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MARRIAGE, DIVORCE AND THE POWER OF THE FATHER

MARRIAGE, DIVORCE AND THE POWER OF THE FATHER. Stage 38. INTRO. Family, loyalty, and monogamy were important Roman customs Goals of marriage:

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MARRIAGE, DIVORCE AND THE POWER OF THE FATHER

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  1. MARRIAGE, DIVORCE AND THE POWER OF THE FATHER Stage 38

  2. INTRO • Family, loyalty, and monogamy were important Roman customs • Goals of marriage: • production and rearing of children-unions were formed for this reason (Pompey with Julia to seal the First Triumvirate in 60BCE; Octavia with Mark Antony to unsuccessfully seal the Second Triumvirate 20 years later) • Finances • Love? (Augustus married Livia…) • Divorce-common by end of Republic; had no stigma; children stayed with father

  3. PATERFAMILIAS • paterfamilias-male head of the household with no living father or grandfather, who had unbounded powers • Held paterpotestas, powers of life and death over all of his family members-including slaves and freedmen • Retained the right to accept or reject babies if they were deformed or of dubious paternity, every newborn child was laid at their feet

  4. What is in a title? • Because of the prestige of the title, the senators called themselves the conscripti patres • The highest title for Caesar and Augustus (and Cicero) was pater patriae

  5. What happens when he dies? • When the paterfamilias died, his estate was divided equally among all his surviving children • Primogeniture (firstborn inheriting everything) was unheard of

  6. MARRIAGE CUSTOMS • Usually arranged marriages, especially in the upper class • Love was important but there were steps in the first marriage • Parental consent • Banquet where the man gave his fiancee a large gift, and the future father-in-law promised a dowry

  7. Wedding Day • June was the most popular month • Bridegroom arrived early to the house of the bride with friends • Matron of honor joined couples right hands in the dextrarum iunctio • Animal sacrificed • Marriage contract signed

  8. dextrarum iunctio

  9. Reception • Groom paid for reception • Augustus introduced a law to limit the cost of a marriage to 1000 sesterces, because he felt it was getting out of hand…ancient “Platinum Weddings”

  10. Wedding Dress • Hemless tunic-style dress (tunica recta) tied at the waist by a woolen girdle (cingulum herculeum) • Saffron colored cloak over the tunic • Orange veil (flammeum) • Hair was parted using an iron spearhead

  11. After the wedding… • After the wedding all the guests escorted the bride to her new home • Bride had three young boys to attend her • One held left hand, one held right hand, one carried a torch before her that had been lit at the hearth of her own home (the torch was thrown away as she approached her new home-whoever caught the torch was promised a long life)

  12. The Newlyweds Nest • The brides symbolic acts when they returned to the grooms home: • She smeared the doorposts with oil and covered them with wool • Touched the hearth fire and water inside the house • Prepared for her wedding night by women who had only been married once (most girls were virgins for their first marriage)

  13. An expensive wedding present? The Portland Vase is one of the most famous pieces of Roman glass - and its scenes of love and marriage would have made it a fitting, but very expensive, impressive!

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