The first and most traditional type of marriage was called confarreatio. This was a marriage limited to patricians whose parents were also married with confarreatio. The wedding was an elaborate ceremony with the Flamen Dialis and Pontifex Maximus presiding, as well as ten witnesses present. The woman passed directly from the manus of her paterfamilias to that of her new husband. Divorce for confarreatio marriages, diffarreatio, was a difficult process and therefore rare.
Not much is known about how diffarreatio was carried out except that there was a special type of sacrifice that caused the dissolution of the relationship between the man and woman. She would then pass back into the manus of her paterfamilias.
The second and more common type of marriage with manus was called coemptio.
It represented a "bride purchase," as the groom paid nummus usus, a penny, and received the bride in exchange. While this purchase was not a real sale, it symbolized the traditional bride purchases of earlier societies. Only five witnesses were required and the wedding ceremony was much less formala than confarreatio, but the bride still passed to her husband's manus.
A third type of marriage is a bit more unusual and was obsolete by the end of the Republic. Usus was a practical marriage that did not require an actual wedding ceremony; it was a transfer to the manus of the husband by default after cohabitation. There was probably some honorable intention stated at the beginning of the cohabitation, an adfectus maritalis. The only requirement for an usus marriage was that the man and woman cohabitate for one full year. The woman would then pass into her husband's manus. There was one loophole, however. If, within that year, the woman was away for three consecutive nights, she would not pass into the manus of her husband.
There were also marital unions that did not require the women to pass into her husband's manus. One, for instance, was free marriage. The wife would retain her independence as filiafamilias to her paterfamilias. If the father was dead, and had so stipulated in his will, she would be suae iuris, responsible for herself. She, under suae iuris, could then manage her own property and even initiate a divorce. Concubinatus was another alternative to marriage. A concubine, or paelex, was a woman who had regular sexual relations with a married man. Often the man and his paelex would live together, but without the adfectus maritalis that characterized usus marriages. Children of this type of union were not legitimate, indicating that the relationship was not itself legitimate. If, however, the couple did have adfectus maritalis and there were no legal disqualifications to marriage, the relationship could become a matrimonium.
a. The Flamen Dialis and Pontifex Maximus, for instance, were not required at the wedding ceremony for coemptio marriages.
(Courtesy of Mrs. J.J.Goodall Powers.)
zaterdag 1 mei 2010
The Mausoleum of Augustus
Pour me a double measure, of Falernian, Callistus,
and you Alcimus, melt over it summer snows,
let my sleek hair be soaked with excess of perfume,
my brow be wearied beneath the sewn-on rose.
The Mausoleum tells us to live, that one nearby,
it teaches us that the gods themselves can die.
Martialis.Book V:64.
and you Alcimus, melt over it summer snows,
let my sleek hair be soaked with excess of perfume,
my brow be wearied beneath the sewn-on rose.
The Mausoleum tells us to live, that one nearby,
it teaches us that the gods themselves can die.
Martialis.Book V:64.
IMacrobius relates anecdotes concerning various people:
Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius was a Roman grammarian and neoplatonic philosopher during the reign of Honorius and Arcadius (395-423)
The most important of his works is the Saturnalia, containing an account of the discussions held at the house of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (praetorian prefect from May 21 - Sept. 9, A.D. 384) during the holiday of the Saturnalia starting on December 17. It was written by the author for the benefit of his son Eustathius (or Eustachius)
1.Sulla’s son Faustus hearing that his sister was having an affair with two lovers at the same time, with Fulvius (a fuller’s son) and Pompeius surnamed Macula (a stain), declared: “I am surprised to find my sister with a stain, seeing that she has the services of a fuller.”
2.Servilius Geminus happened to be dining at the house of Lucius Mallius, who was held to be the best portrait painter in Rome and, noticing how misshapen his host’s sons were, observed: “Your modelling, Mallius, does not come up to your painting.” “Naturally,” replied Mallius, “for the modelling is done in the dark but the painting by daylight.”
3.Marcus Otacilius Pitholaus, on the occasion of the consulship of Caninius Revilus which lasted only one day remarked: “We used to have Priest of the Day but now we have consuls of a day.
(The point of the jest is the punning reference to the Priests of Jupiter (or Diespiter, i.e.”Father of the Day”; (see Aulus Gellius 5.12), who was known as the Flamen Dialis, and to the connection of the word Dialis with dies, “day.”)
4.Macrob. puts Symmachus the following verse by Plato in de mouth.
While with parted lips I was kissing my love and drawing his sweet fragrant breath from his open mouth, my poor, my lovesick, wounded soul rushed to my lips as it strove to find a way to pass between my open mouth and my love’s soft lips. Then, had the kiss been, even for a little while, prolonged, my soul, smitten with love’s fire, would have passed through and left me; and (a marvel this!) I should be dead- but alive within my love.
5.The lawyer Cascellius has a reputation for a remarkable outspoken wit, and here is one of his best-known quips. Vatinius had been stoned by the populace at a gladiatorial show which he was giving, and so he prevailed on the aediles to make a proclamation forbidding the throwing of anything but fruit into the arena. Now it so happened that Cascellius at that time was asked by a client to advise whether a fir cone was a fruit or not, and his reply was:” If you propose to throw one at Vatinius, it is.”
6.Then there is the story that, when a merchant asked him how to split a ship with a partner he replied:” If you split the ship, it will be neither yours nor your partner’s.”
7.A jest that went the rounds was one directed by Marcus Lollius at the distinguished speaker Galba, who (as I have already remarked) was hampered by a bodily deformity:” Galba’s intellectual ability is ill housed.”
8.To others who used to play at ball with him Gaius Caesar had made a gift of a hundred thousand sesterces, but Lucius Caecilius got only fifty thousand. “ What is the meaning of this?” said Caecilius, “ Do I play with only one hand?”
9.When Publius Clodius told Decimus Laberius that he was angry with him for refusing to produce a mime for him at his request, Laberius said:” What of it? All that you can do is to give me a return passage to Dyrrachium”
(– a mocking allusion to Cicero’s exile.)
The most important of his works is the Saturnalia, containing an account of the discussions held at the house of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (praetorian prefect from May 21 - Sept. 9, A.D. 384) during the holiday of the Saturnalia starting on December 17. It was written by the author for the benefit of his son Eustathius (or Eustachius)
1.Sulla’s son Faustus hearing that his sister was having an affair with two lovers at the same time, with Fulvius (a fuller’s son) and Pompeius surnamed Macula (a stain), declared: “I am surprised to find my sister with a stain, seeing that she has the services of a fuller.”
2.Servilius Geminus happened to be dining at the house of Lucius Mallius, who was held to be the best portrait painter in Rome and, noticing how misshapen his host’s sons were, observed: “Your modelling, Mallius, does not come up to your painting.” “Naturally,” replied Mallius, “for the modelling is done in the dark but the painting by daylight.”
3.Marcus Otacilius Pitholaus, on the occasion of the consulship of Caninius Revilus which lasted only one day remarked: “We used to have Priest of the Day but now we have consuls of a day.
(The point of the jest is the punning reference to the Priests of Jupiter (or Diespiter, i.e.”Father of the Day”; (see Aulus Gellius 5.12), who was known as the Flamen Dialis, and to the connection of the word Dialis with dies, “day.”)
4.Macrob. puts Symmachus the following verse by Plato in de mouth.
While with parted lips I was kissing my love and drawing his sweet fragrant breath from his open mouth, my poor, my lovesick, wounded soul rushed to my lips as it strove to find a way to pass between my open mouth and my love’s soft lips. Then, had the kiss been, even for a little while, prolonged, my soul, smitten with love’s fire, would have passed through and left me; and (a marvel this!) I should be dead- but alive within my love.
5.The lawyer Cascellius has a reputation for a remarkable outspoken wit, and here is one of his best-known quips. Vatinius had been stoned by the populace at a gladiatorial show which he was giving, and so he prevailed on the aediles to make a proclamation forbidding the throwing of anything but fruit into the arena. Now it so happened that Cascellius at that time was asked by a client to advise whether a fir cone was a fruit or not, and his reply was:” If you propose to throw one at Vatinius, it is.”
6.Then there is the story that, when a merchant asked him how to split a ship with a partner he replied:” If you split the ship, it will be neither yours nor your partner’s.”
7.A jest that went the rounds was one directed by Marcus Lollius at the distinguished speaker Galba, who (as I have already remarked) was hampered by a bodily deformity:” Galba’s intellectual ability is ill housed.”
8.To others who used to play at ball with him Gaius Caesar had made a gift of a hundred thousand sesterces, but Lucius Caecilius got only fifty thousand. “ What is the meaning of this?” said Caecilius, “ Do I play with only one hand?”
9.When Publius Clodius told Decimus Laberius that he was angry with him for refusing to produce a mime for him at his request, Laberius said:” What of it? All that you can do is to give me a return passage to Dyrrachium”
(– a mocking allusion to Cicero’s exile.)
VIII. THE STIFF UPPER LIP (To Lesbia, by Valerius Catullus
Poor Catullus! Cease your madness!
Realise that love is dead.
Once your days were gay with gladness
As you followed where she led.
Never will another lady
Know such great abiding love:
In those gardens, cool and shady,
With the bright blue sky above.
Did you voice your burning passion
As you whiled the hours away,
And your lady, in her fashion,
Lured you on, nor said you nay?
Now, her lovely self denying,
Cease to seek her, cease to mourn;
Turn your thought away from dying,
Slave of passion, all forlorn!
Be courageous in your sorrow.
Bear your loss with constant mind.
Haply you will meet to-morrow
Someone else as sweet and kind.
Farewell, Lady! Now your poet,
Strong once more, resumes his task.
He'll not seek you; now you know it,
Nor your languid favours ask!
Some day you'll be sad and lonely -
What remains in life for you?
None will think you lovely - only
Fear the things they know you do.
Who would take the love you offer?
No man's mistress will you be!
And, Catullus, though she proffer
Peace, stand firm in enmity!
English verse by
J.A.B. HARRISSON MBE DSC (1909-1983)
Realise that love is dead.
Once your days were gay with gladness
As you followed where she led.
Never will another lady
Know such great abiding love:
In those gardens, cool and shady,
With the bright blue sky above.
Did you voice your burning passion
As you whiled the hours away,
And your lady, in her fashion,
Lured you on, nor said you nay?
Now, her lovely self denying,
Cease to seek her, cease to mourn;
Turn your thought away from dying,
Slave of passion, all forlorn!
Be courageous in your sorrow.
Bear your loss with constant mind.
Haply you will meet to-morrow
Someone else as sweet and kind.
Farewell, Lady! Now your poet,
Strong once more, resumes his task.
He'll not seek you; now you know it,
Nor your languid favours ask!
Some day you'll be sad and lonely -
What remains in life for you?
None will think you lovely - only
Fear the things they know you do.
Who would take the love you offer?
No man's mistress will you be!
And, Catullus, though she proffer
Peace, stand firm in enmity!
English verse by
J.A.B. HARRISSON MBE DSC (1909-1983)
zaterdag 3 april 2010
Optimates and Populares
Optimates and Populares; according to Cicero in his ‘Republic’ 3,23
“When certain men control the state by virtue of their wealth, their distinction, or any form of power, this is a faction, but they call themselves ‘Optimates.” (the best people)
Infact that title was applied to the clique of more reactionary nobiles and their supporters who were concerned to reserve for themselves the right to control the decisions of the Senate and the electoral and legislative assemblies by the traditional means of amicitiae and clientela.
To an Optimate the theoretical sovereignty of the Roman people should always be subordinate in practice to the authority of the Senate; the Senate should be controlled by those whose family traditions and wealth fitted them to provide the senior magistrates of Rome and to guide their decisions. Any politician who did not enjoy the support of the Optimates, or who wanted to propose reforms or programmes contrary to their interest had to find ways of counter their formidable power. Many of the most successful methods had been demonstrated by the Gracchi brothers Tiberius and Caius during their tribunates of 133 and 123-122, and by C.Marius and the tribune L.Appuleius Saturninus in 103 and 100.
Tribunes had the right of proposing legislation in the council of the Plebs (consilium plebis), which was in fact the Assembly of the People excluding the members of the very few Patrician families. They could also veto the proposals of other magistrates.
As 10 tribunes were elected each year, and they did not require the qualifications of age and previous office which consuls required, it was not difficult for ambitious and active men to secure election.
They could, without the consent of the Senate, get far-reaching legislation passed in the Plebeian council which, on their interpretation of the constitution was perfectly legitimate.
The word Popularis, which is often used as the opposite of Optimate, describes rather the method used by politicians than their policies, which might be designed to further the selfish interest of a few individuals just as much as to put right glaring social injustices.
The populares were by no means a political party, even in the sense that the Optimates were, and, although it is possible to trace a certain continuity of thought and even ideals in the actions of men whom their contemporaries called populares, the faction which opposed the Optimates from time to time nearly always centred round one leading personality, whose motives should not necessarily be construed as democratic or idealistic.
(Pompey the Great (1978), by John Leach)
“When certain men control the state by virtue of their wealth, their distinction, or any form of power, this is a faction, but they call themselves ‘Optimates.” (the best people)
Infact that title was applied to the clique of more reactionary nobiles and their supporters who were concerned to reserve for themselves the right to control the decisions of the Senate and the electoral and legislative assemblies by the traditional means of amicitiae and clientela.
To an Optimate the theoretical sovereignty of the Roman people should always be subordinate in practice to the authority of the Senate; the Senate should be controlled by those whose family traditions and wealth fitted them to provide the senior magistrates of Rome and to guide their decisions. Any politician who did not enjoy the support of the Optimates, or who wanted to propose reforms or programmes contrary to their interest had to find ways of counter their formidable power. Many of the most successful methods had been demonstrated by the Gracchi brothers Tiberius and Caius during their tribunates of 133 and 123-122, and by C.Marius and the tribune L.Appuleius Saturninus in 103 and 100.
Tribunes had the right of proposing legislation in the council of the Plebs (consilium plebis), which was in fact the Assembly of the People excluding the members of the very few Patrician families. They could also veto the proposals of other magistrates.
As 10 tribunes were elected each year, and they did not require the qualifications of age and previous office which consuls required, it was not difficult for ambitious and active men to secure election.
They could, without the consent of the Senate, get far-reaching legislation passed in the Plebeian council which, on their interpretation of the constitution was perfectly legitimate.
The word Popularis, which is often used as the opposite of Optimate, describes rather the method used by politicians than their policies, which might be designed to further the selfish interest of a few individuals just as much as to put right glaring social injustices.
The populares were by no means a political party, even in the sense that the Optimates were, and, although it is possible to trace a certain continuity of thought and even ideals in the actions of men whom their contemporaries called populares, the faction which opposed the Optimates from time to time nearly always centred round one leading personality, whose motives should not necessarily be construed as democratic or idealistic.
(Pompey the Great (1978), by John Leach)
Servilia, mistress of Julius Caesar
Servilia, born about 100 B.C. and died after 42 B.C., was the daughter of Q.Servilius Caepio, praetor in 91 B.C. and of Livia, daughter of M.Livius Drusus, consul 112 B.C.
(which made Livia the sister of M.Livius Drusus, the famous tribune of the plebs of 91 B.C.)
Servilia had been married to M.Junius Brutus, tribunus plebis in 83 B.C. and bore him a son, M.Junius Brutus, the so-called ‘Liberator’, whose ashes were sent to her by Marcus Antonius after the battle of Philippi (42 B.C.)
After Gn.Pompeius Magnus had treacherously killed her husband at Mutina in 77 B.C., she had married D.Junius Silanus, consul 62 B.C.
After putting up with her unfaithfulness for quite some time Silanus finally divorced her in 61 B.C.
The couple had three children:
1. Junia (prima), married to M.Aemilius Lepidus, consul 46 B.C., future triumvir.
2. Junia (secunda), married to P.Servilius Isauricus, consul 48 B.C.
3. Junia (tertia), also calledTertulla, married to C.Cassius Longinus who perished at Philippi in 42 B.C. Tertiae survived her husband for 64 years and died in A.D.22 during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius at the age of 93.
Servilia was the sister of:
(1) Cn.Servilius Caepio, tribune of the soldiers in the war against Spartacus in 72, died in 67 B.C. at Aenus in Trace, on his way to Asia.
He had been married to Hortensia, daughter of Q.Hortensius Hortalus, consul 69 B.C. and Lutatia.
(2) Servilia (minor),married in 66 with L.Licinius Lucullus, consul 74 B.C.
Lucullus married her after his divorce from the notorious Clodia.
This Servilia too didn’t stay faithful to her husband and a divorce followed.
Our Servilia became, by the second marriage of her mother, step-sister to M. Porcius Cato Uticensis who was dominated by her.
She was during some twenty years the mistress of Caius Julius Caesar the dictator.
Judging by graffiti found on a wall her contemporaries weren’t much impressed by this formidable and influential lady.
The text read: “Caesari Servilia Futatrix”
(“Servilia is Caesar’s bitch”)
Both her son Marcus Junius Brutus and her son-in-law C.Cassius Longinus were the leaders of the conspiracy and murder of her lover Julius Caesar.
(which made Livia the sister of M.Livius Drusus, the famous tribune of the plebs of 91 B.C.)
Servilia had been married to M.Junius Brutus, tribunus plebis in 83 B.C. and bore him a son, M.Junius Brutus, the so-called ‘Liberator’, whose ashes were sent to her by Marcus Antonius after the battle of Philippi (42 B.C.)
After Gn.Pompeius Magnus had treacherously killed her husband at Mutina in 77 B.C., she had married D.Junius Silanus, consul 62 B.C.
After putting up with her unfaithfulness for quite some time Silanus finally divorced her in 61 B.C.
The couple had three children:
1. Junia (prima), married to M.Aemilius Lepidus, consul 46 B.C., future triumvir.
2. Junia (secunda), married to P.Servilius Isauricus, consul 48 B.C.
3. Junia (tertia), also calledTertulla, married to C.Cassius Longinus who perished at Philippi in 42 B.C. Tertiae survived her husband for 64 years and died in A.D.22 during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius at the age of 93.
Servilia was the sister of:
(1) Cn.Servilius Caepio, tribune of the soldiers in the war against Spartacus in 72, died in 67 B.C. at Aenus in Trace, on his way to Asia.
He had been married to Hortensia, daughter of Q.Hortensius Hortalus, consul 69 B.C. and Lutatia.
(2) Servilia (minor),married in 66 with L.Licinius Lucullus, consul 74 B.C.
Lucullus married her after his divorce from the notorious Clodia.
This Servilia too didn’t stay faithful to her husband and a divorce followed.
Our Servilia became, by the second marriage of her mother, step-sister to M. Porcius Cato Uticensis who was dominated by her.
She was during some twenty years the mistress of Caius Julius Caesar the dictator.
Judging by graffiti found on a wall her contemporaries weren’t much impressed by this formidable and influential lady.
The text read: “Caesari Servilia Futatrix”
(“Servilia is Caesar’s bitch”)
Both her son Marcus Junius Brutus and her son-in-law C.Cassius Longinus were the leaders of the conspiracy and murder of her lover Julius Caesar.
Search while you’re out walking
Just walk slowly under Pompey’s shady colonnade,
when the sun’s in Leo, on the back of Hercules’s lion:
or where Octavia added to her dead son Marcellus’s gifts,
with those rich works of foreign marble.
Don’t miss the Portico that takes its name
from Livia its creator, full of old masters:
or where the daring Danaids prepare to murder their poor husbands,
and their fierce father stands, with out-stretched sword.
And don’t forget the shrine of Adonis, Venus wept for,
and the sacred Sabbath rites of the Syrian Jews.
Don’t skip the Memphite temple of the linen-clad heifer:
she makes many a girl what she herself was to Jove.
And the law-courts (who’d believe it?) they suit love:
a flame is often found in the noisy courts:
where the Appian waters pulse into the air,
from under Venus’s temple, made of marble,
there the lawyer’s often caught by love,
and he who guides others, fails to guide himself:
in that place of eloquence often his words desert him,
and a new case starts, his own cause is the brief.
There Venus, from her neighbouring temples, laughs:
he, who was once the counsel, now wants to be the client.
Ovidius, book I part III.
when the sun’s in Leo, on the back of Hercules’s lion:
or where Octavia added to her dead son Marcellus’s gifts,
with those rich works of foreign marble.
Don’t miss the Portico that takes its name
from Livia its creator, full of old masters:
or where the daring Danaids prepare to murder their poor husbands,
and their fierce father stands, with out-stretched sword.
And don’t forget the shrine of Adonis, Venus wept for,
and the sacred Sabbath rites of the Syrian Jews.
Don’t skip the Memphite temple of the linen-clad heifer:
she makes many a girl what she herself was to Jove.
And the law-courts (who’d believe it?) they suit love:
a flame is often found in the noisy courts:
where the Appian waters pulse into the air,
from under Venus’s temple, made of marble,
there the lawyer’s often caught by love,
and he who guides others, fails to guide himself:
in that place of eloquence often his words desert him,
and a new case starts, his own cause is the brief.
There Venus, from her neighbouring temples, laughs:
he, who was once the counsel, now wants to be the client.
Ovidius, book I part III.
Abonneren op:
Posts (Atom)