Royal Marriages and Matrilineal Descent. Author(s): Margaret Murray Source: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 45 (Jul. - Dec., 1915), pp. 307-325 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2843479 . Accessed: 28/06/2014 08:50

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BY MARGARET MURRAY.

I AM not concernedin this paper with the originof MatrilinealDescent, nor with the reasons for the custom. I merely wish to point out that it occurs among peoples whomwe are accustomedto look upon as civilised,and that it is therefore of considerableimportance for the rightunderstanding of certainpoints in ancient. history,which are oftenslurred over or looked upon as too obscurefor elucidation. It is obviousthat the reckoningof descentin either the male or female line can be of value only when there is somethingto inherit. Lanld is naturally consideredas the most importantof all heritages,and the chief land-inheritanceis the kingdom. Thereforeit is among noble, and particularlyroyal, families that we expect to findgenealogies caref ally kept,and it is in these genealogies that we must look forthe recordsof femaleinheritance. The workingof the law of female inheritancein moderntimes is found in the kingdomof Travancore. (Successionin the familyof the Raja of Cochin on the Malabar Coast is also governedin the same way.) I quote from Sir Charles Aitchison'sTreaties,' which is the authoritativework on the subject. " The laws whichgovern the succession to the State of Travancore are very peculiar. The descent,according to the usages of the Nairs of the WesternCoast, is in the femaleline. Thus on the death of the Raja the sovereigntypasses not to his sons,who can in no case inherit,but to his uterine brothersif he has any. Failing these,or on their demise,it passes to his sister's sons, or to his sister's daughter'ssons, and so on. Hence it follows that the only adoptions which are performedby the Rajas of Travancoreare not of males to supplythe place of sons of their own body, but of feinales through whom the line must be continued. Any failureof the directfemale descent requiresthe selectionand adoptionof two or morefemales from the immediaterelatives of the familywho reside at certain places in Travancore. The femalesso adopted are designated the Tumbratteesor Ranis of Attingah,and by the laws and usages of Travancore are assigned a distinguishedrank as alone entitled to give heirs to the state,and enjoy many importantprivileges. Such an adoption occurred in 1788, when two sisterswere selectedand adopted as Ranis of Attingah. The youngersister died after giving birthto a femalechild whichalso died. From the elder sisterthe presentfamily of

1 Aitchison, Treaties,Engagements and Sunnuds, v, p. 422 seq., ed. 1876.

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Travancore are descended, the late Raja being the grandson (daughter'sson), the presentthe greatgrandson (daughter's daughter's son). In 1857 the lille of Travancorewas again threatenedwith eventual extinction. The sisterof the late PRaja (granddaughter-daughter's daughter-of the elder of the two sisters adopted in 1788) leftfive children, four sons, the second of whom is the present chief,and one daughter. The daughter died suddenly,leavincr two sons. The Tumbratteesof Attingahthus became extinct,and although the state after the death of the Raja would devolve successivelyon his four nephews and his two grandnephews,the line, unless recruitedby the adoptionof Tumbratteesas before, would have expired with them. Under these circumstancesthe late Raja intimatedto the Resident that,in strict conformitywith folmerusage and prece- dent,he proposedto brinoin two,the most eligible female memnbersfronm amono his relations,as senior and junior Ranis. Two ladies were accordinglyadopted with the sanctionof the BritishGovernment." With livingexamples beforeus it is possible to follow the workingof the customnof inheritancein the femaleline in ancient times,when the laws against consanauinityin marriagewere not so strict as at the present day. It must be fairlyobvious that when propertydescenided through the woman,the mnanwho could obtain possession of the heiress obtained also possession of the property forhimself during his lifetimeand forhis children after his death. The natural protector of the woman and the natural owner of the propertywould be her nearest male relative. Hence the custom in ancient times of consanguineous marriagesin everydegree of close relationship. As an example familiar to us all of successionto the throneby rightof marriagewith the heiress,I would cite the play of " Hamlet," wherethe murderedking is succeeded,not by his son, thoughof an age to reign,but by the new husband of the queen. The hurriedmarriage after the firsthusband's death was due to the eagerness of the murdererto seize the crown; the people accepted the new king,never looking upon him as a usurper; the marriagearoused no indignationor horroramong them, and the king's only fearwas the discoveryof the murderby whichhe had cleared his way to the hand of the heiressand the possessionof the throne. I am concernedin this paper with pointingout that where in ancient history we findconsanguineous marriages in the closest possibledegrees of relationship,we are not always dealiingwith records of licentiousnessand vice, as the historians, ancient anid modern,would have us believe, but with a system of matrilineal descent and femaleinheritance preserved in a royal famnily.Royalty being more strictly bound by ancient tradition than the people, such a custom would be observedin the royal familylong afterit had vanishedfrom the rest of the king- dom. It is thereforeonly to be expected that the system should be conmpletely misunderstoodand its resultsoften held in utterabhorrence by the historianswho have handed dowinthe accounts to us, especiallyby those who were either not contemporarywith the events they related, or were observingthe customs of a foreig,ncountry. This is to my mind so much the case that I am convincedthat

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.49 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:50:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARGARETMURRAY.--oyal Mlfarriagiesanid fatriliebalDescent. 309 wherevermarriages are found to be closely consanguineous,there one must look for inheritancein the female line, and the genealogy must be carefullyscanned with this idea in mind,remembering that the man's descentis not necessarilyof any importance;it is by marriageand not by inheritancethat he lays claim to the throne. Thereforeit is the woman and her nmaternalgenealogy which must be followed. To prove my point I will take only three nations, the Egyptian, the Jewish, and the PRoman. The customoccurred in. most of the nationsof antiquitywithout doubt,but these threewill be sufficient. In Egyptian history I propose to take only two periods, the early New Kinrgdom,i.e., about 1600 B.C.,and the Ptoleimiaicera; forat boththese periodsthe recordsare morecomplete than. at any other. Chronologicallythe Biblical history should followon betweenthese two Egyptian periods,but. I preferto divide the subject geographically. In Egypt one sees very clearlythat the kinlgsucceeded by rightof marriageonly; so much so thatit is possible to put the principleof female inheritanceshortly thtus: the queen is queen by righltof birth,the king is king by right of marriage. The resultingintermarriages can also be expressed by the Kalmuck proverb,"Great people and dogs know no relationship." Thoughthis is, perhaps,clearer in Egypt than elsewhere,it can, I think,be provedin the House of Judah,and amongthe Claudian Emperors.

EGYPT.-NEW KINGDOM. Amongstthe of the early New Kingdom the principle of matri- lineal descent is verystrongly marked, and as I have said before,marriages in everydegree of affinityare found. I do not propose to go into any detail of proof here, as Egyptian historyis still a highly techrnicalsubject, but I take eight successivequeens who lived in the seventeenthand sixteenthcenturies B.C. It is acknowledgedby all Egyptologiststhat wheina queen has the titles "King's sister,king's wife," those epithetsapply to the relationshipbetween her and the king witlhwhom she is mentioned,but when the title " King's daughter"occurs at thesame time, it is usual to say that it appliesto the previousking. My contention is that such titles apply to the king with whom the queen is associatedin the inscription. If thesetitles are taken as I proposeto take them,it would show that when a queen is daughter,sister and wife to the king, the previous queen was both motherand wifeof the same man,i.e., the reigningqueen is daughter to the king because her motherwas his wife,and she is also his sister because she was bornof the same motheras hinmself. It will be notedthat the kingmight have anlynumber of wives at the same time,as he appearedto marryall the heiressesin orderto secure his own position and prevent claimantsto the throne; but a queen could only have one husband at a time, though any number consecutively,as her husband was the rightful rulerby reasonof his marriagewith her.

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The relationshipsare so complicatedthat it is impossibleto make a genealogi- cal table in the ordinaryway. The genealogyof Aahmes I. appears quite simple when writtenout thus- TETA-SHERA.

Seqenen-RaT AAH-HETEP. AahmesI. but Seqenen-Ra was the father,brother, and husband of Aah-hetep, who on his. death marriedthe son,Aahnies I., whomshe had borne to him. I have therefore expressed the marriagesby a differentmethod, though the filiationof the kingsis shownin the usual way. The relationshipsof the queens to the respectivekings is given afterthe name of each king.

EGYPTIAN QUEENS. Women'snames in capitals. TETA-SHERA. | Seqenen-Ra. King's wife,King's mother. Seqenen-Ra. King's greatdaughter. United to WhiteCrown. AahmesI. King's wife,King's sister,King's mother. AAH-HETEP.I AmenhetepI. King's wife,King's mother. ThothmesI. King's wife,King's mother. Aahmes I. King's daughter,King's sister,King's wife. . I AmenhetepI. King's wife,King's mother.

AAHM ES. J ThothmesI. King's wife,King's mother. ThotlmesI. King's daughter.

HATSHEPSUT. Thothmes II. ThothmesIII. ThotlimesIII. King's wife. MERYT-RA. I AmenhetepII. King's wife,King's mother.

TYAA. I ThothmesIV. King's wife,King's mother.

ARAT. I ThothmesIV. King's daughter,King's sister,King's wife. ThothmesIV. King's wife. MUTEMUYA. I AmenhetepIII. King's mother. The positionof Hatshepsutis confused,as she reignedalone and used the titles of a king for herself. She was certainlythe daughterof ThothmesI. and was associatedwith him as a queen, whichleads one to suppose that she was married to him. She was apparentlythe wife of Thothmes IL, and it seems likely that she was marriedto ThothmesIII. also, forher daughterNefru-ra, when represented betweenHatshepsut and ThothmesIII., is called King's daughter.

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EGYPTIALNHISTORY: PTOLEMAICPERIOD. There is always a certain difficultyin tracingthe beginningof a genealogy, and the Ptolemies are no exception. The fact that the father of Lagos was unknowneven to his grandson,Ptolemy Soter, is a proof that the male descent was not of great importance. The theorythat the genealogyof was invented in later times in order to prove that brother-and-sistermarriage was practised by the founderof the dynasty,caninot be maintained. Marriages of relatives closely allied by blood are, as I have mentionedbefore, the custom in certainstages of societyonly when there is some materialadvantage to be gained by such a union,i.e., wheil the advantage is gained by inheritanceby or through women. A glance at the genealogiesof the Ptolemies in the female line shows that theyderive from three main stocks. The firstis fromCassander, the second from his brotherAntipater, the thirdfrom the Persian satrap of Phrygia,Artabazos III., one of whose daughterswas considereda fitmatch for Alexander himself. When the femaleline of Cassanderends, the reigningPtolemy marries the heiressof the eldest daughterof Antipater,he himselfbeing descendedon the mother'sside from a youngerdaughter. There are, unfortunately,no records of the marriages of Antipater,and consequentlyno proofthat his three daughterswere born of one mother,though the differencein age lends probabilityto the theorythat the two youngerwere half-sistersof Phila. On the failureof the female line of Antipater, a marriageis effectedbetween PtolemyEpiphanes and CleopatraI., the heiress in direct matrilinealdescent fromArtabazos III., an ancestor fromwhom all the Ptolemies descended by the marriage of Lagos with Arsinoe, daughter of the Persian satrap. By accepting this theory of the descent of the throne in the direct female line, the closely consanguineousmarriages are explained,especially when it is rememberedthat legitimacyand illegitimacywere ideas of a later growth,and that the daughterof a queen, by whateverhusband, was the heiressof the crown. It accountsalso forthe fact that when the two brothers,Philometor I. and EuergetesII., reignedtogether, they were associatedon the thronewith their sisterin such way as to make it fairlycertain that theywere both marriedto her. On the death of Philometor,Euergetes ensured his positionby marryingthe next heiressas well. In the troubledtimes of the tenthand eleventhPtolemies, Soter H. (Lathyrus) and AlexanderI., female inheritancethrows light on some of the problems. The familysquabbles, which in royal familieslead to wars,were due to the question as to who was the rightfulking, the husbandof the queen or the husband of the next heiress. The doubtful filiationof V. is the weakest link in the chain of the genealogy. She claimed to be the sisterof Auletes; and as brother-and-sister marriagewas not practisedfor mere wantonness,but for certain definitereasons, her mothermust have been of the royal line, possiblyCleopatra IV. The filiation

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Women's namDes in capitals. Waved lines under a name show extinction of female line.

Artabazos III. T SISTER of x T . x Antipater, Artabazos III. -SISTER of Memnon. Regentof Macedon. T Memnoni.

Aiitipater of Macedon. ARSINOB T Lagos T ANTIGONE. NICAEA. EURYDICE. PIHILA Demetrius Seleucos ILT APAMA. ARSINOE. T ______I I Poliorcetes. _ I ~~~~~~~I I ' I I H = I. STRATON ICE I. LAODICE I. LysimiiachulsNICAEA. EURYDICE Soter I.j= BEREXICE Antiochus T

ARsiNo I. P- laelhu ARSINOE II. Magas =i APAMA. AntilochusII.=F LA(DICE II. AR81NOE I.T Philadelphus = ARSINO1: 11. T Theos. EuergetesI. T BERENICEII. Mithri- LAODICE III.

I______I_ dates II. (name uncertain).

Philopater A RSINOE III. Antiocelus III.j LAODICE IV.

EpiphanesT CLEOPATRA I.

Philonietor I. T CLEOPATRAII. Euergetes II. Physcon.

Euergetes II., T CLEOPATRA III. her uncle.

x i Soter II. T CLEOPATRA IV. Alexaiider I. T x Lathyrus. ? |______Alexanider II.

Auletes Tj CLEOPATRAV. BERENICE III. - AlexanderI., ______ber utcle, also Alexander II. Ptolemy XIV. & XV. =CLEOPATRA VI. T Casar.

CGesarion.

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.49 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:50:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARGARETMURRAY.-Boyal Alarriagesand JfatrilinealDescent. 313 of Cleopatra the Great must also be accepted in view of her successive marriages with her two brothers; forthe theoryof the descentof the throneby and through womencan alone explain her furthermarriages also. Caesar,by conquest ruler of Egypt, legitimisedhis position by marryingthe queen. Antony became king of Egypt by the same means; his marriagewith Octavia was bindingin Rome, but in Egypt the queen was his lawfulwife, and Octavia,who was not of the Egyptian royal line, took a second place. The Roman historians,imbued as they were with the idea of monogamy,utterly failed to understandthe position. With the death of CleopatraEgypt ceased to be a kingdomand became the privateproperty of the Emperors of Rome, and was then governedby Ptomanlaws of inheritanceand marriage. Cleopatra's son by Caesar was killed, her children by Antony were illegitimateaccording to Roman law, he havinga wifeat the timeof his marriage; but claimed the throneof Egypt,and was fora short period successfulin that claim,by rightof descentfrom Cleopatra.

BIBLE HISTORY.

In the Bible records,the genealogies and the early historyhave been so rigorouslyexcised by later editors that it is often difficult,if not impossible, to follow them. [As an example of such excision, I would draw attention to i Chroniclesvii, 14, which begins the genealogyof the tribe of Manasseh: " The sons of Manasseh: Ashriel whom she bare," where it is obvious that a woman's name has been cut out,for as the words stand, " she" refersto Manasseh; which, as EuLclidsays, is absurd'.] The custom of female inheritancein historic times appears to have been followedin the southerncountry only, where we have to do with the tribesof Judah and Benjamin; in the north,the kingdomof Israel went to any man who could take or hold it by forceof arms.

THE HOUSE OF JUDAH. Woumen'snames in capitals.

x T Talmai.

BATHSHIEBA T TF MAACEIAR.

NAAMAH T . AbsalomT TA1MAR.

RRehoboam MAM,ACHAH.

Abijanii Asa.

In the account of the earlykings, kingship appears to have been dependent on two facts: (1) appointmentby the chiefsacerdotal authority or by the reigning monarcl; (2) marriagewith the heiress. The historyof is so fragmentarythat

1 The verb is in the femininein the Hebrew without a pronoun.

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.49 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:50:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 314 MARGARET MuRRAY.-Royal Marriages and Matrilineal Descent. althoug,hwe know of his appointmentby Samuel, we know only the name of his wife and not her genealogybeyond her father'sname. But when we come to David we are on firmerground. David was appointed and anointed king by Samuel,and in connectionwith this event Josephus1makes an interestingremark: "CThe Divine Power departed from Saul and removed to David, who, upon this removalof the Divine Spirit to hima,began to prophesy." Here I think we see the reason forthe appointmentof a king: by this means the Divine Spirit was handed on to the successorthat he might be the receptacle of the deity,in other words the incarnate god. This idea remains down to our own times among the Shilluk at Fashoda.' This was what may be called the spiritualside of kingship; the actual rule was obtained by marriagewith the heiress. In the case of David the appointingand anointingcame first,then came the marriagewith Michal the daughter of Saul; and it was after this marriage, when David was thus the acknowledgedheir, that Saul's hatredgrew virulent: " and Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul became David's enemycontinually." It is necessary to rememblerthat Saul had four sons, Jonathan,Abinadab, Melchi-shua, and Ishbosheth; of these,the firstthree are neverlooked upon as having a claim on the throne,which shows that inheritancein the male line was not yet established in Judah and Benjamin. As forAbner's ill-starred attempt to put Ishboshethon the throneafter Saul's death,it is noticeablethat the greatmass of his forceswere drawnifrom the northerlytribes. Thiereis some discrepancyin the Biblical account of Michal, the daughterof Saul. In I Samuel xviii, 17-21, two daughters,Merab and Michal, are mentioned; Merab is said to have been the elder and to have marriedAdriel the Meholathite; while in Ii Samuel xxi, 8, there is mention of the "five sons of Michal, the daughterof Saul, whom.she bare to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite." Josephusspeaks of only one daughterof Saul, namely Michal; thereforeit seems likely that therewas but the one daughter,who was married firstto Adriel, by whomshe had sons only,and then to David, by whomshe had no children. When David was driven out by Saul and was a wanderer with but few followers,Saul gave Michal in marriage to Phalti the son of Laish, hoping perhapsto destroyDavid's claim to the throne thereby. That David recognised this dang,eris shownby his insisting,as one of the termsof peace with Ishbosheth and Abner, that Michal should be broughtback to himu. As Michal had no daughters,a new heiresshad eitherto be found in a collateral branch,or adopted as in the case of the Rajas of Travancore and Cochin. This heiress appears to have been Tamar,David's daughterby Maachah,daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. Matrilinealdescent is to my mind the only explanationof two episodes, the first of whichis given in Ii Samuel xiii, where Amnion,David's first-bornson, fell in love with Tamar. It would seem that primogeniturein the male line was already recognisedamong some part at least of the people,though not in the royal family; 1 Josephus,Antiquities of theJews, viii, 2. 2 Seligmann,Report of WellcomeTropical Research Laboratories, vol. B.

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.49 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:50:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARGARETMURRAY.-Royal Miarriages and Hatrilineal Descent. 315 forthe three sons of David whomade attempts on thethrone did so in theorder of theirbirth; Daniel thesecond son, who is also called Chelub,is merelya name, and possiblydied young. Tamar'swords to Amnonshow. that brother-and-sister narriagewas allowable:" Now, therefore,I pray thee, speak unto theking, for he will notwithhold me fromthee." It is difficulttosee whythis episode should have beenpreserved when others equally scandalous have probablybeen omitted. In itselfthe provocation was notsufficient for Absalom to runthe risk of outlawry by murderingAmnon; but if marriagewith Tamar carried the kingdomwith it, and Amnonhad establishedthe prior right to her,then Absalom, the next in age andof royal blood on bothsides, cleared his wayto the throneby murder. Tamar had taken refugewith Absalom,who was her full brother;'and accordingto Josephus2they were married. Josephusdoes not speak of the marriage in so many words,but mentions the daughter of Absalom by Tamar. The secondepisode is that of Abishagthe Shunammite,as givenin i Kings, i and ii. The positionof thiswoman can onlybe madeclear by seeingin herthe nextheiress in case of thedeath of Tamar or Tamar'sdaughter. First, she was "soughtfor throughout all thecoasts of Israel"; hardlya likelyproceeding if all thatwas wantedwas a prettygirl to take careof theold king,his wifeBathsheba beingstill alive; butextremely likely if thegenealogies of possibleclaimants had to be scrutinised;then, it is distinctlysaid it was a purelyceremonial marriage betweenDavid and Abishag. WhenDavid was almostin extremnis,Adonijah, his eldestsurviving son, got himself proclaimed king by thehelp of Abiathar,though notappointed and apparentlynot married. The morewily Nathan, ably assisted by Bathsheba,persuaded the dying king to appointSolomon as his successor,and Solomonwas at once'proclaimed and publiclyanointed. This news so terrified Adonijahas he sat feastingwith his adherentsthat he fled to the altar for sanctuary,and thereremained till Solomonswore to spare his life. Adonijah's attemptto securethe throneby rightof primogeniturehaving failed, he then revertedto thecustom in voguein the royalfamily. He persuadedBathsheba to ask Solomonto giveAbishag to himto wife: and he artfullysuggested that as the kingcould not refuse any request to his mother,she shouldinduce him to promise to performwhatever she asked before knowing her request. Bathshebafaithfully fulfilledher part; she said," I desireone small petition of thee; I praythee, say me not nay. And theking said untoher, Ask on, my mother:for I will not say thee nay. And she said, Let Abishagthe Shunammitebe givenAdonijah thybrother to wife." Now noteSolomon's significant answer and action: " And king Solomon answeredand said unto his mother,And why dost thou ask Abishagthe Shunarnmite for Adonijah ? ask forhim the kingdomalso; forhe is mine elder brother.... Then king Solomonsware by the Lord, saying,God do so to me,and morealso, if Adonijah have not spoken this word against his ownlife.

1 Josephus,Antiquitie8 of theJews, Book VII, ch. viii, 1. 2 Id. ib.,Book VIII, ch. x, 1. VOL. XLV. y

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Now therefore,as the Lord liveth . .. Adonijah shall be put to deaththis day. And king Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him that he died." Solqmon'ssudden outburstof furyat the proposed marriage and the breakingof his solemnoath to spare Adonijah can be entirely accounted forby the theorythat he himselfwas as yet king only by appointmentand anoint- ing,anid not by marriage,and that Adonijah'sdaring proposal was to marryone of the heiressesand thus claim the throne. Solomon's matrimonialalliances were so numerousas to cause grave scandal to the later,editors of the history,and the recordappears to have been expunged withgreat thoroughness; so much so that,with the exceptionof the marriagewith 's daughter,the wives are only mentionedas the reason for his apostasy fromthe state religion. The Arab historianMasoudi, however,takes it forgranted that Solomonmarried the Queen of Sheba, and recordsas a matter of historythat Solomonpossessed the Yemen (or Sheba) fortwenty-three years, and that afterhis death the kingdomreverted to the familyof Himyar. This suggeststhat Solomon was king,of Sheba by rightof marriage. BaLt thoughwe have no detailed records of Solomon'smarriages, we have a verymarked instance of matrilinealdescent among his imrnediatesuccessors; and seeing that the customof femaleinheritance occurs both beforeand afterhis reign, we are justifiedin believirngthat he followedthe same custom. Rehoboam, Solomon's son and immediate successor, married,according to ii Chroniclesxi, 20, 21, Maachah the daughterof Absalom," and Rehoboam loved Maachah the dauohterof Absalom above all his wivesand his concubines." In other words,she was the chiefwife. The marriag,eis not specificallymentioned in Kings, but is impliedthus: " And Rehoboamslept withhis fathers. . And Abijainhis son reignedin his stead... Three years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's namewas Maachah, thedaughter of Abishaloni."l Fromnher position as chiefwife of Rehoboam,Maachah would appear to be the heiress,deriving her rank fromher motherTamar. This positionis confirmedby what follows: her son by Rehoboam, Abijam, succeededto the throne,and was in his turn succeededby Asa. " And Abijam slept with his fathers... and Asa his son reignedin his stead... And forty and one years reigniedhe in Jeruisalem. And his mother'sname was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom."I Thus Maachah marriedfirst her cousin Rehoboamand then her own son Abijam. In II Chroniclesxiii, 2, Abijam's motheris given as Michaiah thedaughter of Uriel; but as thebook ofKings is olderand moreauthori- tative than that of Chronicles,and as such consanguineousmarriages were known amongancient nations who followedthe custom of femaleinheritance, there is no reasonto suppose that the mloreancient record is wrong,.

1 I Kings xiv, 31; xv, 2. 2 I Kings xv, 8, 10.

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THE ROMAN EMPERORS.

We turn now to the early emperorsof Rome, froinJulius Ct-esarto Nero. It is, I believe,acknowledged that matrilinealdescent and femaleinheritance were the practice among the Roman kings, and I hope to prove that the custom was continued in the imperial line, and that the amazing matrimonialalliances in every degree of consanguinity,which have scandalised all historians from Suetonius down to the present day, were due not to vice but to political motives. There is no contemporaryhistorian of this period, and when a chronicler did arise he was imbued with the ideas of male inheritanceand patrilinealdescent, and could not suppose that the haughtyClaudians would follow ainyother custom,though he knew that theybeyond all others clung to ancient customand tradition. As I have said before,kingship appears to dependon twothings: (1) Appoint- miientby the virtual ruler of the country,and (2) Marriagewith the heiress. I think that this rule will be found to hold good,on the whole,amiiong the early emperors. The appointmentof his successor by the reigningmonarch was called "adoption" by the Romans, and of these seven emperors,two only were not adopted: Julius Caesarthe founderof the empire,and Claudius,who was electedby the army. The adoption,however, does not appear to have been so importantas the marriage; and in this paper I am dealing, with but few exceptions, with the legal and acknowledgedmarriages only. There is anotherpoint in which the Roman emperorsfollowed the custom of king,sof othercountries, ancl that was the claimingof divinityin theirown persons. Thus in the three points-appointument,marriage, and divinity-the Roman emperorswere preciselysimilar to the kings of earlier and oftenmore barbarous times. Julius C(Jsar.-Julius Caesar,as the founder of the imperial family,was possiblyexempt fromthe rules of succession; but he was of royal blood through his paternal grandmother,who descended fromAncus Marcius,king of Rome; so that,to use Cresar'sown words,"Kings whose personsare sacred helped to make our familyillustrious." His motherwas Aurelia, daughterof Rutilia, and there the maternalline ends. Augustus.--ARoman was freeto adopt whomhe pleased,but it is significant that Julius Cesar followedlthe strictlaw of matrilinealdescent. He adopted his sister'sdaughter's son, rather than his sister'sson. The male ancestorsof Augustus were of low extraction:his paternalgreat granldfatherwas said to be a manumitted slave and his fathera moneychanger, while his mother'spaternal grandfatherwas an African,either a perfunmeror a baker [Suetonius]. This seems to me a clear case of rank descendingin the femaleline, as Augustusnever appears to have been consideredas of inferiorposition. By adoption-in otherwords, appointment by the reigningmonarch-he was

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ROMAN EMPRESSES.

Women's iiames in capitals. Waved lines under a name show extinctionof femalelinie. M. Aurelius Cotta TRUTILIA- C C. JuliusCtesar AURELIA.T

CORNELIA -Julius Ciesar. JULIA -M. Atius Balbus (Descendedfrom an African baker or perfumer.)

JULIA. ATIA Pompey T - Octavius. (Descended from a manumitted T ~~~~~~slave.) JULIA. SCRIBONIA TAugustus. OCTAVIA T Mark Antony. R-

Agrippa T JULIA = Tiberius Imp. ANTONIA T L. D. Ahenobarbuis.

GermianicusT AGRIPPINA JULIA T L. AemiliusPaullus. DOMITIA T V. M. Barbatus. the elder.

Caligula= DRUSILLA. AGRIPPINA = Claudius Imp., A3MILIA LEPIDA Claudius T MESSALINA. Imp. the younger. her uncle. Imp. Nero Imp. = OCTAVIA.

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.49 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:50:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARGARETMURRAY.-Boycal Marriages and Matrilineal Descent. 319 raised to the throne; and then comes the question of his marriages. He was marriedfour times - 1. Servilia,daughter of P. ServiliusIsauricus. Beforehis adoption 2. Claudia, daughterof Fulvia and P. Clodius. Sent home. 3. Scribonia,already twice a widow. Divorced. One daughter. 4. Livia Drusilla, taken away fromher husband.

The firsttwo marriageswere practicallybetrothals only, the interestlies in the thirdanid fourth. And here I must confessmyself at fault to a certainextent owingto the lack of particularsas to the descent of these two ladies; but judging, by the analogies of othercountries, Livia at least must have been in the direct female line of the royal house. Scribonial was divorcedwhen she had borne a daughter,this daughterJulia being a most importantperson in the genealogies. Livia was taken away fromher husbandin a mannerwhich reminds us of David's action when he claimed Michal fromPhaltiel; Livia's husband,like Michal's,not objecting,in public at least, to what we, in the present day, would consideran intolerableoutrage. The only explanation is that Augustus,having obtained the throneby appointment,legitimised his position completelyby marriage. Livia had no daughters; and her line, accordingto matrilinealusage, ended with her. The Julian line continuedthrough Octavia, the sisterof Augustus,but the position of his daughterJulia can be accountedfor only by seeingin her eitherthe rightful heiress by descent throughthe mother froma royal ancestress,or the adopted heiressas in the case of the PLanisof Attingah. Whicheverit may be, it is from these two women,Octavia and Julia, sister and daughterof Augustus,that the wives of the emperorsand some of the emperorsthemselves descend. To take Julia first. Her betrothalsand marriageswere:

1. Antonius,son of Mark Antony. Betrothed. 2. Cotiso,king of the Geta*. 3. Marcellus,son of Octavia. 4. Agrippa,already married to Octavia's daughter,Marcella. a. Tiberius,after his adoptionby Augustus.

She had fivechildren by Agrippa,of whom two were daughters. But in this connectionCaligula's statementmust be rememberedthat his motherAgrippina was the daughterof Julia, not by Agrippa,but by her fatherAugustus; i.e.,Agrippina was the offspringof a father-and-daughtermarriage. If this were true,it would

1 It is veryremarkable that Scriboniashould be divorceddirectly after the birth of her daughter. It is hardlypossible that the sex of the child should be the reason; for if a son were absolutelynecessary for the inheritanceof the empire,the mere factthat Scriboniahad alreadyborne a childwould be in her favour. But it is a possibility,which must be takeninto account,that an heiresswas required; and that having borne the heiress,Scribonia was no longerneeded. In this connectionit is worthnoting that Popplea Sabina receivedthe title of Augusta as soon as she had bornea daughter.

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.49 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:50:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 320 MARGARETMURRAY.-Boyal MYarrAiages and Matrilineal Descent. mean that Augustus, like the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs,muade certain of the throneby marryingboth the immediateheiress (in this case Livia) and the next in successionas well. The importanceof the marriageof the heiressis shown by the law promulgatedby Augustus, when punishingthe lovers of the two Julias,his daughterand his granddaughter;of this law Tacitus1says: " By giving to a fault commonbetween men and women the heinous name of treasonand sacrilege,he departed from the lenity of his ancestors." In matrilinealcountries, in earlier times,the man who was the defacto husband of the heiress,even thoughnot so by law, had the right to the crown. The enactmentof this law gives colour to the suppositionthat this was also originallythe case in Rome itself. The laws against adulteryin women,which were passed in the times of the earlier emperors,point to a state of societywhere the position of women,originally that of a matrilineal people,was steadilychanging, inheritance passing into the male line and marriage laws becomiingmore stringent. Adultely in the case of an heiress belonging to a familywhich practised female inheritancewas, under these circumstances, considerablymore criminal than in the case of a less highly-placedwoman, and the mere accusationof such a crimeblasted her charactermore completely,for it threwdoubt on the position both of her own husband and of the husband of her daughter. This also puts a more poignantmeaning on the saying," The wife of CGesarmust be above suspicion." Tibeiius.-Jf Livia carried the succession,as by her forced marriagewith Augustus seems to have been the case, then her son, by whateverhusband, would have the firstclaim on the throneand would be expected to marrythe heiress. This is exactly what happened. Tiberius, Livia's eldest son, was adopted by Augustus,but-and this is an interestingpoint-he was already married to a woman of no particularrank, Vipsania Agrippina,by whom he had sons. His brotherDrusus, however,had marriedthe daughterof Octavia, whom I take to be also an heiress; the sons of Drusus were thereforethe rightfulheirs, as obtainiing the rightthrough the mother. In no otherway but that of matrilinealdescent can one explain the adoption of the son of Drusus to the completeexclusion of the sons of Tiberius,about whose legitimacythere was no question. Tiberius was obliged to adopt Germanicus as his heir before he himself was adopted by Augustus; he had also to divorce his wife,to whom he was greatlyattached, and marrythe heiressJulia, who treated him with contemptas beneath her in rank. The senate appears to have been aware of the law of fenmaleinheritance, for they passed a decreethat Tiberius should be officiallystyled the son of Livia as well as the son of Augustus. It is in this reign that we see most clearlythe strugglebetween the old order and the new; the haughtyClaudian women fightingfor their ancient rights,the dark and wily Tiberius taking advantage of every mistake of his adversaries,of everyatom of his own power,to defeat thlem. Against his motherLivia he could

1 Tacitus,Annals, iii, 24.

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.49 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:50:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARGARETMURRAY.-hoyal Marriagesantd Matqilineal Descent. 321 make no headway: she arrogatedto herselfthe hereditaryright to rule,and aftera time he retiredfrom the contest till her death. But his wife was practically imnprisonedon charges of adultery,which accordingto Augustus's new law was treason; her daughterJulia was banished for the same reason; there remained only her other daughterAgrippina, against whom as the idol of the armyno oine dared to make any accusation. Yet even Tiberiuscould not altogetheraccept the idea of inheritancein the direct male line, forwhen the senate conferredhonours on the two elder sons of Germanicus he administereda sharp rebuke,saying, "That no one should encourage the giddy minds of young, nen to indulge in presumptuousaspirations by premnaturedistinctions."' Tiberiuswas persuadedthat Agrippina had designson the sovereignty,2and afterher husband'sdeath he was adamant in his refusal to let her marryagaiin. He so persectutedher that her proud spiritcould endureno more,and she preferred death to life. By the death of Agrippinathe succession was removed to the next generation; Agrippina'sdaughters were young enough to be kept in subjection, and Tiberius reigned in peace. Though he does not appear to have adopted Caligula legally,it is possible that the adoption of Germanicus,Calig,ula's father, would extend to the son, forTiberius left all his propertyby will to be divided betweenCaligula and his own grandson. Caligula.-Though Tiberiuswished his own son to succeed him, he had no power to alter the regularsuccession, and the thronepassed to theson ofAgrippina. The heiresses were her daughters,Drusilla, Agrippina,and Julia. Here we are confrontedwith a conditionof affairs which frequently occurred among matrilineal peoples,that the chiefheiress was the sister of the principal male. The solution of the problemwas the same here as in otherplaces unidersimilar conditions,the marriageof the brotherand sister; Caligula and Drusilla were openlymarried. Caligula is also said to have intriguedwith his otlhertwo sisters; in an earlierstage of societyhe would have marriedall threeheiresses, but in monogamousIRome this was impossible,and thoughhe securedhis own position in the best way he could, hie succeeded in scandalising all later historians. The great importance of the sisters is shownby his commrandthat the armyshould swear allegiance to himself in the words: "Nor do I esteemmyself nor my children inore dearlythan C"esar and his sisters,"and that the consulsshould insert this phrase in all theirpublic acts and reports: " Wishing,all happiness to Caius Caesar and his sisters' [Siietonius]. Caligula's marriageswere

1. Junia Claudilla. Died. Beforehe had hope of succeeding. 2. Drusilla, his sister. Wife of L. C. Longinus. Died. 3. Livia Orestilla. Wife of C. Piso. Divorced. 4. Lollia Paulina. Wife of C. Memiimius.Divorced. 5. Cesonia. Killed at the same tinmeas Caligula.

I Tacitus, Annals,iv, 17. 2 Id. ib., iv, 12.

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The matrilinealdescent of these ladies, with the exception of Drusilla,cannot be traced,but it is worthnoting that threewere takenaway from their husbands and thatLollia Paulinawas marriedto Caligula and twice marriedto Claudius, whichargues that her position was of importance.Caligula's two youngersisters were banished,perhaps because public opinionrefused to countenancefurther marriageswithin the family. Caligulahad onlyone child,a daughter,who was killedat thesame time as her parents. The successionthus remainedwith the banishedsisters and with the descendants of Octavia. Clauzdius.-Thoughthe army took upon itself the right to choosethe Emperor, it chosethe man who, according to matrilinealdescent, had the best claim,and whomTiberius had indicatedas his heir,1viz., Claudius. His marriageswere.- 1. Amilia Lepida. Divorcedbecause her parents offended Augustus. 2. Livia Medullina,surnamed Camilla, descended from Camillus the Dictator. Died. 3. PlautiaUrgulanilla. Divorcedfor adultery and suspicionof murder. 4. iEliaPetina. Divorcedfor slight and trivialreasons. 5. ValeriaMessalina. Killed. 6. LolliaPaulina. Twicemarried and divorced,then killed. 7. Agrippinathe younger, his brother'sdaughter.

His childrenwere: By Urgulanilla:Drusus and Claudia. By Petina: Antonia. By Messalina: Octaviaand Britannicus.

Of his children,Drusus the elder son never seems to have beenconsidered as the futureemperor, and Antoniaand Claudia were apparentlyinferior to Octavia; a glanceat thegenealogies will showthe reason for this preferencefor the children ofMessaliina. The marriagesof Claudius with Messalina and Agrippinaare the most interesting,as each was theheiress of her respective line; }EmiliaLepida was also ofimportance, as hergenealogy shows, which was, perhaps, the reason why Augustus insistedon thedivorce. The circumstancessurrounding the death of Messalinaare only explainable by thecustom of female inheritance and successionby rightof marriagewith the heiress. Agrippinaand hersister being for the time under a cloudowing to their intriguewith Caligula, the heiress of the other line became prominent. Messalina's marriagewith Silius was no hole-and-corneraffair, but was open and public. Claudius himselfsigned the documentsfor the settlementof the dowry uponthe contract of marriage.' Tacitussays, "'I am aware that it will appear

1 Suetonius.

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.49 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:50:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MARGARETMURRAY.-Roycal iarriages and MactriiinealDescenlt. 323 fabulousthat . . . in a citywhere everything was knownand talked of,anyone, much less a consul elect, should have met the emperor'swife on a stated day in the presenceof persons called in, to seal the deeds,as for the purpose of procreation, and that she should have heard the wordsof the augurs, entered the house of the husband, and sacrificedto the gods." In short,she appears to have legally married Silius, having previously legally divorced Claudius. Tacitus ends his descriptionthus: " I would not dress up my narrativewith fictionsto give it anl air of marvelrather tharnrelate what has been stated to me or writtenby my seniors." Suetonius says of this affair that Claudius slackened his burning affectionfor Messalina, not so much out of any resentment. .. as out offear that she soug,htto advance Silius to the throne; at what time he fled in a inost shameful and cowardlymanner to the camp, solicitouslyenquiring all the way whether the empirewas his or no." Tacitus says that Messalina took advantage of Claudius's absence to solemnisethe marriage; but his descriptionof the care that was taken to break the news to the emperorcannot be reconciledwith Suetonius's statement that Claudius was a party to the proceedings. What, perhaps, really caused Claudius's agitation was the result of the marriage, which Narcissus explained to him in unvarnishedterms: " Know you, Caesar,that you are in a state of divorce? in the face of the people, the senate, and soldiery, Messalina has espoused Silius; and unless you act with despatch, her husband is master of Rome," [xi, 30]. It was then that Claudius asked whetherhe were still emperor, and Silius still a privatecitizen. Callistus,one ofthe murderersof Caligula; Narcissus,who plotted the murderof Appius; and Pallas, the reigningfavourite, were the formidabletrio who controlled Claudius at thisjuincture. They were,as their later conduct shows, in favour of theother matrilineal heiress, Agrippina, to whomMessalina, as thestrictly legitimist heiress, had always been a relentless enemy; but that there was a party who held by Messalina we know by findingmention later in this reign of those who reveredher memory. The ruthlessadvisers of Claudius prevailed, and Messalina was killed; then came the question of the emperor'sre-marriage. Agrippiia, of course,carried the day, and thenceforthshe was empressin factas well as in name, so much so that Tacitus-a oreat stickler for what our grandinotherscalled " femalepropriety "-is shockedat the way she arrogated to herselfthe functions and positionof royalty,actually making herself equal with the emperorhimself. She had no daughters,therefore the matrilineal succession on that side ended with her. Nero.-We are again confrontedwith the fact that in the imperialfamily the son did not succeed the father. Claudius adopted his step-sonand great-nephew Nero to the exclusion of his own son Britannicus. Though the later writers, imbued with the idea of patrilineal descent, tryto explain the matter by saying that Nero succeededbecause he was older [only two years as a matterof fact] and thereforefitter to take on the governmentthan Britannicus,the fact remains that in the cases where the early emperorshad sons, those sons were always set aside

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.49 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:50:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 324 MARGARETMURRAY.-Boyal Marriayesand AfatrilinealDescent. and another heir adopted, a condition of things impossible in a patrilineal people. Nero's nmarriageswere

1. Octavia. Marriedwhen Nero was about 16. Divorced and killed. 2. Agrippina[ ?]. Killed. 3. Poppae Sabina, wife of PRufusCrispinus, then wife of Otho. Married 12 days afterdivorce of Octavia. Called Augusta afterbirth of daughter. 4. Statilia Messalina,wife of Alticus Vestinus,whom he put to death. Otho intendedto marryher on Nero's death.

Agrippinacontinued to rule the empire at first,and during that time she is said to have carriedon an intriguewith Nero.' If this were true it would mean that Nero legitimised his position,like the ancient Pharaohs, by marryingall the heiresses without regard to degrees of affinity. But against this theoryis the characterof Agrippinaherself; Nero dared not marryher openly,and so proudand haughtya womiianiwould not have consentedto anythingless than marriage. She leagued herselfalso with Octavia against their common enemy,Poppoea Sabina. Agrippiniahad no daughters,but therewas always a possibilityof her re-marriage, and thereforeshe was removed. Poppaea'spart in the tragediesof the Claudian house has been explained by lheranmbition to becomiieempress. The methods she used were,to say the least, barbarousand clumilsy: banishmentfor Agrippina and divorce for Octavia would have been sufficientto attain her eiid under ordinarycircumstances, but when we see that the death of Agrippinaeilded the matrilinealline fromJulia, daughterof Augustus,and the death of Octavia the directmatrilineal line from Octavia,sister of Augustus,it would appear that she desirednot only advancementfor herself but the extinctioniof all possiblerivals. The re-marriageof Octavia was a greatdanger, as Popp-ea poiiltedout to Nero,after the riotsin favour of the banished Octavia had been calmed down: "The first commotionhad subsided under moderate applications,but if they [the populace] should despair of Octavia's being the wife of Nero they would give her another husband."2 Octavia was accordingly recalled, accused of adultery-the usual chargebrought against the heiressof the imperial familywhen in the way of those in power-and in consequence put to death. With the deaths of Agrippinaand Octavia the directfemale lines came to an eld, and the imperialcrown passed to usurpersand finally'to anotherfamily. The genealogiesof the mothersanld wives of claimants to the throne show that the, claim was made on the basis of matrilineal descent and female inheritance.

1 Tacitus,Annals, xiv, 2. 2 Id. ib.,xiv, 6.

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CLAI.MANTS TO THE IMPERIAL THRONE. Women'snames in capitals. Claimants'names underlined.

T.~~~~~~~j COIRNELIAr JuliuS. JULIA T Balbus. Dictator.

Pompey- JULIA. ATIA T Octavius.

SCRIBONIA T=Augustus. OCTAVIA T Antony. LIVIA TTiberius Nero.

Agrippa T JULIA. ANTONIA T= Drusus. Tiberius T= VIPSANIA AGRIPPINA. I _ _ _ _ _ i ______Im p .

L. 2EniiliusPaUlIUS JULIA. AGRIPPINA = Germanicus. LIvIA -TDrusus. I JULIA RubelliusBlandus.

Rubellius Blandus.

JULIA T= Balbus. I ATIA T= Octavius.

Auigustus. OCTAVIA = Marcellus.

Sextus Appuleius T= MARCELLA = Julius Antonius

APPULEIA VARILIA.

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