MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION
Department of English Language and Literature
The Concept of Marriage in a Cultural Discourse in Roman Britain
Bachelor Thesis
Brno 2014
Supervisor: Mgr. Jaroslav Izavčuk Author: Andrea Tomanová Bibliografický záznam
Tomanová, Andrea. The Concept of Marriage in a Cultural Discourse in Roman
Britain: bakalářská práce. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Fakulta pedagogická, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, 2014. 51 s. Vedoucí bakalářské práce Mgr. Jaroslav
Izavčuk
Bibliography
Tomanová, Andrea. The Concept of Marriage in a Cultural Discourse in Roman
Britain: bachelor thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, 2014. 51 pages. The supervisor of the bachelor thesis Mgr. Jaroslav Izavčuk
Anotace
Bakalářská práce „Pojetí manželství v Římské Británii z kulturního hlediska” se zabývá rodinou a manželstvím v době, kdy byla Británie Římskou provincií. Práce se zejména zaměřuje na Římský zákon o rodině, který v Británii platil, dále se díva na manželství lidí z různých společenských vrstev. V práci je take srovnáván rodinný život v Římské Británii a rodinný život v Gálii.
Hlavním cílem této práce je zjistit, zda lidé v této době uzavírali sňatky z důvodu majetnických a mocních, anebo čistě z lásky. Dalším cílem práce je zjistit, které ostatní skutečnosti ovlivňovaly manželství a rodinu v Římské Británii.
Abstract
The bachelor thesis “The Concept of Marriage in a Cultural Discourse in Roman
Britain” deals with family and marriage in time when Britain was a regular Roman province. The thesis especially focuses on the Roman family law, which was valid in
Britain, and further it examines the marriages of people from different social classes.
There is also a comparison of family life in Roman Britain and Gaul.
The main aim of this thesis is to find out if the people of Roman Britain got married to gain possession and power or just to love. Another aim of this thesis is to find out what else influenced the marriage and family in Roman Britain.
Klíčová slova
Římská Británie, manželství, rodina, společnost, společenská třída, majetek, láska, věk
Key words
Roman Britain, marriage, family, society, social class, wealth, love, age
Prohlášení
„Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s
Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.“
……………………………………... V Brně, 15. dubna 2014 Andrea Tomanová
Acknowledgements I would like to express my thanks to Mgr. Jaroslav Izavčuk, for his support, patience, and valuable advice that he gave me as the supervisor of my bachelor thesis.
Contents
1 Introduction ...... 8
2 The period of Roman Britain ...... 10
2.1 General overview ...... 10
2.2 The Roman emperors of Britannia ...... 12
3 Family ...... 14
3.1 Definition of family ...... 14
3.2 Role of man ...... 14
3.3 Role of woman ...... 15
3.4 Gender ...... 15
4 Marriage ...... 16
4.1 Definition of marriage ...... 16
5 Roman family law ...... 17
5.1 Members of Roman family ...... 17
5.2 The power of Pater familias ...... 18
5.3 The marriage under Roman law ...... 19
5.3.1 Types of Roman marriage ...... 20
5.3.2 The engagement ...... 21
5.3.3 The wedding ceremony ...... 21
5.3.4 The role of Roman wife ...... 23
5.3.5 Age ...... 24
5.3.6 Dowry ...... 24
5.3.7 The termination of marriage ...... 24
5.4 Other alternatives of cohabitation ...... 25
6 The marriages according to the social class ...... 27
6.1 Marriages of emperors ...... 27
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6.1.1 The marriages of Caesar ...... 28
6.1.2 The marriages of Claudius ...... 29
6.1.3 Hadrian’s marriage ...... 31
6.1.4 The marriage of Marcus Aurelius ...... 31
6.2 Marriages of officers ...... 32
6.3 Marriages of soldiers ...... 32
6.4 Marriages of slaves ...... 34
7 Family life in Roman Britain ...... 35
7.1 Why monogamy? ...... 39
7.2 Sexuality ...... 40
7.2.1 Household sex ...... 40
7.2.2 Same-sex relations ...... 41
7.3 Religion in Roman Britain ...... 42
8 Comparison of Roman concept of marriage to other ...... 43
8.1 Marriage in Gaul ...... 44
8.2 Love? ...... 45
9 Conclusion ...... 46
10 Sources ...... 48
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1 Introduction
In my bachelor thesis I focus on the concept of marriage in Roman Britain. I choose this topic because of my constant interest in culture and customs of ancient
Romans. This interest is also given by my studies at grammar school where I studied
Latin and Ancient Greek. In my opinion, antiquity has a real charm and still hides a lot of cultural secrets. And since I found a lot of researches concerning architecture, towns, roads etc., I realized to work on something which would have rather social orientation.
Marriage. Is it a real union of two people who want to create their relationship, share their mutual love and raise their children in love and harmony? Or is it just a strategic joining of two people who want to continue their family line and mainly provide for themselves and their family an auspicious future no matter how they reach that? These are questions which I would like to analyse in my research and get the right answer in the conclusion of my thesis. If the role of marriage in Roman Britain was primarily a question of power, wealth and possession, or it was rather a question of love and family contentment.
At the beginning of my thesis, I should mention that primary and secondary sources of social and family life in Roman Britain are slightly scant, but according to many authors and cultural evidences I can easily affirm that the family life in Roman
Britain was exactly as same as the family life in the entire Roman Empire. That is why I will be much inspired by the sources related to the Roman Empire. However why not, as Roman Britain was a regular province of the Roman Empire, the rules and way of life were really coincident.
The bachelor thesis is based on the findings from the research of the literary and electronic sources. The division of my thesis will be following; first of all I will deal with demarcation of the time period and familiarization with main facts. Then I will
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continue with general definitions of social terminology as family, gender, marriage.
After that I will move my research towards the essential part of my thesis, which will be the Roman family law, there I will analyse the members of family, the power in family, the marriage itself and its wedding customs and traditions. Also I would like to describe the marriages according to social classes and show the evident differences.
And in the comparative part of my thesis I will look at several aspects, family life in Roman Britain, typical Romano-British family, religion and sexuality in Roman
Britain, the coexistence of Romans and Britons, adultery, divorce and adoption, how much they were popular in Roman Britain in comparison to our country. Further, I will draw a comparison between the time of Romans and modern times in questions such family life. And in consideration of my study specialization, English and French language, I would like to ascertain if the conditions of family life were at the period of
Roman domination same in both provinces – Britain and Gaul.
I hope that I will accomplish the aim of my thesis which is simply to answer my question about the real function of marriage in Roman Britain. Is it too naive to think that marriage is a unit of two people who believe in love and trust?
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2 The period of Roman Britain
2.1 General overview
The official name of a historical period Roman Britain represented the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire. To properly introduce the period of Roman Britain, it is always recommended to start with precise dates. It is well known that the ancient Romans dominated Britannia1 for more than four centuries at the beginning of our era, exactly from 55 BC until AD 440. The period of Romans followed after the Celtic civilization and it was culturally very significant era in the whole history of Great Britain.
The first straight contact of Rome and Britain was led by Gaius Julius Caesar, when Romans made a campaign to Galia. Later, there were several invasions led by
Romans, but all unsuccessful, and the British territory had not been still brought under control of Romans. (Kearney 19) All the mutual relations between the Roman Empire and Britain were purely commercial. However, in 43 AD the emperor Claudius sent four legions that comprised forty thousand men to Britain and despite the inexperience in battles of Britons, Britannia became step by step the province of the Roman Empire.
The decisive battle concerning the future of Britain was the battle of Medway where were Britons definitely defeated. (Kearney 22)
First of all, Romans seized control of the south territory, and then they gained control over Wales, central England, later over Scotland. I cannot forget to mention that the north of British Isles resisted the Roman invasion for a long time and was under rule of many tribes, e.g. Brigantes2. It is said that during the whole era of Roman Britain,
1 Britannia – Roman name of British province in Latin language. 2 Brigantes – a celtic tribe in Britain in Latin language. 10
there were many conflicts realized on the British territory, several revolts, civil wars, attacks of barbarians etc. (Winbolt 16)
As another important fact I could mention the key capture of Caratacus who was the leader of Britons and who escaped the Romans several times. Another fact which is worth noticing is the revolt led by Boudicca, the widow of Prasutagus, who had been a tribal chief of Iceni3. She protested especially against the appalling treatment with her and her daughters who were supposed to inherit one part of the kingdom from their father according to his last testament. But that was not according to the roman right; women were not admitted as inheritresses. That led to accomplishment of some conflicts of the Iceni tribe against Roman settlements, e.g. they invaded and destroyed
Londinium4. During these unrests had been massacred about eighty thousand people. In
69 AD there was another unrest, a civil war which influenced the later events. Gnaeus
Julius Agricola was the man who was instrumental in seizing control of the north territory. (Winbolt 16-17)
In the 2nd century under the reign of popular Hadrian, who cared about Roman population and towns, there were again many revolts between the tribes which made the roots of construction the Hadrian’s Wall on the northern frontier; it had functioned as an extensive defensive barrier. (Salway 175) Several years later, the emperor Antonius
Pius was forced to move the frontier more to the north and let construct the Antonine
Wall, unfortunately after only twenty years the wall was abandoned, when the Roman legions withdrew to Hadrian’s Wall. (Salway 195)
The 3rd century is characterised by an evident imbalance. The very beginning seemed to be, with regard to the dynasty of Septimus Severus, stable, however there were several emperors killed depending on the changing loyalty of army officer. The
3 Iceni – a brythonic tribe in Britain in Latin language. 4 Londinium – Latin/roman name for erstwhile London. 11
Roman Empire had been in a pitiable condition because of the ceaseless attacks of barbarians, and one claimed, that it had been similar in Roman Britain. But Roman ambitiousness set the next important target, the capture of Scotland, the last unconquered territory on British Isles, but the mission was not accomplished. (Kenneth
O. Morgan 31)
The 4th century is described as the era of wealth or golden age, at least the first half and that is certainly a merit of the emperor Constantinus. The mentioned wealth was evident also from the aristocratic monumental residences that had bordered not only the streets of Londinium. During the whole century Romans had been confronted by Saxons and Celts and unfortunately, they succeeded in the rupture of the Hadrian’s
Wall. By the end of century, the attacks of barbarian tribes grew stronger while the power of Roman soldiers grew weaker. (Salway 350)
The end of Roman governance in Britain meant the beginning of new era and also new authority. Because of many treacheries realized between Romans, Britons and also for lack of help from ancient Rome, the civil war had stroke and had destroyed all political or military structure of Roman Britain. 383 AD the emperor Magnus Maximus separated Britain from empire and later Constantinus III. totally lost the province by leaving the isle without any Roman soldier. The last hope for continuing empire should had been the help from Saxons soldiers but they started to despoil the towns and later dominated Britain. (Salway 429-430)
2.2 The Roman emperors of Britannia
In view of the fact that Britannia was the Roman province, thus the regular part of the Roman Empire, and as the Roman Empire comprised an immense number of emperors, I will focus only on a few of them, those who somehow lodged in our minds and became memorable not merely in Britain or ancient Rome but also in all corners of
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the world. Actually, I would like to mention merely four names that I consider to be exceptional, at least in my point of view.
As Gaius Julius Caesar was the first Roman emperor who attempted the invasion on British Isles, it is requisite to mention him as the first one. Actually, his name, I guess, is the most famous between all emperors of the Roman history. And the extremely miserable weather conditions, which befell his legions during both of the very first attempts to conquer and gain the whole Britain, are definitely worth noticing.
(Gaius Iulius Caesar, 1.9. 2004)
The next significant name in the history of Great Britain is Claudius. He was actually the first Roman emperor who added Britain to the Roman Empire and this fact made him greatly memorable, particularly for British people. Under his rule also
Colchester became the capital of that new province.
To continue with the list of some chosen emperors, I selected Publius Aelius
Hadrianus, who had marked his life by several speculations about his sexual orientation, there were some evidences of his potential homosexuality. But much more important for us, was his legacy of architecture. He was a passionate and very creative architect, e.g. responsible for the Pantheon, one of the most significant constructions in the evolution of world architecture. The famous and enormous construction of Hadrian’s Wall definitely had a beneficial effect on the British cultural heritage.
The next famous figure among Romans was certainly Marcus Aurelius, the emperor who had been qualified in Stoic5 philosophy. He was adopted as heir by
Antonius Pius, his uncle and the previous emperor. The rule of Marcus was affected by wars with the Germanic tribes. In general, it was a very educated man who cared for
Roman culture and the citizens of whole empire. (Marcus Aurelius, n.d.)
5 Stoic – type of Hellenistic philosophic school, based on cosmic determinism and human freedom. 13
3 Family
3.1 Definition of family
First of all this chapter must contain brief characteristics of the elemental unit in society, which is undoubtedly family. This will be a definition of today’s family, thus how we understand this term in contemporary society. The term family is defined as a basic social unit consisted of one or more adults together with the children they care for.
Commonly, family is considered as a group of people. This type of social group is also characterized by economic cooperation, common residence and reproduction. As I have mentioned the inclusion of adults, they are traditionally both sexes to maintain a socially approved sexual relationship. (Duberman 3)
To better understand the term of family, there can be used the model of the ideal family consisting of the man, who is the breadwinner, the woman, who is the housewife, and their biological descendants. However, there are several exceptions of this ideal type. We can notice married couples without children, families with only one parent which can be headed by men as well as women, also couples who live together unmarried with or without children. These examples of family help us to perceive its importance and role. (Duberman 2)
3.2 Role of man
Speaking about family, it is obliged to maintain two individual parental roles.
The first significant role in the family is the role of man, the father. Traditionally, it is the man, who is provider and supporter of the family and is responsible for the financial situation. And there is also an emotional side of the family which needs to be provided by the man. The next one is the role of a family’s protector, it is necessary for a husband and a father to keep the family’s safety and guard the family values. The man should also have a spirit of initiative; he should be a kind of family leader who could deal with 14
problems easily and effectively. Last but not least there is the crucial role of teacher. It means the man should provide a good example for his offspring, e.g. concerning behaviour, values, standards, habits. (The Role of the Man in the Family, n.d.)
3.3 Role of woman
Equally important role in a family is the role of woman, precisely mother. Her primary and absolutely natural task is to care of her children. Her status is quite clear; all her attention is concentrated on the children’s comfort, benefit and basic social needs. Identically with the father’s role, she should provide an excellent example for her descendants. The importance of moral obligation cannot be also lacked in her parental mission. (Duberman 146)
3.4 Gender
As I have covered in the previous section the importance of parental roles in family, now I will briefly characterise the gender. We can commonly differentiate the two sexes from each other very easily down to the appearance that is typical for them.
That means we can directly declare who is a female and who is a male. And to fulfil the gender roles, people also get married, that is why I employed this very short chapter to my thesis.
Women are typically considered to be more emotional, from time to time hysterical and generally the weaker sex, while men are said to be reasonable and the stronger one. Different societies and cultures show us the theory of women and men’s roles. It is undoubtedly the matter of time people do live in. During the history of mankind, there were several different points of view on people’s education, behaviour and physical appearance. (Valdrová 10) In antiquity, women were always regarded as the inferior sex; this fact was definitely given by the type of society, which was patriarchal.
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4 Marriage
People do marry from time immemorial. But why people choose marriage?
Nowadays, we know down to many literary sources that marriage form a union from several reasons. Regard to some historical tales and narrations, it is just love, romance and euphoria between two humans. In past it was very frequently also a question of wealth, property and especially dowry. One way or another, marriage represents a significant symbol of joining people and forming family and whole society, and married people are, by definition, adult.
I found a nice quotation which splendidly depicts the rite of marriage. “All ceremonies are intended to symbolize separation, transition, or incorporation. A marriage symbolizes all three: the separation of the nuptial couple from its families of orientation, the transition from childhood to adulthood, and the incorporation of the newly married couple into a new family.” (“Duberman 99”)
4.1 Definition of marriage
To properly define marriage of today’s understanding, it is a relationship that exists between a wife and a husband. Further, it is a socially or ritually identified union or legal agreement between spouses that establishes their mutual rights and obligations.
Marriage is principally considered as an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged. (Marriage, n.d.)
We can observe that in general definition of marriage there is no mention about mutual love or the very opposite, about the possession, therefore this fact makes me even more inquiring to learn what was the real function of marriage in Roman Britain.
And now let me connect the information concerning the general knowledge of today’s family, marriage to the historical facts dealing with the period of the Roman Empire and particularly its significant province Britannia.
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5 Roman family law
As I have already mentioned in the introduction, the historical sources concerning family life in Roman Britain are a little scant, therefore I was chiefly inspired in my exploration by the evidences from the Roman Empire. This part of my thesis will be focused on the Roman family law which described mutual relationships between the family members of typical Roman family. I just cannot forget to add that the model of ideal Roman family had been followed in all Roman provinces, so the norm was exactly the same also in the province Britannia.
According to the Roman ideal, each family had a father as its head of the family, what had been called pater familias6. (Frýdek 49) And the head of the family had certainly all the legal rights over the remnant family members, which had been his wife, his children, also the children of his son and last but not least his slaves. It is quite clear from the previous sentence that I am discussing the patriarchal type of family, thus all the power and control belonged to the oldest man.
5.1 Members of Roman family
In the typical Roman family existed two types of persons; the first one was the person who had his own rights, sui iuris7, which had been the father of family. And the second type represented the members subordinated to the right of father, alieni iuris8, the descendants and the wife. The rights of father stayed actually inviolate throughout his entire life, although his descendants had reached superior power. The father of family had been a real symbol in the Roman Empire and all its provinces, his power was unfettered. (Stará 34)
6 Pater familias – the husband, latin terminology. 7 Sui iuris – the rights of father, latin terminology. 8 Alieni iuris – the rights subordinated to the father, latin terminology. 17
There was only one exception concerning the power of the father, Lindsay
Allason-Jones argues that on the death of the pater familias his adult sons would be promoted to pater familias of their own households while the widow and younger children became sui iuris, which meant that they were independent of the pater’s control.
5.2 The power of Pater familias
The father of family was endowed with three different powers. The first power was applied to the wife and the correct juridical term was patria manus. The roman woman had also the position of mater familias, and her main task was to retain the comfort and protection over the family hearth. It was the woman, who was responsible for the house and its household, she supervised the servants and her only noble activity was to spin the wool. The Roman woman had inherited this activity from her antecedents. (Frýdek 50)
The second power was applied to the children, patria potestas. The father of family decided who else could be accepted to his family, naturally, it was the child who was born to the family or any other child who could have been adopted by the father.
Pater familias was also the one who could have excluded or punished any family member whether he had or had not political or religious reasons. (Frýdek 52)
It is known that the existence of slavery was the basic feature of Roman society, so the third power of the father was applied to his slaves and servants working at the family’s household. In this case, we are speaking about dominica potestas. What is important to mention, if we are focusing on Roman law, is the fact that the servus9 was considered to be the thing or precisely the object in legal terminology. Nevertheless, the slaves were the regular family members and sometimes the pater familias found them as
9 Servus – a slave in latin terminology. 18
his sons. Maybe you are asking where the Romans procured these servants; the response is quite simple and unsurprising. They bought them at the markets or just gained them at some war campaigns. Ivana Stará also argues that the slaves sold at the markets could have been the excluded descendants of different Roman fathers. The slavery perished by the death of servus or by his emancipation certainly decided by the patron. (Frýdek 54)
5.3 The marriage under Roman law
To give an appropriate definition of Roman marriage, I could refer to
Modestinus, the ancient Roman jurist who termed marriage as a bond of man and woman and lifelong association according to divine and human right. (Frýdek 70) Of course, I cannot forget to mention that all the marriages realized in the Roman Empire and its provinces were monogamous in the sense that men were not allowed to have more than one wife or to cohabit with concubines during marriage. (Scheidel, 2008)
It was the man who decided to get married with any woman and subsequently to father their children. Essentially, for the Romans, the marriage had represented a requisite institution to give a birth to legitimate descendants, and thus the woman was married to the man with the aim to beget children and continue in her husband’s line with legitimate offspring.
The birth of a son to the Roman family was the only eventuality how to maintain the continuance of cult and simply the birth of a girl did not comply with the purpose of marriage. On the wedding day, the girl had renounced her original family and had started to declare her husband’s religion.
Another interesting aspect concerning the ancient Romans were their incestuous marriages. The fact that these marriages of some close relatives were permitted and relatively acceptable, although they were not very common, is very alarming for contemporary society. These incest marriages became strictly forbidden up to the arrival
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of Christianity. The reasons why these marriages were realized had mostly economic origin. It is claimed that the popular marriages between cousins maintained the property in one family. (Goody 34)
Miroslav Frýdek argues that it was not possible to marry every single woman.
According to the Roman law, there were not marriages possible between parent and child and grandfather and granddaughter. If there existed a marriage like that, it was regarded as criminal and incestuous. Also the marriage between brother and sister was prohibited according to the Roman law. In case of the marriage between the mentioned family members, the ancient jurists called it prohibitae nuptiae10. However what is quite interesting to notice, is the fact that in the Roman Empire and its provinces it was permitted to marry a daughter of your brother, so your biological niece. It was the emperor Claudius who came with this idea, because he wanted to marry his niece
Agrippina, daughter of his brother Germanicus. This fact was very scandalous in the
Roman society but the corrupt senate had approved his proposal and made this marriage legitimate.
And last but not least, it is proper to add that the persons who entered into the incestuous marriage were commonly punished and only if they proved that they did act without knowledge of the law, they could have avoided the punishment. (Frýdek 71)
The both fiancés and also the pater familias gave consent to the marriage. If the marriage was accomplished without the regular permission of the father of the family, it was considered to be illegitimate.
5.3.1 Types of Roman marriage
First of all, it is needed to divide Roman marriage into two categories; each category then determined who had power of the bride. First category comprised the
10 Prohibitae nuptiae – a forbidden marriage in latin terminology. 20
marriage in manum11 where, as mentioned, the bride belonged totally to the family of her husband, while second category, sine manu12, meant that bride stayed under the control of her pater familias. (Matrimonium - Roman marriage, n.d.)
Regarding the marriage in manum, it made the woman equal of a daughter in her husband’s household. The Romans distinguished other forms of marriage in manum, but they differed from each other only in the style of wedding ceremony and number of witnesses. The result was still the same, a wife become a possession of the new husband’s family.
5.3.2 The engagement
Before the official marriage of both fiancés, there had to be sponsalia13, which were quite common in the Roman society. The engaged couple had declared in the presence of parents and witnesses that they had been ready to enter into marriage.
Shortly afterwards, the bridegroom or sponsus gave the bride a gold ring, as a symbol of their legitimate engagement. She wore the ring symbolically on her left hand finger, since the Romans believed that a nerve ran from this finger directly to the heart. As I have already mentioned, it was necessary that both pater familias had agreed with the engagement and due to the fatherly power, the daughter could have been engaged also against her volition. It was permitted to get engaged also to the under aged. (Frýdek 72)
The symbolic gift in ring form brought me to the idea that it was rather a symbol of suggested possession than love, or am I mistaken?
5.3.3 The wedding ceremony
The marriage was basically a sacred ceremony by which the girl left her original family, her family environment, traditions, and she became an essential part of her
11 In manum – “to be in possession” in latin terminology. 12 Sine manu – “not to be in possession” in latin terminology. 13 Sponsalia – the engagement in latin terminology. 21
husband’s religious cult. The ceremony itself was composed of three acts, traditio, deducto in domum, confarreatio.
To briefly describe these three phases, the issue was that firstly the girl left the father’s environment, secondly she was acquainted with the religion of the new family and thirdly she accepted the new gods, rituals and prayers of the husband’s family.
There were many habits which had accompanied the traditional Roman wedding, and they were also strictly adhered. Immediately before the wedding ceremony itself, girls had to pass through a special bath and also they had to drink a specific mixture of milk, honey and poppy seeds which had been called cocetum. The bath had brought the girls fertility and been a symbol of purity. This traditional habit realized by fiancée had imitated the gesture of goddess Venus. On the eve of the wedding the bride also went to bed in a special tunic with her hair tied by red hairnet. Ivana Stará argues that the house had been very festively decorated by flowers, myrtle, laurel and ribbons.
As for the bride’s clothing on the wedding ceremony, they were dressed on the morning of the wedding day by their mother in a white woven tunic hitched up by a woollen belt, which was tied up by special knout of Hercules. They wore also a red veil and had carefully arranged hair customarily into six plaits. It was a tradition that the bride had a wreath composed of roses and myrtle. On their legs they usually wore yellow shoes. And as for the bridegroom’s clothing, they were dressed in a festive plain toga. This type of suit had represented dignity and clothes of a single citizen on the wedding ceremony. (Roman weddings, n.d.)
To mention all the other typical and traditional customs which were usually realized as an essential part of the wedding, I cannot forget the religious sacrifice which was effectuated directly during the wedding ceremony. Commonly, they sacrificed lamb or pig and immediately after that they signed the contract into which the members of
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both families impressed their signet rings. (Ürögdi 119-120) I must add that the wedding ceremony was normally held at the home of the bride’s father. After the ceremony, there was usually an immense wedding feast organized again in the house of bride’s family. The newly married woman could have been after all that compulsory rituals festively led into her husband’s house and there had followed the customary transfer across threshold and the acquaintance with domestic gods. The last formality to become from a young girl a virtuous roman woman was the ritual confidence of water and fire.
5.3.4 The role of Roman wife
And because the woman had always difficult conditions in Roman society it did not change after the marriage. The newly married woman in the Roman Empire had to behave and appear according to the strict rules, she was termed matrona. All the legitimate married women had to be recognised out of their houses according to their clothes, habitually, they were dressed in stola, i.e. long white dress, and palla, which was actually a headscarf that had been strictly worn as a symbol of marriage and virtue.
If the Roman wife left her house without any headwear, she would have been considered as a courtesan. (Delbeyová 75) As for their shoe, they had worn sandals, similar to the Roman men, but more delicate and white coloured. The women also could not have been made-up, fashionably coiffed, or perfumed with any smell, it could have seemed as seducing of other men.
Speaking about the real role of Roman wife, it is known that the ancient Rome had been the heart of artistic creation, which means that also a Roman woman had to be excellent at any art, the most frequently it was singing or playing any musical instrument. Her endowment was a feature of good Roman family.
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5.3.5 Age
The question of a convenient age to get married is often discussed in many cultures, periods and social classes. It is imperative to mention that in the period of
Roman Britain, the age of both fiancés belonged to the absolute obstacles because it was closely connected to the capability to beget descendants, therefore the Romans had to establish the lawful age limit. The Roman girls could have been married at the age of twelve and the boys at the age of fourteen. Does it seem early enough to you? We should not been surprised, taking into consideration that in wealthy families, the marriages were mostly arranged by the parents and the children were expected to marry at a very tender age. (Stará 81)
5.3.6 Dowry
It is quite logical that dowry had been a very significant economical item in the
Roman society. I will start with the primary function of dowry which was determined to protect the woman from drastic economical consequences of divorce. Actually the husband had been obliged to provide for her wife after the marriage. However before the marriage, the pater familias was according to the ancient tradition responsible to her daughter for dos14 and he helped them to maintain the costs of founding new family.
(Stará 92)
5.3.7 The termination of marriage
The very last part dedicated to the marriage in Roman family law will deal with all the methods how it was legal to terminate the marriage. The first legitimate way of the termination was logically the death of wife or husband. The second way, somehow exceptional for us, was the loss of liberty; this one concerned the war captivity, thus subsequent slavery. Another way how to terminate marriage was by the loss of
14 Dos – dowry in latin terminology. 24
citizenship, which was possible when the woman or man had been from any weighty reason banished from the Roman Empire, or any other province. The last way, which is very popular also in today’s society, was divortium15. The divorce was patterned on the volition of both spouses. Even though the divorces were rare and sometimes prosecuted for damages of property, they were according to the Roman law permitted. The most frequent reasons to get divorced were when the wives could not have fulfilled their primary role in Roman family, i.e. the role of mother. Ivana Stará explains that in this case the divorce was almost compulsory. Nevertheless when the husbands were incapable of begetting children, which means that they were impotent, they were commonly substituted by their brothers or any other relative, the wives were forced to accept this fact and submit to it. The born children were naturally considered to be the legitimate descendants of the husband and could have continued the patriarchal line.
(Frýdek 77)
5.4 Other alternatives of cohabitation
To somehow conclude the Roman family law, I cannot forget to mention other ways of cohabitation in Roman Britain. Apart from the legal marriage there existed a specific type of bond which was called concubinatus16. Miroslav Frýdek describes this form of cohabitation as a permanent sexual cohabitation of single persons where the intent of man is not to have a wife but concubine. The woman was termed concubine but did not have the status of prostitute. The men who preferred this type of living descended usually from higher society, and often it concerned the soldiers who were not allowed to get married during their military service. On the contrary, the concubines descended usually from lower social class. (Kincl, Urfus, 1990) In view of this fact we can just guess, if the intent of this type of cohabitation was rather sexual and soft as for
15 Divortium – divorce in latin terminology. 16 Concubinatus – An informal, unsanctioned, or natural marriage in latin terminology. 25
the man, or if the intent was truly romantic. The children who emerged from cohabitation like that were considered to be illegitimate and were under the power of mother. They were denoted liberi naturales17.
17 Liberi naturales – illegitimate children in latin terminology. 26
6 The marriages according to the social class
The division of ancient Roman society was very well-known and respected in that period. To simplify and clarify this division, there were two categories according to the Roman social system, free citizens and slaves. Every Roman citizen was judged on the basis of two criterions, the origin and the wealth. Focusing on free citizens, we speak about the wealthiest patricians, further about plebeians and other civis18.
(Rozdělení Římské společnosti, 10.9. 2004)
It is absolutely necessary to mention that the people who came to the Roman province Britannia very frequently brought there their wives and families. Some of them were e.g. soldiers, government officials and merchants. However, several mixed and newly-emerged marriages were known in Roman Britain. I can give you evidence of at least one mixed marriage realized in the land of Roman Britain. It was a famous marriage of Roman centurion Flavius Verecundus and Vibia Pacata, African woman living in Britain, realized at Westerwood on the Antonine Wall. (Todd 274) In my opinion, this is convincing evidence of marriage that in Roman Britain there were also marriages realized to share mutual love and to create trust and harmony.
6.1 Marriages of emperors
This chapter will be devoted to the family life, particularly the marriages, of four famous Roman emperors who had been not only famous in Roman Britain but also somehow exceptional in their actions. I wanted to declare in my thesis that all the achievements connected with marriage, such adoption and divorce were very common even at the beginning of our era. The reasons while I chose these four emperors are following, firstly they somehow imprinted themselves to the history of Roman Britain and secondly, I wanted to highlight their different family life, different marriage,
18 Civis – Citizens in latin terminology. 27
different termination of marriage, different origin etc. And of course, I wanted to make my thesis also more readable.
6.1.1 The marriages of Caesar
The first one, Julius Caesar, who is nowadays considered to be the most significant imperator of the ancient times, had three marriages in his lifetime. The reason why I chose him is definitely the fact that he was the first emperor who attempted to acquire Britain as a regular Roman province. He descended from the patrician family, so at his tender age he was already betrothed to a girl called Cossutia.
That girl descended from worthy equestrian family, although the family was prestigious, it was not equal to the patrician family and they had to annul the engagement. Instead of
Cossutia he finally married Cornelia Cinna Minor, daughter of Cinna, political ally of
Caesar’s family. When they got married, Caesar was seventeen years old and his spouse about thirteen years old. His first wife gave birth to their only legitimate child, Julia.
The second pregnancy of his wife ended in tragedy, she died in childbed and the baby was dead-born. Even though it is curious that she managed the childbirth in her thirteen, she did not in her twenty-five. (Julius Caesar’s Three wives, 14.3. 2010)
His second marriage was actually a political move; his second wife was called
Pompeia, the granddaughter of Sulla, his political opponent from the Roman time of civil war. This marriage really symbolized uniting two families who had been big enemies. But during her organization of female religious festival, Bona Dea Festival, where the men could not have come, there was seen Publius Clodius, dressed as a woman attempting to seduce Pompeia. The man had been on trial and it had provoked agitation in public. This fact led Caesar to initiate the divorce with her. (Julius Caesar’s
Three wives, 14.3. 2010)
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His third wife, Calpurnia Pisonis, was a daughter of a prestigious aristocrat and later consul. She was decent and loyal to Caesar, but she did not give him any child.
That was maybe the reason why he had found his mistress Servilia, with whom he maintained the love affair more than twenty years. The mistress became mother of his later assassin, Marcus Junius Brutus who was actually Caesar’s illegitimate son. After the death of Caesar in 44 BC, Calpurnia never remarried and accepted the adoption of his great-nephew Gaius Octavian as his legal son and heir according to the last will of her husband. (Julius Caesar’s Three wives, 14.3. 2010)
I cannot forget to mention his most popular lover, Cleopatra, the last queen of
Egypt. They met each other and became lovers during Caesar’s stay in Egypt between
48 BC and 47 BC, that time she was only twenty-one years old and Caesar was fifty- two. Their son Caesarion resulted from their relationship but he was forced to stay in
Egypt with her mother in view of the fact that Caesar had refused to nominate him as his legitimate heir.
6.1.2 The marriages of Claudius
The emperor Claudius was the first one who not just attempted to acquire
Britain, but who really did acquire Britain, and that is why I wanted to examine his family life. Some ancient authors argued that Claudius was very frequently associated with women, sometimes he was even denoted as womanizer. Altogether he was four times married after two abortive engagements; the first was annulled for political reasons and the second ended in tragedy, his fiancée Medullina suddenly died on their wedding day.
The first legal wife of Claudius was Plautia Urgulanilla, with whom he fathered their first son, Claudius Drusus. However he died in his early teens of asphyxiation.
And because the emperor Claudius suspected Plautia of adultery and also of possible
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murdering her sister-in-law, he applied the right to divorce with her. Shortly after their divorce Plautia gave birth to a girl but angry emperor renounced her. He was very frequently criticized for that his action. (Claudius, n.d.)
His second marriage came several years later, he married Aelia Paetina, this marriage was again just a strategy from the point of view of politics but it did not last for a long time and the marriage became the opposite, the political liability. This marriage brought a daughter Claudia Antonia and again terminated by divorce. Does it also seem to you that divorce was indispensable to them as well as nowadays?
The very well-known marriage of Claudius was the third one; he married Valeria
Messalina, actually his cousin, at the time when he became emperor. This marriage was again a good example of maintenance of imperial family, wealth and powers. They had two children, daughter Claudia Octavia and later their son Britannnicus. The reason why this marriage is considered to be the most popular is the fact that Messalina was described as nymphomaniac and she was constantly unfaithful to Claudius. Some ancient historians argued if her intention had only sexual subtext or was rather a political strategy because the number of her lovers was really enormous. The action which really surprised me in my research is that Mesallina unilaterally declared herself divorced from Claudius and while he was absent from Rome, she married Gaius Silius who held the post of consul. There had been many speculations why had she done it, to usurp the throne or protect her children. However they were both punished, precisely executed. (Valeria Messalina (Wife of Claudius), 23.11. 2004)
I have already mentioned in the part devoted to incestuous marriages some interesting facts about the last, thus fourth, marriage of Claudius. The intention of this marriage was again political, actually he chose her niece Agrippina in view of the fact that she had already a nearly adult son, later emperor Nero, who could have continued
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in the family. His son Britannicus was under aged at that time and not capable of being a regular heir. Nero married his daughter Claudia Antonia and the lineage of imperial family could have continued without any obstacles.
6.1.3 Hadrian’s marriage
Focusing on Hadrian’s family life, he seemed to be tedious in comparison to the others emperors, but I had to look into his family life considering that his colossal architectonic wall pertains to the most significant historical monument from the period of Roman Britain. He was adopted by the previous Roman emperor Trajan and was married only once, to his grandniece Vibia Sabina. This marriage was not very happy in general and there were several reasons which affirmed that, e.g. Sabina was said to have an affair with an ancient historian and there were no born children in this marriage. The emperor was also suspected of being homosexual. And the evidence that he preferred travelling all over the Roman provinces, especially over Britannia, does not contribute to the fact that his family life was exceptionally happy. And because he did not have any legitimate heir to the throne, he had adopted Antonius Pius, the son of one his allied consul. (Hadrianus (117-138), 10.9. 2004)
6.1.4 The marriage of Marcus Aurelius
It is known that Marcus Aurelius was a very educated emperor; therefore I wanted to study his family life and indicate the interesting facts about his marriage. The previous emperor Antonius Pius had adopted Marcus Aurelius as his heir but it was actually the decision of the emperor Hadrian who had noticed his serious and hard- working personality, and thus a good future ruler. And it is known only one regular marriage in the life of Marcus Aurelius from different historical sources. He married his cousin Faustina the Younger and from this very long, about thirty years old, marriage had resulted thirteen descendants, only five of them had outlived their father. His son
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Commodus became his successor to the throne. There was not much information available as for the only marriage of Marcus Aurelius, we only know that it terminated naturally, thus by the emperor’s death. (Marcus Aurelius, biography, n.d.)
6.2 Marriages of officers
Lindsay Allason-Jones asserts that centurions were often married to women from different provinces, because there was a rule that officers should not marry women from the province in which they were stationed. She also adds that marriages between
British girls and army veterans were generally approved of; however, they were not that frequent due to a big number of Roman women who came to Britannia together with their husbands. If there were any born children from the mixed marriage of British girls and Romans, they automatically acquired the Roman citizenship.
Speaking about officer’s veterans, when they settled in newly developed towns in Britannia, they had a respected position in society and to maintain their status and wealth, they often worked in business as traders or craftsmen. According to these marriages, there were numerous families with young children whose fathers were almost in their fifties and mothers only in twenties or thirties, they lived mostly in the military zones which were constructed for this purpose. Children of these families had been sometimes confused due to their cultural identity, one parent came from Italy and one from Britain, and at least they could have spoken more than one language.
(Todd 275-276)
6.3 Marriages of soldiers
I have already mentioned in the section of other cohabitation that Roman soldier were forbidden by law to contract a marriage during their period of military service.
This restriction seemed to me quite anomalous taking into consideration that Roman
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soldier was a free citizen according to the Roman social system. It was the emperor
Augustus, who imposed a ban on soldier’s marriages.
“No one knows exactly when Augustus passed his law which forbade soldiers from marrying. But during his reign, about 9 AD, three Roman legions and a collection of auxiliary units were destroyed in Germania by the Cherusci. Cassius Dio tells us that a huge number of women, a mixture of wives, girlfriends, slaves, and prostitutes, were interspersed in the ranks of the legions, and when the Germans began their attack, the legionaries went berserk in attempts to rescue their womenfolk. Though their concern for their women was definitely noble, it was bad for cohesion and did nothing to improve an already very bad situation.” (“The sex lives of Roman soldiers”, 16.2. 2010)
The emperor could have prohibited them marrying but seriously, how he could have banned them from having female relationships? For Roman soldiers was allegedly better not to have any relationship while they served in Roman army, maybe it was considered as ideal in view of the fact that sexually frustrated soldiers were more aggressive and energetic in battles. However, we cannot believe that all of them strictly observed the rules. There were many evidences that the soldiers broke the ban of
Augustus and got married frequently with Roman women who were taken on war campaign, these women were slave girls or other civilians from lower classes. And further, there were official military prostitutes, often captured women of barbarian origin from the conquered Roman provinces. (The sex lives of Roman soldiers,
16.2. 2010)
Even though the women who appeared in Roman army were mostly slave girls or captured barbarians, several mixed marriages were known in Roman Britain, and hopefully, they were realized from pure love, as for example the marriage of Aurelius
Marcus, a Roman soldier and Aurelia Aia, a girl from Salona – today’s Croatia – who
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followed him to Britannia. We know about this marriage thanks to the tombstone in
Carvoran19. (Todd 283) Finally, the marriage for soldiers was allowed in 193 AD, by order of Septimius Severus, who made a number of reforms concerning military system.
6.4 Marriages of slaves
Roman jurists called the cohabitation of slave and slave girl or free citizen with not free citizen Contubernum, thus slavish marriage. Broadly speaking, it was a cohabitation of two slaves who were permitted from their master to live together. This relationship was based mainly on the volition of the master. If there were any children, they had been considered to be illegitimate and they had been also in possession of the master, as well as their slave parents. (Frýdek 78)
Regarding the cohabitation of free woman and a slave, there was again the consent of slave’s master needed. If the master did not agree with the contubernum, but the woman stayed in such bond, she became a slave girl herself. That was an effort to prevent similar marriages, to be honest; they were not very favourite and respected by
Romans. That is definitely a proof of present love between them, seriously, if the woman risks her social status and even her freedom, it could have been only a proof of pure love, or not?
The cohabitation of free woman and a slave was also often regarded as adulterium20. But that was possible only if the woman was already married. The emperor Konstantin had introduced punishment for both, if there were evidences of secret relationship, the slave was punished by burning to death and the woman was killed according to her social status. (Stará 77)
19 Carvoran – a fort on Hadrian´s wall in England. 20 Adulterium – adultery in latin terminology. 34
7 Family life in Roman Britain
To somehow start this important part of my thesis, I should describe Britons, thus the people of Roman Britain. The composition of society in Roman Britain was very similar to that in Roman Empire. Anthony Birley classified the people of Roman
Britain as follows; emperors, high officials, equestrians, legionaries, veterans, soldiers, people of the frontier, urban population, merchants, craftsmen, country dwellers and slaves. After the Roman conquest, Britons very soon adopted the Roman way of life, their customs, traditions, meals etc. It is natural that apart from the Roman way of life,
Britons accepted their ideas about religion, architecture, art, government and fashion.
Even if it is well-known, the construction of towns, stone buildings, streets, roads and pavements also pertained to big things in Roman Britain that Romans brought in.
Britons were very grateful for such technical and cultural progress. Moreover, they mostly lived in countryside, small villages or isolated farms and the head of family and of the whole household was certainly the father. To somehow describe the surroundings of ancient Roman family in Britain and the family atmosphere, they had pets like we have today, e.g. dogs, birds, hares, and toys of children were largely made of wood, clay and bronze. (5. Life in Roman Britain, n.d.)
It had been already said that monogamy was a norm, and it was the same for
Romans as for Britons. However, the immigrants who came to Britain and were followers of polygamy, continued in their polygamous family units also in Roman
Britain. It is worth mentioning some marital habits of British tribes. Allegedly the group of ten or twelve men who were in mutual family relationship, e.g. brothers, father and son, had common wives and that fact shows us that there had been extensive families in
Roman Britain. However, the evidence of found tombstones in Britain showed us that average Romano-British family had normally two children. There are several exceptions
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that proved us the existence of families with up to five children, but these were rather rare and not usual. It is known from tombstone evidence that a Roman citizen who died at Dorchester, called Carinus, had three children, Carina, Avita and Rufinus, further
Sempronius Sempronianus, who lived in London, had two brothers. (Todd 278) The reason why large families were unfortunately exceptions are quite evident. It could have been given by spreading of diseases and infections and also imperfect nourishment and health care. It was normal that people of Roman Britain died before they were fifty.
Lindsay Allason-Jones claims that people of Roman Britain preferred and sort of planned to have family with two children and that fact inspired me to ascertain if there were some methods of contraception. I was quite surprised that there have been many methods as for contraception. The women in Roman Britain used e.g. vinegar, olive oil, brine, and allegedly if some of these methods failed, women could have had recourse to abortion. That was possible according to the fact that in Roman law, the foetus was not taken as living, or with soul, so the abortion was not considered as murder. (Todd 278) Again information that made me really surprised. To continue in family issues in Roman Britain, I should mention also the infanticide, which was according to Tacitus, practised extensively in Roman Britain. It was simple, if the baby was born sick or malformed, just considered wicked, it was very soon killed. (Todd
279) We could see another similarity as for the role of woman. In Roman Britain women were also considered weaker and less important as well as in the entire Roman
Empire. There were mentions that adolescent girls in Roman Britain were not considered to be of much worth and were not as well fed, thus they very frequently died, sometimes about the age of twelve, and also the infanticide of baby girls was much extensive than the infanticide of baby boys. Simply, girls and women were again
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under the power of man and regarded as second-class citizens in Roman Britain.
(Todd 279)
The evidences referring to the duration of marriages in Roman Britain are known down to several tombstones. I chose the tombstone of Placida, who died at the age of fifty-five at Wroxeter and who had been married for thirty years. Another evidence of long marriage in Roman Britain could have been seen on the tombstone of the veteran
Julius Valens, whose marriage had lasted more than fifty years and who had died at the blessed age of one hundred. (Todd 280)
In the chapter regarding the suitable age to get married, it had been said that girls normally got married at the age of twelve. That was exactly coincident in Roman
Britain, but rather as for wealthy families. On the contrary, the suitable age for marriage preferred by the British tribes was about eighteen. There was an evidence of the youngest bride in the province, Claudia Martina, who had been nineteen years old when she had got married. (Todd 281) Speaking about the age of marriage in Roman Britain, I found that in Roman Britain, girls or women normally had their first child after they were twenty, sometimes even later.
In my thesis, it have been already mentioned that the most frequent reason for divorce was childlessness, and of course, it had been always regarded as a fault of woman, as in Rome, as in Britain. We also know according to the family life of the chosen emperors that Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius were both adopted. And the presence of adopting or fostering children was also known in Roman Britain, It has been found a number of records about foster-children, e.g. Mercatilla, the foster-daughter of
Magnius, at Bath, Ylas, the foster-child of the legionary tribune Claudius Severus at Old
Penrith, etc. (Todd 281)
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Slaves and freedmen were a part of Romano-British family, thus the possession of the patron, the head of a household, i.e. pater familias. As for the marriages of slaves, we know that they were prohibited under Roman law, but in many households of
Roman Britain slaves formed fixed relationship. There was an evidence of two slaves of
Cunomolius and Minervina at Bath, called Cunitius and Senovara, who had a real relationship. (Todd 282)
Even in Roman Britain divorce was popular, and divorce was very frequently related to adultery. Lindsay Allason-Jones argues that in case of wife’s adultery, divorce was basically compulsory in Roman Britain, certainly under the Roman law. There are several evidences of adultery in Roman Britain, as the love triangle between Etterna,
Timotneus and a third party at Old Harlow. (Todd 285) The legitimate children who resulted from the divorced marriage were the financial responsibility of their father and also the children who were born immediately after the divorce. Mother could have taken care of the children, however only with the permission of the father, thus her ex- husband.
According to the evidence of several tombstones found in Roman Britain, where were inscriptions such as “son of” or “daughter of”, I could infer that family ties in
Roman Britain were important and evident. (Todd 286) From this fact I can also deduce that the bereaved persons respectfully organized the burials and wanted to demonstrate, at least on the tombstones, the loss of family members with reverence.
When the Romans came in Britain, many of them brought in their families and the marriage in Roman Britain often brought native people and immigrants together.
They followed the Roman way of life and its traditions. I can say that family in Roman
Britain was a complicated unit, sometimes it included the average Roman or Romano-
British family with wife, man and two children, sometimes it meant extensive family of
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more than one generation also together with slaves and freedmen or even larger family of British tribes. And as Roman Britain was considered to be very cosmopolitan country, thus a big number of immigrants came in; we could have observed a mixture of different cultures, religions and simply different opinions about the ideal of family, family in Roman Britain was still regarded as a stable unit. (Todd 286)
7.1 Why monogamy?
It has been already mentioned that monogamy was a norm for both nations, thus
Romans and Britons. And to specify what the meaning of monogamy for them was, I realized to explore this form of relationship. Because I have mentioned several evidences of adultery, for instance from the family life of the emperors, Caesar or
Claudius, from the tombstone found in Roman Britain, thanks to that we can deduce that monogamy was only a norm as for marriage, however, as for sexuality, they preferred rather polygamy. Another evidence of that statement could be the fact that nobody in the entire history had so many sexual partners as Roman emperors and politicians. Again, Gaius Iulius Caesar who had four wives and even more mistresses could not have been a good example of virtue for Romans, could he? Maybe you are asking why, but in Ancient times allegedly existed a conviction that it had been better to have several mistresses than one regular wife, just for the man’s comfort. This fact brought me to contemplations about love and jealousy. The marital monogamy was a rule, thus under the Roman law, does it mean that Romans were jealous? That is why it was permitted to marry only one woman? This could have been an evidence of present love because love is always close to jealousy, or not, and it is again an evidence of power and possession presented in Roman marriages, to have control under the one and only wife, to own her. Monogamy had been also a symbol of higher morality presented in Roman Britain in comparison to other less developed cultures.
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As for the legacy of Celts, who had been in Britain before the Romans, the family was a base of Celtic society, thus significant social unit. Celtic society was composed of family clans, and family itself was a very stable and respectful unit, as well as in later Roman Britain. We know that in Celtic society the presence of polygamy was somehow normal, and moreover the reasons were rather social, there were efforts to maintain a family, for instance when a man died, the widow and possible orphans immediately became part of new family. Subsequently, there were no widows and orphans in Celtic society. As for the status of a woman, before Roman times, women were considered almost equal to men; they could have owned even a possession. (Keltská společnost, 25.10. 2010) I can easily declare that the social status of women in comparison to the status in Celtic society really changed when Roman came, but the importance of family ties and family itself was equally important for Celts and Romano-Britons.
7.2 Sexuality
While I was exploring the facts about Roman law, marriages in Roman Britain etc, several times I found information which confirmed that Romans were sometimes perverse, as for sexuality. In this article I will deal with not only ordinary heterosexual relations, but also, you will see that homosexual relations were quite admissible in
Roman Britain. Some sexual attitudes and behaviours are known thanks to the ancient art, paintings and sculptures. In general, the sexuality in Ancient Rome was accepted according to two roles – active or dominant and passive or submissive. This role division was strictly observed.
7.2.1 Household sex
I have already noticed that primary function of marriage in Rome and Roman
Britain was to create a family, thus beget children, and childlessness was the main
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reason for divorce with the woman’s blame, therefore household sex was ordinary and natural between the married couples. But what about sex between unmarried persons of the same household? For instance, sex with slaves was not regarded as adultery, certainly for men, but his type of sex was automatically treated as adultery, as for women. And moreover, sex with free man or woman or prostitute also was not treated as adultery, if it was for money, still speaking about men. I think that we should have assumed that sex and adultery out of house had been quite common, but sex between the master or other family members and slaves of the same household seemed weird, but unfortunately real. And it is necessary to add that sometimes it could have led to incestuous sexual relationships. (Household sex, n.d.)
7.2.2 Same-sex relations
Same-sex relations were common also in antiquity, as well between males as between females. Acceptable male partners were again slaves and prostitutes and it could have been same as for female partners, but we do not know much about these sexual relationships. This fact maybe did not surprise us, but what is today considered to be a crime or even sexual disease, I mean sex with children or young boys, Romans even preferred. If you are asking how old those boys were, they were usually about the age of twelve to twenty.
Same-sex relations were even quite common in the Roman military; maybe it was one of the consequences of the prohibition on marriage. In Roman army were also known some cases of rape and sexual harassment, e.g. a young recruit Trebonius.
(Same-sex relations in the military, n.d.)
The most known gay from Ancient times was probably the emperor Hadrian who had a harem of males about their early teens and who got married only for formal purpose, because his only marriage was otherwise without love, sex and children.
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Hadrian was not ashamed of his same-sex relationship and showed his sexual orientation publicly, for instance, his official lover, i.e. Antinuous, accompanied him on his travels through the Roman Empire.
7.3 Religion in Roman Britain
Actually the sexuality and marriage of Romans and Britons are closely connected to the religion in Roman Britain. We know that when Roman invaded
Britain, Britons were mostly pagans; thus their religion was based on local legends and stories. The remains of Celtic religion, for instance the barbaric sacrifices, were not approved by Romans, so Britons very soon accepted the religion of Romans. They started to worship several gods from antique mythology as Jupiter, Neptune, the god of love Cupid etc. The constructions of many temples in Roman Britain were also evidences of embracing of Roman religion, e.g. the temple at Colchester dedicated to the Emperor Claudius. However, Christianity came in Britain about 313 AD, and both the Romans and Britons were supposed to respect this new religion.
I employed this section about religion to my bachelor thesis actually to show that
Roman god of love, i.e. Cupid, had countenanced the principle of love in any kind of form, thus heterosexual and homosexual. So no wonder that all types of relationships were permitted and accepted while it was even according to their religion and beliefs.
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8 Comparison of Roman concept of marriage to other
Now I would focus on several aspects that I found out during my research, as importance of social status, divorce, adultery and adoption and I would also look on family life and marriages in another Roman province, in Gaul.
Marriage for Romans and Britons meant an institution, thus kind of social necessity, and to be honest the social pressure to get marry was evident. Fathers of the family wanted to marry well their descendants and consequently provide for them good economic environment. Also women were better treated when they got married, although they had to observe strict rules even after the marriage. As I used the phrase, economic environment, it is obvious that the wealth and possession played an important role as for marriage. According to my detailed description of wedding ceremony and wedding traditions related to marriage, I can deduce that all these acts, as consent of both pater familias, signatures of both fiancés, imprinted signet rings seemed as confirmation of approaching possessing of bride, considering that men were always taken as superior in Romano-British society. Or the fact that in the evening after the wedding feasts, the man always had to transfer his bride across the threshold, again a possible evidence of putative possession. We have adopted a number of those typical wedding customs but do we really think about them as acts of love or rather as acts of law? Another customs related to marriage that we adopted from Romans are the presence of witnesses and bridesmaids during the wedding ceremony, also the tradition of wedding feasts which follows after the ceremony is a part of nowadays wedding day.
I would say that we could be grateful to Romans for their amazing traditions which they spread all over the Empire and thus to many contemporary and not only European countries.
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In my opinion, the Roman law and whole Roman society were very advanced.
The conception that even people who had lived at the very beginning of our era, thus more than two thousand years ago, could have terminated a marriage by divorce, adopted children or even had same-sex relationships without any problems or prejudices, proved, that Roman civilization had been noteworthy and developed. In comparison to history of divorce in our country, it was legally permitted not until 1206 when the first divorce on the Czech territory was realized. It was the divorce of Ottokar
I of Bohemia and Adleta which needed to be confirmed by the Pope. Adoption in our area was possible earlier, but definitely not in the Ancient times. And with regard to the homosexual relationships which are nowadays common even in our country, they are still denounced by some people and thus regarded as inappropriate. And because the history of our country is rather unknown from the beginning of our era, I could not have drawn a comparison of marriage from that time. But that is again an evidence of Roman level of development.
8.1 Marriage in Gaul
I also looked at marriages realized in Gaul, the historical territory of today’s
France. The Gaelic marriages were actually identical to the Romano-British, except the social status of married woman was more respected, and moreover she could not have been forced to get married, thus had right of choice her future husband. Also as for raising children, both parents were equally responsible. But in case that father had committed a “family crime”, such as rape, seduction or impregnation of other freewoman without the agreement of his family, all responsibility was given to him.
And in case that the father was an alien or a slave, all responsibility concerning the raising children was by contrast on mother. In comparison to Romano-British monogamy, in Gaul the polygamy was widespread. And as well, as in Roman Britain,
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the homosexual relationships were permitted. Also in Gaul the divorce was possible, and actually there were similar reasons to get divorced as for instance childlessness or adultery, but I found also reasons for divorce as refusal of sex, beginning of another or homosexual relationship, woman’s abortion, theft etc. (Sex and Marriage in the Ancient
World, n.d.)
8.2 Love?
I have several times mentioned that marriage should have been a symbol of natural love and that is why I asked the question about function of marriage in the introduction. However in the course of my research I found only a few evidences of marriages realized from love. But what is the meaning of love? And is love compatible with marriage? These are rather questions for philosophers but I will try to briefly answer. We must realize that marriages are real and not those in romantic films, to fall in love means to feel emotionally happy and to express your feelings to the chosen person. The nature of love is about everything, how we do know the person, how we do understand, how we do tolerate, how we do respect, how we do describe etc. According to social psychology, love is a combination of emotions, cognitions and behaviours, and in marriage also a combination of strong tolerance.
To stay with the meaning of love in marriage, it is said that the marriage out of love is the true marriage, on the contrary the marriage out of reason is nonsense and people who get married out of reason could not ever be happy. And the reason of several divorces is the fact that they do not get married out of love.
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9 Conclusion
To somehow conclude my bachelor thesis, I would mention that the marriages on the territory of Roman Britain were all realized according to the Roman family law.
Britons accepted the Roman law actually without any big objections and also the coexistence of Romans and Britons in Britannia flowed well. After all, Britons knew that Romans brought to their country wealth and in general a developmental progress.
And as I was interested in the course of my research by the function of love in
Romano-British marriage, I found out that the presence of love in such marriages is today almost impossible to ascertain. We can just guess, if the people in Roman Britain married out of love, but there are several clues, as for example the homosexual love of the emperor Hadrian, seriously why would he publicly show himself with his male lover? An also the mentioned marriage of Roman soldier and African, probably barbarian girl, living in Roman Britain could be eventual possibility of presented love in their marriage. In general, I would say that, the wealthier family, less love presented in marriage and on the contrary, the poorer family, more probability of presented love in marriage. Because in wealthy families, the marriages were always arranged in advance, almost each time by the fathers of family, so could the thirteen years old children have even loved, besides if their parents just decided and ordered? The pressure by society, the importance of good social status, continuance of family line, creating of family, thus giving birth to descendants etc, those are all the factors and reasons of marriage in
Roman Britain.
To compare Roman Britain with another Roman province, which was in this case
Gaul, was also interesting; I just assured myself that the power of Roman law was huge and actually still is, because the Roman law is the base of law in today’s European countries, either in Czech Republic. To see how the marriages differed from each other
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according to the social class reminded me that it is always crucial to see how the wealth, money and social status played and still play an important role in the question of choosing your future partner or in the question of acceptance by other people of certain society. For instance the marriages of the discussed emperors well contributed to my research, no evidence of love, but strong evidence of strategy, power and formality, and in case of their big number of wives, or mistresses, I had studied a lot also about the
Ancient Roman sexuality.
To sum up, the primary role of marriage in Roman Britain was definitely closely related to power, wealth and possession, but it does not say it is not compatible with love. And I cannot forget to add, that family had been an important unit for both nations, Romans and Britons, so people did marry also to create big families, not always to obtain a possession.
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