with a girdle
(corona, zona, or cingulum) that the groom would later untie.
The cingulum was tied into a special "knot of Hercules" to
ward off the evil eye and also to ensure the bride’s fertility.22
The bride wore a special hairstyle called a tutulus. This
consisted of her hair being divided into six locks, fastened by
six fillets (vittae) as "the emblem of modesty.23" The locks
were drawn up into a cone shape (meta) similar to the
hairstyle worn by the flamenica Dialis (wife of the priest of
Jupiter). Her hair was parted using a bent iron spearhead
(hasta recurva, or hasta caelibaris), and for some for good luck
the spearhead had to be one previously pierced into a
gladiator.24 She wore a circlet on her head of marjoram,
vervain, myrtle, and other herbs, gathered by her own hand.25
The bride’s head was then veiled by a flammeum, a veil of red-
orange or else a bright yellow26, and her shoes would be in a
matching colour.27 Fashionable among patricians during the
Republic was the red Etruscan styled shoes with upturned
pointed toes. The bride carried three copper coins. The first
she carried in her hand, which she later gave to her husband. A
second coin was on her foot, which she placed on the hearth
as an offering to the Penates of her new home. She carried a
third coin in a purse that she would offer to the lares
compitales on an altar at the crossroads nearby her husband’s
house.28

The bride was led in procession by a young boy who carried a

torch of Ceres, preferably one made of whitethorn (spina),
"the best augury for nuptial torches.29" In the domum deductio
for a confarreatio, spelt cakes (far) and mola salsa were carried
before the bride, which she was to share with her husband as
part of the ceremony.30 Two other boys, gemelli, supported
the bride’s arms.31 The bride or her friends would carry distaff
and a spindle with wool32. Another boy, a camillus, would carry
a covered vase, the cumera or cumerum, that along with five
candles held her crepundia; that is, her utensils and toys of
childhood33. Outside the bride’s house would be standing her
friends teasing her timidity with bawdy songs called
fescininnae. The groom’s friends would do the same near his
house, teasing the groom, and along the way others would join
in with more fescininnae34. Along the route of the procession
walnuts were handed out to the crowd35. The walnut signified
the bride’s fertility to produce sons, and thus good fortune in a
marriage. The bride’s procession was a public affair, the entire
community joining in a ruckus celebration, with shouts of
"Talassio" to wish the bride and groom well in their marriage36.

Arriving at the groom’s house, its door decorated with

garlands and flowers, the bride would conduct a little rite by
which she blessed his house. This consisted of the bride
wrapping filaments of wool around the doorposts, and using a
branch of arbutus to anoint the door hinges three times with
lard or wolf fat37. The rite performed by a bride probably
included prayers to Forculus and Limentius, as well as Cardea,
as these three deities were the guardians of the door38. In a
story by Ovid, Janus gave Cranae a bough of whitethorn, "to
drive dreadful harm from doors." After the marriage
ceremony, the whitethorn carried in the bride’s procession
would likely be hung over the door as a protective charm, in
the same manner as other such charms were placed over
bedroom windows to protect children. In becoming a bride,
one duty of a wife was to protect her husband’s house, often
with magical formulae as may have been spoken in this house
blessing. The bride was then carried over the threshold by
pronubi, these being male friends of the groom who were only
once married, seeing to prevent her foot from knocking the
threshold or stumbling, as that would have been regarded as a
bad omen. The procession and arrival of the bride at her
husband’s house was looked over by Domiducus. Unxia guided
the bride in anointing the door of her husband’s house. The
installation of the bride as mistress of her new home was
under the providence of Domitius39.

Nuptiae Coemptionis

Once inside the groom’s house the ceremonies continued to

exemplify the bride’s transition from her father’s house and
family to that of her husband’s. In a coemptio the traditional
relationship between husband and wife was emphasized. The
bride saluted her husband with the formula, "Ubi tu Caius, ego
Caia" to signify that she would be his counterpart and that
both had their own roles to play in the household40. The
husband would receive his new bride by offering her tokens of
fire and water. This symbolized that the husband would
provide for his bride. She in turn would have to touch these
tokens as a sign of her acceptance. The feet of the bride, and
perhaps the groom as well, were washed in this water41. The
bride would then place her spindle and distaff on a sheepskin,
and in return the groom would give her the keys to his house.
After this, members of the household, even the husband,
would always address the woman as "Domina," recognizing
that she ruled inside the house. The groom then gave a dinner
for the wedding guests, called the coena nuptalis. At the end
of the meal, matrons, who had been married only once before,
would conduct the bride from the dining area to the lectus
genialis that was set up in the atrium of the house. This was
the wedding bed, decorated with flowers, often with saffron-
dyed sheets and violets after the fashion of the wedding bed
of Jupiter and Juno. Several indigitamenta were said to watch
over this first night. Virginiensis saw to the bride’s virginity.
Cinxia tied and loosened the bride’s cingulum. Subigus tamed
the bride while Prema held her for her husband. Pertunda,
along with Venus and Priapus, ensured penetration during
coitus, while Perficia ensured the consummation of coitus42.
However, for various reasons, coitus did not usually take place
on the first night, but was instead delayed until the following
night after the final ceremonies had been completed.

The Confarreatio

A confarreatio was a form of matrimonium around which were

performed sacred rites. As in other forms of marriage it first
began with the Sponsalia and the domum deductio. The
Nuptia ceremonies then performed at the groom’s house
differed in some respects from those held for a coemptio. A
confarreatio included a series of sacrifices, the taking of
auspices, the sharing of a special meal by the bride and groom,
and then a priestly blessing. Early in the Republican period a
group of patricians tried to claim that the rite of confarreatio
was restricted to patricians alone, based on another of their
claims, that plebeians could not take auspices. The reaction to
both claims, taken by patricians as well as plebeians, show that
such claims were false43. The facts were that the first consul of
the Republic, Junius Brutus, and others that followed
afterward, were plebeians and had taken auspices as required
of that office. Also, prior to the adoption of the Twelve
Tablets, patricians and plebeians had intermarried,
presumably by confarreatio. Marcius Coriolanus, as one
example, bears the name of a plebeian gens, yet his mother
Veturia was a patrician, and while some regard him as a
patrician because of his defense of patrician privileges, his wife
Volumnia was a plebeian. In contrast there is no mention or
other evidence that plebeians did not perform
confarreationes, even when the marriage was between
plebeians44. What was required was the presence of the
flamen Dialis who by tradition had to be a patrician, but there
was no restriction that would exclude his participation in
plebeian weddings.

For a confarreatio the pronuba first led the bride to the altar
and joined her right hand to that of the groom as at the
Sponsalia. The groom would then lead the bride three times
around an altar in a clockwise direction45. In this they were
preceded by the camillus, still carrying the bride’s cumera46.
With the Pontifex Maximus and flamen Dialis present,
offerings of fruit and far cakes were made to Jupiter. Prayers
and sacrifices were also offered to Tellus, Juno, Pilumnus and
Picumnus. The vows of marriage were said before Tellus47.
Pilumnus and Picumnus were invoked as guardians of children
and of women during childbirth. Juno safeguarded the
sincerity of those vows.

A sheep was sacrificed, probably in conjunction with the taking

of auspices. The victim was first sanctified by the mola salsa
carried by the bride. Prayers were offered to the Di inferi,
including Pilumnus and Picumnus who were invoked so that
they would send auspices. It became customary for a
confarreatio to also include a haruspex who would consult the
entrails of the sacrificial victim for additional omens. If the
omens showed the gods still favoring the marriage, then the
ceremony would continue. A second sacrifice was made in
conjunction with the swearing of vows. This second sacrifice
we may assume was that of a pig, as would be fitting for
Tellus, before whom the wedding vows were said48. Part of
this sacrifice involved the bridegroom offering the bride a
bough of pitch-pine that she would then place into the altar’s
flame as a sacrifice. The bride in turn gave the groom a bough
of juniper that he would sacrifice along with his vow, "To me,
myself, as ever my fate endures to live49." During the
remaining portion of the ceremony, the couple’s heads were
veiled and they would be seated together on two chairs, over
which the single sheepskin of the sacrificial victim was
thrown50. If either, but more specifically if the groom would
rise from his seat during the ceremony, then the marriage was
abrogated. The bride would then say "The king has departed
from his arrangement51."

The special feature of a confarreatio, by which it received its

name, was the sharing by the bride and groom of a far cake
made from spelt. It was required that ten people witness this
shared meal, as had witnessed their marriage contract at the
Sponsalia, among them the flamen and flamenica Dialis, and
the Pontifex Maximus usually attended as well. Juvenal
mentions a maestaceum cake being distributed later in the
evening to wedding guests and this may refer to the same
spelt cakes shared by the bride and groom52. After sharing the
far cake, a special formula prayer was said over the couple. "I
conjoin you both in matrimony," or else, "By the gods
immortal, are you joined together in matrimony53." The couple
was warned, "do not come into this (marriage) in the manner
of lingerers," and reminded that "this marriage (by
confarreatio) is superior and certainly extended to
posterity…come to agree that by this accord it is unlawful to
willingly separate and bring us into shame." Otherwise, they
were also told, "everafter shall you be intermingled like the
abundant clouds and by this either be in shame or in
marriage54." As for a coemptio, the confarreatio concluded
with a coena nuptialis, the bride afterward being led to the
lectus genialis.

Final ceremonies

The day following the coena nuptalis, the new husband would
host another dinner for his friends and family. The bride would
attend, appearing in her new role as domina. On this following
day, too, she and women from the husband’s family
performed religious rites together. One rite involved the new
bride being made to sit upon the phallus of the ithyphallic god
Mutunus Tutunus55. As in other parts of Roman marriage
ceremonies, this rite was meant to ensure the bride’s fertility
and to ward off the evil eye. More importantly, the bride
joined with women from her husband’s family in performing
the daily rites at the hearth to the Penates, and to the Lares56.
She would have to perform these rites from now on in
accordance with the cultus genialis of her husband. Each
family belonged to a gens that abided in a certain tradition
that could in some respects differ from the cultus she had
known in her father’s house. The other women from her
husband’s family were on hand to guide her in the proper
form as she made the daily rites according to her newly
adopted tradition. The Penates were the local spirits of the
land on which the house was built, who were primarily
invoked for safeguarding the household larder. As the domina
her primary duty would be to see after the larder and its
contents. To the Penates the bride would offer the coin she
had carried in her shoe during her procession, along with other
common offerings such as incense. The house resided in a
certain neighborhood, and thus she would visit the local shrine
to offer sacrifices to the lares compitales. This shrine was
located at the crossroads that designated the neighborhood in
which she would now reside. To these neighborhood lares she
would sacrifice such items as fruit, wine, olive oil, milk,
incense, and the purse containing a coin that she had carried
in her procession57. The other Lares to whom she would
sacrifice were the ancestral spirits of her husband’s family, and
thus would be for her children as well. The shrine of the
family’s Lares, called a lararium, was either at the hearth or in
the atrium near the front door of the house. In her new
lararium, that of her husband’s, she would place such things as
the tokens of fire and water given her the night before by the
groom, or her childhood toys, or other personal items. That is,
in addition to offering wine and incense that was part of the
normal daily worship of the Lares, the bride would offer other
things that specifically represented her in her new family. In
all, the wedding week beginning in the bride’s house then
concluding with the sacrifices she made to the Lares of her
husband, signified her transition from one family to another.
Not only did she give up her childhood in her mother’s house,
she accepted as her own, and was accepted amongst, the
ancestors of her husband’s family.

Notes:
1. Grammaticae Romanae Fragmenta, G. Funaioli, 1907:
Cincius 23: qui parentem necavisset, quod est
obvolvere

2. CIL 8.2756 Burial inscription from Lambaesis, Numidia,

212 C. E.

3. Gaius Institutiones Iustiniana 1.111: Tablet VI.5

4. Plutarch Romulus 22.3

5. Festus De Verborum Significatione 197a; Nonius

Marcellus De Compendiosa Doctrina 518

6. Servilius Ad Aen. 3.241

7. GRF Nigidius Figulus 38 Ex Auguri Privati Libris; Aulus

Gelius.Attic Nights 7.6

8. Pliny Hist. Nat. 18.10: nihil religiosius

9. Serv. Ad Aen. 4.339

10. Ovid Fasti 2.557, 3.339, 3.397-8; 5.488-90; 5.621-2;

6.225-34

11. Macrobius. Saturnalia 1,15,22

12. GRF Sulpicius Rufus 3 De Dotibus; Gelius 4.4.1

13. Juvenal Satires VI.200

14. Juvenal II.119; VI.25-7

15. Juvenal II.27

16. GRF L. Cincius 23, Fest. p.170b.24

17. Plautus Trinumus II, 4.99; GRF Cornificius 12, Fest.

p.170b.24

18. GRF Cornificius 12; Fest. p.170b.24: Cornificius nuptias

dictas esse ait – quod nova petantur coniugia

19. Arnobius Adversus Nationes 2.67

20. Plautus Aulularia 386 f

21. Juvenal 2.124; Pliny H. N. 8.48; Festus p. 364, 24

22. Festus p. 55, 18

23. Ovid Ars Amor. 1.31; Pont. 3.3.52

24. Ovid Fasti 2.560

25. Fest. p. 56.1-2

26. GRF Cincius 23; Pliny H. N. 21.8

27. Catullus Carmina 52.10

28. Nonius Marcellus De Compendiosa Doctrina p.531.12ff

29. Pliny Hist. Nat. 16.75 Torches of pitch-pine or larch

might be used instead.

30. Serv. ad Virg. Eclog 8.82

31. Pliny Hist. Nat. 16.18

32. Pliny Hist. Nat. 8.48

33. Plutarch Quaest. Rom. Init

34. Ovid Fasti 3.675; Livy 7.2; Horace Epist. 2.1.145; Macr.
2.4; Catallus Carmina 61.27; Pliny H. N. 16.22; Virgil
Geor. 2.385

35. Pliny H. N. 15.86 Walnuts were also thrown at certain

youths, with lewd taunts to chase them away. In the
Epithalamium Catullus refers to them as "sluggish
boys" used as concubines and worthy to receive only
the empty shells of walnuts. Servius, ad Virg. Eclog.
8.29,30, said that the walnuts "signified that the
loitering boys were to be scorned."

36. Livy 1.9.312-3: Talassio ferri clamitatum. Inde

nuptialem hanc vocem factam.

37. Ovid Fasti 6.155-6; Servius ad Aen. 4.19; Pliny Hist.

Nat. 28.9, 29.30. Lard: adeps suillus; wolf fat: adeps
lupinus.

38. GRF Varro 159 Ex Rerum Divinarum Libris; Augustine

Civ. D. 4.8

39. GRF Varro 155 Ex Rerum Divinarum, Aug. Civ. D. 6.9,

Tertullian Ad Nationes 2.11

40. Plutarch Quaest. Rom. 1.c

41. Servilius ad Aen. 4.104. The union of fire and water,

sometimes considered to represent the male and
female forces of nature, were thought a precondition
 producing life, as with Varro L. L. 5.61, and also as
necessities of life (Fest. p. 3.2-3). A pronouncement of
exile was stated in terms of forbidding anyone to
provide fire and water to the exiled person.

42. Aug. Civ. Dei 6.9.3

43. Livy IV.3.1-IV.6.3

44. T. J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, 1995, p.255

45. Plautus Curculio 70; Valerius Flaccus Argonautica

8.243-6: inde ubi sacrificas cum coniuge venit ad
aras…dextrum pariter vertuntur in orbem

46. Fest. p.43.25; p.55.24

47. Serv. Ad Aen. 4.339

48. Varro De Rustica 2.4.10: naturam qua feminae sunt, in

virginibus appellant porcum,…significantes esse
dignum insigne nuptiarum.

49. Serv. Ad Aen. 4.339 Me si fata meis paterentur ducere

vitam

50. Serv. ad Aen. 4.374

51. Ibid A quote from Virgil’s Aeneid, said by Dido, "regni

demens in parte locavi."

52. Juvenal Satires 6.201

53. Catullus Carmen 61: Ego coniugo vos in matrimonium.

Catullus Carmen 62: Pro Di immortales vos coniugetis
in matrimoniam confarreationi.

54. Serv. Ad Aen. 4.339

55. Lactantius Divinae Institutiones 1.20.36, Aug. Civ. Dei

6.9, 7.24: in celebratione nuptiarum super Priapi
scapum nova nupta sedere iubebatur

56. Cicero De Repubilica V.5: "This system provides for

legal marriages, legitimate children, and the
consecration of homes to the Lares and Penates of
families, so that all may make use of the common
property and of their own personal possessions."

57. Nonius p. 531.12 ff.

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