A Short History of Women's Rights Part 3

[16] Plutarch, _Roman Questions_, 6. Aulus Gellius, x, 23. Athenaeus, x, 56.

[17] Valerius Maximus, vi, 3, 9. For this he was not even blamed, but rather received praise for the excellent example.

[18] Aulus Gellius, x, 23. A woman in the _Menaechmi_ of Plautus, iv, 6, 1, complains justly of this double standard of morality:

Nam si vir scortum duxit clam uxorem suam, Id si rescivit uxor, impune est viro. Uxor viro si clam domo egressa est foras, Viro fit causa, exigitur matrimonio. Utinam lex esset cadem quae uxori est viro!

[19] Aulus Gellius, i, 6.

[20] De Consolatione ad Marciam, xvi, 1.

[21] _Commentaries_, A, [Greek: gamma].

[22] Quintilian, _Inst.i.t. Orat_., vi, 1, 5. Pliny, _Letters_, vi, 4 and 7, and vii, 5.

[23] Great admiration expressed for Paulina, wife of Seneca, who opened her veins to accompany her husband in death--Tacitus, _Annals_, xv, 63, 64. Story of Arria and Paetus--Pliny, _Letters_, iii, 16. Martial, i, 13. The famous instance of Epponina, under Vespasian, and her attachment to her condemned husband--Tacitus, _Hist_., iv, 67. Tacitus mentions that many ladies accompanied their husbands to exile and death--_Annals_, xvi, 10, 11. Numerous instances are related by Pliny of tender and happy marriages, terminated only by death--see, e.g., _Letters_, viii, 5. Pliny the elder tells how M. Lepidus died of regret for his wife after being divorced from her--_N.H._, vii, 36. Valerius Maximus devotes a whole chapter to Conjugal Love--iv, 6. But the best examples of deep affection are seen in tomb inscriptions--e.g., CIL i, 1103, viii, 8123, ii, 3596, v, 1, 3496, v, 2, 7066, x, 8192, vi, 3, 15696, 15317, and 17690. Man and wife are often represented with arms thrown about one another's shoulders to signify that they were united in death as in life. The poet Statius remarks that "to love a wife when she is living is pleasure; to love her when dead, a solemn duty" (Silvae, in prooemio). Yet some theologians would have us believe that conjugal love and fidelity is an invention of Christianity.

[24] Pliny, _Panegyricus_, 26. For other instances see Capitolinus, _Anton. Pius_, 8; Lampridius, _Alex. Severus_, 57; Spartia.n.u.s, Hadrian, 7, 8, 9; Capitolinus, _M. Anton. Phil_., 11.

[25] Gaius, i, 190.

[26] Ulpian, t.i.t. xi, 25. Cf. Frag, iur Rom. Vatic. (Huschke, 325): Divi Diocletia.n.u.s et Constantius Aureliae Pontiae: Actor rei forum sequi debet et mulier quoque facere procuratorem _sine tutoris auctoritate non prohibetur_. So Papinian, lib. xv, Responsorum (Huschke, 327). I shall discuss these matters at greater length when I treat of women and the management of their property.

[27] Dio, 54, 16. Pomponius in Dig., 23, 2, 4.

[28] Gaius, i, 113.

[29] Ulpian, t.i.t., ix, 1: Farreo convenit uxor in manum certis verbis et testibus X praesentibus et sollemni sacrificio facto, in quo panis quoque farreus adhibetur. Cf. Gaius, i, 112.

[30] Aulus Gellius, iii, 2, 12. Gaius, i, 111.

[31] Gaius, i, 110 and 111.

[32] Paulus, ii, xix, 8.

[33] Pliny, _Letters_, i, 14, will furnish an example; cf. id. vi, 26, to Servia.n.u.s: Gaudeo et gratulor, quod Fusco Salinatori filiam tuam destinasti. Note the way in which Julius Caesar arranged a match for his daughter--Suetonius, _Divus Julius_, 21.

[34] Paulus in Dig., 23, 2, 2: Nuptiae consistere non possunt, nisi consentiunt omnes, id est, qui coeunt quorumque in potestate sunt.

[35] Julia.n.u.s in Dig., 23, 1, 11.

[36] Ulpian in Dig., 23, 1, 12.

[37] Paulus in Dig., 23, 1, 13. Terentius Clemens in Dig., 23, 2, 21.

[38] Paulus, ii, 19, 2.

[39] Ulpian, 24, 17.

[40] Cf. Ulpian, t.i.t., vi, 6: Divortio facto, si quidem sui juris sit muller, ipsa habet rei uxoriae actionem, id est, dotis repet.i.tionem; quodsi in potestate patris sit, pater adiuncta filiae persona habet actionem.

The technical recognition of the father's power was still strong. Cf.

Pliny, _Panegyricus_, 38: Tu quidem, Caesar ... intuitus, opinor, vim legemque naturae, quae semper in dicione parentum esse liberos iussit.

The same writer, on requesting Trajan to give citizenship to the children of a certain freedman, is careful to add the specification that they are to remain in their father's power--see Pliny to Trajan, xi (vi).

[41] Paulus, vi, 15. Codex, v, 4, 11, and 17, 5.

[42] Paulus, in Dig., 23, 3, 28. Codex, v, 13, 1, and 18, 1.

[43] Codex, v, 17, 5.

[44] Salvius Julia.n.u.s: Frag. Perp. Ed.: Pars Prima, vii--under "De is qui notantur infamia."

[45] Codex, 8, 46 (47), 5.

[46] Aulus Gellius, iv, 4.

[47] Juvenal, vi, 200-203. Gaius in Dig., 24, 2, 2. Ulpian, ibid., 23, I, 10. Codex, v, 17, 2, and v, I, I.

[48] Codex, v, 3, 2.

[49] Dig., 3, 2, 1.

[50] Ulpian in Dig., 47, 10, 24.

[51] Cf. Alexander Severus in Codex, viii, 38, 2: Libera matrimonia esse antiquitus placuit, etc. Also Codex, v, 4, 8 and 14.

[52] Modestinus in Dig., xxiii, 2, 1.

[53] Gaius, ii, 159.

[54] Paulus, ii, xx, 1.

[55] Note the rescript of Alexander Severus to a certain Aquila (Codex, ii, 18, 13): Quod in uxorem tuam aegram erogasti, non a socero repetere, sed adfectioni tuae debes expendere.

[56] See, e.g., Dig., 47, 10, and Ulpian, ibid., 48, 14, 27.

[57] Cf. Gaius, i, 141: In summa admonendi sumus, adversus eos, quos in mancipio habemus, nihil n.o.bis contumeliose facere licere; alioquin iniuriarum (actione) tenebimur.

[58] Paulus, i, 21, 13.

[59] Paulus, i, 21, 14.

[60] Codex, ii, 11, 15

[61] Paulus in Dig., iii, 2, 9.

[62] Aulus Gellius, xvii, 6, speech of Cato: Principio vobis mulier magnam dotem adtulit; tum magnam pecuniam recipit, quam in viri potestatem non committ.i.t, ean pecuniam viro mutuam dat; postea, ubi irata facta est, servum receptic.u.m sectari atque flagitare virum iubet.