# The Spirit of Laws (1758)/Book VII

BOOK VII. Consequences of the different Principles of the three Governments with respect to sumptuary Laws, Luxury, and the Condition of Women.
CHAP. I. Of Luxury.
Book VII. Chap. 1LUXURY is always in proportion to the inequality of fortunes. If the riches of a state are equally divided, there will be no luxury; for it is founded merely on the conveniences acquired by the labour of others.
In order to have this equal distribution of riches, the law ought to give to each man only just what is necessary for nature. If they exceed those bounds, some will spend and others will acquire, and by this means an inequality will be established.
Supposing what is necessary for the support of nature to be equal to a given sum, the luxury of those who have only what is barely necessary, will be equal to a cypher; if a person happens to have double that sum, his luxury will be equal to one; he that has double the latter's substance, will have a luxury equal to three; if this be still doubled, there will be a luxury equal to seven; so that the property of the subsequent individual being always supposed double to that of the preceding, the luxury will increase double, and an unit be always ​Book VII. Chap. 1.added, in this progression, 0, 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, 127.
In Plato s republic, luxury might have been exactly calculated. There were four sorts of Census's, or rates of estates. The first was exactly the term beyond poverty, the second was double, the third triple, the fourth quadruple to the first. In the first Census luxury was equal to a cypher; in the second to one, in the third to two, in the fourth to three; and thus it followed in an arithmetical proportion.
Considering the luxury of different nations with respect to one another, it is in each state in a compound proportion to the inequality of the subjects fortunes, and to the inequality of the wealth of the different states. In Poland, for example, there is an extreme inequality of fortunes; but the poverty of the whole hinders them from having so much luxury as in a more opulent state.
Luxury is also in proportion to the populousness of the towns, and especially of the capital; so that it is in a compound proportion to the riches of the state, to the inequality of private fortunes, and to the number of people fettled in particular places.
In proportion to the populousness of towns, the inhabitants are filled with vain notions, and actuated by an ambition of distinguishing themselves by trifles. If they are very numerous, and most of them strangers to one another, the passion of ​Book VII. Chap. 1. & 2.distinguishing themselves redoubles, because there are greater hopes of success. As luxury inspires these hopes, each man assumes the marks of a superior condition. But by endeavouring thus at distinction, every one becomes equal and distinction ceases; as all of them are desirous of respect, no body is taken notice of.
Hence arise a general inconveniency. Those who excel in a profession set what value they please on their labour; this example is followed by people of inferior abilities; and then there is an end of all proportion between our wants and the means of satisfying them. When I am forced to go to law, I must be able to see council; when I am sick I must be able to see a physician.
It is the opinion of several, that the assembling so great a multitude of people in capital cities, is an obstruction to commerce, because by this means the inhabitants are no longer within a proper distance from each other. But I cannot think so; for men have more desires, more wants, more fancies, when they live together.
CHAP. II. Of Sumptuary Laws in a Democracy.
WE have observed that in a republic where riches are equally divided, there can be no such thing as luxury; and as this equal distribution constitutes the excellency of a republican government, hence it follows that the less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect. There was none among the old Romans, none among the Lacedaemonians; and in republics where this equality is not quite lost, the spirit of commerce, industry, and ​Book VII. Chap. 2. & 3.virtue, renders every man able and willing to live on his own property, and consequently prevents the growth of luxury.
The laws concerning the new division of lands insisted upon so eagerly in some republics, were of the most salutary nature. They were dangerous only as they were sudden. By reducing instantaneously the wealth and riches of some, and increasing that of others, they form a revolution in each family, and must produce a general one in the state.
In proportion as luxury gains ground in a republic, the minds of the people are turned towards their particular interests. Those who are allowed only what is necessary, have nothing to wish tor but their own and their country's glory. But a soul depraved by luxury has many other desires; and soon becomes an enemy to the laws that confine it. The luxury in which the garrison of Rhegio began to live, was the cause of their massacring the inhabitants.
No sooner were the Romans corrupted, than their desires became boundless and immense. Of this we may judge by the price they set on things. A pitcher of Falernian wine was sold for a hundred Roman denarii; a barrel of sait meat from the kingdom of Pontus cost four hundred; a good cook four talents; and for boys no price was reckoned too great.
When the whole world, impelled by the force of a general corruption, is immersed in voluptuousness, what must then become of virtue?
CHAP. III. Of Sumptuary Laws in an Aristocracy.
THERE is this inconveniency in an ill constituted aristocracy, that the wealth centers ​Book VII. Chap. 3. & 4.in the nobility, and yet they are not allowed to spend; for as luxury is contrary to the spirit of moderation, it must be banished from thence. This government comprehends therefore only people that are extremely poor, and cannot acquire; and people that are vastly rich, and cannot spend.
In Venice they are compelled by the laws to moderation. They are so habituated to parsimony, that none but courtezans can make them part with their money. Such is the method made use of for the support of industry; the most contemptible of women spend freely their money without danger, whilst those who support them consume their days in the greatest obscurity.
Admirable in this respect were the institutions of the principal republics of Greece. The rich employed their money in festivals, musical chorus's, chariots, horse-races, and chargeable offices. Wealth was therefore as burthensome there as poverty.
CHAP. IV. Of Sumptuary Laws in a Monarchy.
TACITUS says, "That the Suiones, a German nation, have a particular respect for riches; for which reason they live under the government of one person." This shews that luxury is extremely proper for monarchies, and that under this government there must be no sumptuary laws.
As riches, by the very constitution of monarchies, are unequally divided, there is an absolute necessity for luxury. Were the rich not to spend their money freely, the poor would starve. It is ​Book VII. Chap. 4.even necessary here that the expencces of the rich should be in proportion to the inequality of fortunes; and that luxury, as we have already observed, should increase in this proportion. The augmentation of private wealth is owing to its having deprived One part of the citizens of their necessary support; this must therefore be restored to them.
For the preservation therefore of a monarchical state, luxury ought continually to increase and to grow more extensive, as it rises from the labourer to the artificers, to the merchants, to the magistrates, to the nobility, to the great officers of state, up to the very prince; otherwise the nation will be undone.
In the reign of Augustus, a proposal was made in the Roman senate, which was composed of grave magistrates learned civilians, and of men whose heads were filled with the notion of the primitive times, to reform the manners and luxury of women. It is curious to see in Dio, with what art this prince eluded the importunate sollicitations of those senators. This was because he was founding a monarchy, and dissolving a republic.
Under Tiberius the Aediles proposed in the senate the re-establishment of the ancient sumptuary laws. This prince, who did not want sense, opposed it. "The state, said he,, could not possibly subsist in the present situation of things. How could Rome, how could the provinces, live? We were frugal while we were inhabitants of a single city; now we consume the riches of the universe, and employ both masters and slaves in our service." He plainly saw that sumptuary laws would not suit the present form of government.
​Book VII. Chap. 4. & 5.When a proposal was made under the same emperor to the senate, to prohibit the governors from carrying their wives with them into the provinces, because of the dissoluteness and irregularities which followed those ladies, the proposal was rejected. It was said, that the examples of ancient austerity had been changed into a more agreeable method of living. They found there was a necessity for different manners.
Luxury is therefore absolutely necessary in monarchies; and necessary also in despotic states. In the former it is the use people make of what share of liberty they possess; in the other it is the abuse they make of the advantages of their slavery. A shave singled out by his master to tyrannize over the other slaves, uncertain of enjoying to morrow the blessings of to day, has no other felicity than that of glutting the pride, the passions, and voluptuousness of the present moment.
Hence arises a very natural reflection. Republics end with luxury; monarchies with poverty.
CHAP. V. In what cases Sumptuary Laws are useful in a Monarchy.
WHETHER it was from a republican spirit or from some other particular circumstances, in the middle of the thirteenth century, sumptuary laws were made in Arragon. James the first ordained that neither the king nor any of his subjects should have above two sorts of dishes at a meal, and that each dish should be dressed ​Book VII. Chap. 5.only one way, except it were game of their own killing.
In our days sumptuary laws have been also enacted in Sweden; but with a different view from those of Arragon.
A government may make sumptuary laws with a view to absolute frugality; this is the spirit of sumptuary laws in republics; and the very nature of the thing shews that such was the design of those of Arragon.
Sumptuary laws may likewise be made with a design to promote a relative frugality: when a government perceiving that foreign merchandizes being at too high a price, will require such an exportation of the home manufactures, as to deprive them of more advantages by the loss of the latter, than they can receive from the possession of the former, they will forbid their being introduced. And this is the spirit of the laws that in our days have been passed in Sweden. Such are the sumptuary laws proper for monarchies.
In general the poorer a state is, the more it is ruined by its relative luxury; and consequently the more occasion it has for relative sumptuary laws. The richer a state is, the more it thrives by its relative luxury; for which reason it must take particular care not to make any relative sumptuary laws. This we shall better explain in the book on commerce; here we treat only of absolute luxury.
CHAP. VI. Of the Luxury of China.
Book VII. Chap. 6.SUMPTUARY laws may, in some governments, be necessary for particular reasons. The people, by the influence of the climate, may grow so numerous, and the means of subsisting may be so uncertain, as to render an universal application to agriculture extremely necessary. As luxury in those countries is dangerous, their sumptuary laws should be very severe. In order therefore to be able to judge whether luxury ought to be encouraged or proscribed, we should examine first what relation there is between the number of people and the facility they have of procuring subsistence. In England the soil produces more grain than is necessary for the maintenance of those who cultivate the land, and of those who are employed in the woollen manufactures. This country may be therefore allowed to have some trifling arts, and consequently luxury. In France likewise there is corn enough for the support of the husbandman, and of the manufacturer. Besides, a foreign trade may bring in so many necessaries in return for toys, that there is no danger to be apprehended from luxury.
On the contrary, in China the women are so prolific, and the human species multiplies so fast, that the lands, though ever so much cultivated, are scarce sufficient to support the inhabitants. Here therefore luxury is pernicious, and the spirit of industry and oeconomy is as requisite, as in any republic. They are obliged to pursue the ​Book VII. Chap. 6. & 7.necessary arts, and to shun those of luxury and pleasure.
This is the spirit of the excellent decrees of the Chinese emperors. "Our ancestors, says an emperor of the family of the Tangs held it as a maxim, that if there was a man who did not work, or a woman that was idle, somebody must suffer cold or hunger in the empire." And on this principle he ordered an infinite number of monasteries of Bonzes to be destroyed.
The third emperor of the one and twentieth Dynasty, to whom some precious stones were brought that had been found in a mine, ordered it to be shut up, not chusing to fatigue his people with working for a thing that could neither feed nor cloath them.
So great is our luxury, says Kiayvent, that people adorn with embroidery the shoes of boys and girls, whom they are obliged to sell. Is employing so many people in making cloaths for one person, the way to prevent a great many from wanting cloaths? There are ten men who eat the fruits of the earth to one employed in agriculture; and is this the means to preserve numbers from wanting nourishment?
CHAP. VII. Fatal Consequence of Luxury in China.
IN the history of China we find it has had twenty-two successive Dynasties, that is, it has experienced twenty-two general, without mentioning an infinite number of particular, revolutions. The three first Dynasties lasted a long time, because they were ​Book VII. Chap. 7. & 8.sagely administered, and the empire had not so great an extent as it afterwards obtained. But we may observe in general that all those Dynasties began very well. Virtue, attention, and vigilance, are necessary in China; these prevailed in the commencement of the Dynasties, and failed in the end. It was natural, that emperors trained up in military toils, who had compassed the dethroning of a family immersed in pleasures, should be steady to virtue, which they had found so advantageous, and afraid of voluptuousness, which they knew had proved so fatal to the family dethroned. But after the three or four first princes, corruption, luxury, indolence, and pleasures, possess their successors; they shut themselves up in a palace; their understanding is impaired; their life is shortened; the family declines; the grandees rise up; the eunuchs gain credit; none but children are set on the throne; the palace is at variance with the empire; a lazy set of fellows that dwell there, ruin the industrious part of the nation; the emperor is killed or destroyed by an usurper, who founds a family, the third or fourth successor of which goes and shuts himself up in the very same palace.
CHAP. VIII. Of public Continency.
SO many are the imperfections that attend the loss of virtue in women, and so greatly are their minds depraved, when this principal guard is removed, that in a popular state public incontinency may be considered as the last of miseries, and as a ​Book VII. Chap. 8. & 9.certain fore-runner of a change in the constitution.
Hence it is that the sage legislators of republican states have always required of women a particular gravity of manners. They have proscribed not only vice, but the very appearance of it. They have banished even all commerce of gallantry, a commerce that produces idleness, that renders the women corrupters even before they are corrupted, that gives a value to trifles, and debases things of importance; a commerce, in fine, that makes people act intirely by the maxims of ridicule, in which the women are so perfectly skilled.
CHAP. IX. Of the condition or state of Women in different Governments.
IN monarchies women are subject to very little restraint, because as the distinction of ranks calls them to court, thither they repair in order to assume that spirit of liberty, which is the only one there tolerated. The aspiring courtier avails himself of their charms and passions, in order to advance his fortune: and as their weakness admits not of pride, but of vanity; luxury constantly attends them.
In despotic governments women do not introduce, but are themselves an object of luxury. They must be in a state of the most rigorous servitude. Every one follows the spirit of the government, and adopts in his own family the customs he sees elsewhere established. As the laws are very severe and executed on the spot, they are afraid left the liberty ​Book VII. Chap. 9. & 10.of women should expose them to dangers. Their quarrels, indiscretions, repugnances, jealousies, piques, and that art, in fine, which little souls have of interesting great ones, would be attended there with fatal consequences.
Besides, as princes in those countries make a sport of human nature, they allow themselves a multitude of women; and a thousand considerations oblige them to keep them in close confinement.
In republics women are free by the laws, and constrained by manners; luxury is banished from thence, and with it corruption and vice.
In the cities of Greece, where they were not under the restraint of a religion which declares that even amongst men a purity of morals is a part of virtue; where a blind passion triumphed with a boundless insolence, and love appeared only in a shape which we dare not mention, while marriage was considered as nothing more than simple friendship; such was the virtue, simplicity, and chastity of women in those cities, that in this respect hardly any people were ever known to have had a better and wiser polity.
CHAP. X. Of the domestic Tribunal among the Romans.
THE Romans had no particular magistrates, like the Greeks, to inspect the conduct of ​Book VII. Chap. 10.women. The censors had not an eye over them but as over the rest of the republic. The institution of the domestic tribunal supplied the magistracy established among the Greeks.
The husband summoned the wife's relations, and tried her in their presence. This tribunal preserved the morals of the republic; and at the same time these very morals maintained this tribunal. For it decided not only in respect to the violation of the laws, but alto of morals; now in order to judge of the violation of morals, morals are requisite.
The penalties inflicted by this tribunal, ought to be, and actually were, arbitrary: for all that relates to manners, and to the rules of modesty, can hardly be comprized under one code of laws. It is easy indeed to regulate by laws what we owe to others; but it is very difficult to comprize all we owe to ourselves.
The domestic tribunal inspected the general conduct of women: but there was one crime, which beside the animadversion of this tribunal, was likewise subject to a public accusation. This was adultery; whether that in a republic so great a violation of morals interested the government; or whether the wife's immorality might render the husband's ​Book VII. Chap. 11.suspected; or whether, in fine, they were afraid lest even honest people might chuse that this crime should rather be concealed, than punished.
CHAP. XI. In what manner the Institutions changed at Rome, together with the Government.
AS morals were supposed by the domestic tribunal, they were also supposed by the public accusation; and hence it is that these two things fell together with the public morals, and ended with the republic.
The establishing of perpetual questions, that is, the division of jurisdiction among the praetors, and the custom gradually introduced of the praetors judging all affairs themselves, weakened the use of the domestic tribunal. This appears by the surprize of historians, who look upon the decisions which Tiberius caused to be given by this tribunal, as singular facts and as a renewal of the ancient course of pleading.
The establishment of monarchy and the change of manners put likewise an end to public accusations. It might be apprehended lest a dishonest man, affronted at the contempt shewn him by a woman, vexed at her refusals, and irritated even by her virtues, should form a design to destroy her. The Julian law ordained that a woman should not be accused of adultery till after her husband had been ​Book VII. Chap. 11. & 12.charged with favouring her irregularities; which limited greatly and annihilated, as it were, this sort of accusation.
Sixtus Quintus seemed to have been desirous of reviving the public accusation. But there needs very little reflection to see, that this law would be more improper in such a monarchy as his, than in any other.
CHAP. XII. Of the Guardianship of Women among the Romans.
THE Roman laws subjected women to a perpetual guardianship, except they were under cover and the authority of a husband. This guardianship was given to the nearest of the male relations; and by a vulgar expression it appears they were very much confined. This was proper for a republic, but not at all necessary in a monarchy.
That the women among the ancient Germans were likewise under a perpetual tutelage, appears from the different codes of the laws of the Barbarians. This custom was communicated to the monarchies founded by those people; but was not of a long duration.
CHAP. XIII. Of the punishments decreed by Emperors against the Incontinency of Women.
Book VII. Chap. 13.THE Julian law ordained a punishment against adultery. But so far was this law, any more than those afterwards made on the same account, from being a mark of purity of morals, that on the contrary they were a proof of their depravation.
The whole political system in respect to women received a change in the monarchical state. The question was no longer to oblige them to a purity of morals, but to punish their crimes. That new laws were made to punish their crimes, was owing to their leaving those transgressions unpunished, which were not of so criminal a nature.
The frightful dissolution of manners obliged indeed the emperors to enact laws in order to put some stop to lewdness; but it was not their intention to establish a general reformation. Of this the positive facts related by historians are a much stronger proof, than all these laws can be of the contrary. We may see in Dio the conduct of Augustus on this occasion, and in what manner he eluded, both in his praetor's and in his censor's office, the repeated instances that were made him, for that purpose.
​Book VII. Chap. 13.We find indeed in historians very rigid sentences, passed in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius against the lewdness of some Roman ladies: but by shewing us the spirit of these reigns, they at the same time shew us the spirit of those decisions.
The principal design of Augustus and Tiberius was to punish the dissoluteness of their relations. It was not their immorality they punished, but a particular crime of impiety or high treason of their own invention, which served to promote a respect for majesty, and answered their private revenge.
The penalty of the Julian law was small. The emperors insisted that in passing sentence the judges should increase the penalty of the law. This was the subject of the invectives of historians. They did not examine whether the women were deserving of punishment, but whether they had violated the law, in order to punish them.
One of the most tyrannical proceedings of Tiberius, was the abuse he made of the ancient laws. When he wanted to extend the punishment of a Roman lady beyond that inflicted by the Julian law, he revived the domestic tribunal.
​Book VII. Chap. 13. & 14.These regulations in respect to women concerned only senatorian families, but not the common people. Pretences were wanted to accuse the great, which were constantly furnished by the dissolute behaviour of the ladies.
In fine, what I have above observed, namely that purity of morals is not the principle of monarchy, was never better verified than under those first emperors; and whoever doubts of it need only read Tacitus, Suetonius, Juvenal, or Martial.
CHAP. XIV. Sumptuary Laws among the Romans.
WE have spoken of public incontinency, because it always accompanies, always follows, and is followed always by luxury. If we leave the motions of the heart at liberty, how shall we be able to restrain the weaknesses of the mind?
At Rome, besides the general institutions, the censors prevailed on the magistrates to enact several particular laws to preserve the frugality of women. This was the design of the Fannian, Licinian, and Oppian laws. We may see in Livy the great ferment the senate was in, when the women insisted upon the revocation of the Oppian law. The abrogation of this law is fixed upon by Valerius Maximus as the period from whence we may date the luxury of the Romans.
CHAP. XV. Of Dowries and Nuptial Advantages in different Constitutions.
Book VII. Chap. 15.DOWRIES ought to be considerable in monarchies in order to enable husbands to support their rank and the established luxury. In republics, where luxury should never reign, they ought to be moderate; but there should hardly be any at all in despotic governments, where women are in some measure slaves.
The community introduced by the French laws between man and wife, is extremely well adapted to monarchical government; because the women are thereby interested in domestic affairs, and compelled, as it were, to take care of their family. It is less so in a republic, where women have more virtue. But it would be quite absurd in despotic governments, where the women themselves generally constitute a part of the matter's property.
As women are in a state that furnishes sufficient inducements to marriage, the advantages which the law gives them over the husband's property, are of no service to society. But in a republic they would be extremely prejudicial, because riches are productive of luxury. In despotic governments the profit accruing from marriage ought to be mere subsistence, and no more.
CHAP. XVI. An excellent Custom of the Samnites.
Book VII. Chap. 16.THE Samnites had a custom which in so small a republic, and especially in their situation, must have produced admirable effects. The young people were all convened in one place, and their conduct was examined. He that was declared the best of the whole assembly, had leave given him to take which girl he pleased for his wife; the person that had been declared second best chose after him; and so on. Admirable institution! The only recommendation that young men could have on this occasion, was owing to virtue and to the services done their country. He who had the greatest share of these endowments, chose which girl he liked out of the whole nation. Love, beauty, chastity, virtue, birth, and even wealth itself, were all, in some measure, the dowry of virtue. A nobler, and grander recompence, less chargeable to a petty state, and more capable of influencing both sexes, could scarce be imagined.
The Samnites were descended from the Lacedaemonians: and Plato, whose institutes are only an improvement of those of Lycurgus, enacted very near the same law.
CHAP. XVII. Of Female Administration.
Book VII. Chap. 17.IT is contrary to reason and nature that women should reign in families, as was customary among the AEgyptians; but not that they should govern an empire. In the first case the state of their natural weakness does not permit them to have the pre-eminence; in the second their very weakness generally gives them more lenity and moderation, qualifications fitter for a good administration, than roughness and severity.
In the Indies they are very easy under a female government; and it is settled that if the male issue be not of a mother of the same blood, the females born of a mother of the blood-royal must succeed. And then they have a certain number of persons that assist them to bear the weight of the government. If to this we add the example of England and Russia, we shall find that they succeed alike both in moderate and despotic governments.
* ↑ The first Census was the hereditary share in land, and Plato would not allow them to have in other effects above a triple of the hereditary share. See his Laws, book 5.
* ↑ In a great city, says the author of the Fable of the Bees, tom. 1. p. 133. they dress above their condition, in order to be esteemed more than what they really are by the multitude. This to a weak person is almost as great a pleasure as the accomplishment of his desires.
* ↑ Fragment of the 36th book of Diodorus, quoted by Const. Porphyrogen. in his extract of virtures and vices.
* ↑ Cum maximus omnium impetus ad luxuriam esset, ibid.
* ↑ Demorib. German.
* ↑ Dio. Cassius Lib. 54.
* ↑ Tacit. Annal. lib. 3.
* ↑ Multa duritici veterum melius mutata Tacit. Atinal. lib. 3.
* ↑ Opulenitia paritura mox egestatem. Plorus lib. 3.
* ↑ Costitution of James I. in the year 1234 article 6, in Marca Hispanica p. 1429.
* ↑ They have prohibited rich wines and oilier costly merchandizes.
* ↑ See book 20, chap. 20.
* ↑ Luxury has been here always prohibited.
* ↑ In an ordinance quoted by Father Du Halde, tom. 2. p. 497.
* ↑ History of China, 21st Dynasty in Father Du Halde's work, tom. 1.
* ↑ In a discourse cited by Father Du Halde, rom. 2. p. 418.
* ↑ In respect to true love, says Plutarch, the women have nothing to say to it; in his treatise on love, p. 600. He spoke in the stile of his time. See Xenophon in the dialogue intitled Hiero.
* ↑ At Athens there was a particular magistrate who inspected the conduct of women.
* ↑ Romulus instituted this tribunal, as appears from Dionysius Halicarnass. bonk 2 . p. 96.
* ↑ See in Livy, book 39, the use that was made of this tribunal at the time of the conspiracy of the Bacchanliaus: they gave the name of conspiracy against the republic to assemblies in which the morals of women and young people were debauched.
* ↑ It appears from Dionys. Halicarn lib. 2. that Romulus's institution was, that in ordinary cases the husband should sit as judge in presence of the wife's relations, but that in grievous crimes he should determine in conjunction with five of them. Hence Ulpian, tit. 6. § 9, 12, & 13, distinguishes in respect to the different judgments of manners, between those which he calls important, and those which are left so, graviores, leviores.
* ↑ Judicio de moribus (quod antea quidem in antiquis legibus positum erat, non autem frequentabatur) penitus abolito, leg. 11. Cod. de repud.
* ↑ Judicia extraordinaria.
* ↑ It was entirely abolished by Constantine: "It is a shame, said he, that settled marriage should be disturbed by the presumption of strangers."
* ↑ Sixtus Quintus ordained, that if a husband did not come and make his complaints to him of his wife's infidelity, he should be put to death. See Leti.
* ↑ Nifi convenissent in manum viri.
* ↑ Ne'sis mibi patruis oro.
* ↑ The Papian law ordained under Augustus that women who had bore three children should be exempt from this tutelage.
* ↑ This tutelage was by the Germans called Mundeburdium.
* ↑ Upon their bringing before him a young man who had married a woman with whom he had before carried on an illicit commerce; he hesitated a long while, not daring to approve nor to punish these things. At length recollecting himself, seditions, says he, have been the cause of very great evils, let us forget them. Dio, book 54. The senate having desired him to give them some regulations in respect to women's morals, he evaded their petition, by telling them that they should chastise their wives, in the same manner as he did his; upon which they desired him to tell them how he behaved to his wife. (I think a very indiscreet question).
* ↑ Culpam inter viros & faeminas vulgatam gravi nomine laefarum religionum appellando, elementiam majorum suasque ipse leges egrediebatur, Tacit. Annal. lib. 3.
* ↑ This law is given in the Digest; but without mentioning the penalty. It is supposed it was only relegatio, because that of incest was only depertatio. Leg. si quis viduam, ff. de quaest.
* ↑ Proprium id Tiberio suit scelera nuper reperta priscis verbis obtegere, Tacit.
* ↑ Adulterii graviorem paenam deprecatus, ut exemplo majorum propinquis suis ultra ducentesimum lapidem removeretur, suasit. Adultero Manlio Italiâ atque Africa interdictum est. Tacit. Annal. lib. 2.
* ↑ Decad IV. lib. 4.
* ↑ Marseiiles was the wisest of all the republics in its time; here it was ordained that dowries should not exceed one hundred crowns in money, and five in cloaths, as Strabo observes, lib. 4.
* ↑ Fragment of Nicolaus Damascenus, taken from Stobeus in the Collection of Constatine Porphyrogenitus.
* ↑ He even permits them to have a more frequent interview with one another.
* ↑ Edifying Letters, 14th collection.