The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1869-08-21
From Lecky's History Of European Mcrals.l
ROMAN WIVES.

4 M%VAA taEN w A1Eps
The legal position of the Roman
wife was, for long period, extremely
low. The Roman family was constitu-
ted ON the principle of the absolute
authority Of its head, who had the
power of life and death both over his
wife and over his children, and who
could repudiate the former at will
Neither the custom of gifts to the faith
er of the bride, nor the custom Of dow
ries, appears to have existed In the
earliest period of Roman history, but
the father disposed absolutely of the
hand of his daughter, and sometimes
possessed the power Of breaking of
marriages that had actually been con-
tracted. In the forms Of marriage,
however, which were usual in the ear
lier periods of Rome, the absolute
power passed into the hands Of the
husband, and he had the right in some
cases, of putting her to death. Law
and public opinion continued in max
ing matrimonial purity more strict
For five hundred and twenty years, It
was said there was no such thing as q
divorce in Rome, and, even after this
example, for many years the marriage
tie was asregarded as absolutely indissolu-
BILE. Manners were so severe that q
Senator was censured for indecency
because he had kissed his wife in pres
ence of their daughter. It was con-
sidered In high degree disgraceful
for Roman mother to delegate to Q
nurse the duty Of sucking her child.
Sumptuary laws regulated, with the
most minute severity, all the detail OF
domestic economy. The courtesan
class, though probably numerous, and
certainly uncontrolled, were regarded
with much contempt. The disgrace
of publicly protesting themselves mem
bers of it was believed to be suffi-
cient punishment; and an old law,
which was probably intended to teach
in symbol the duties Of married life,
enjoined that no such person should
touch the altar of Juno. 1t was relat-
ed of certain adile, that he failed to
obtain redress foE an assault which had
been made upon him, because it had
occurred III q house of III fame, IN
which it was dsg1aceful for a Roman
magistrate to be found. The sanctity
of female purity was believed to be at
tested By all nature. The most savage
female became tame before @ virgin
When a woman walked naked round q
field, caterpillars and loathsome insects
fell dead before her. It was said that
drowned men hoated on their backs,
ayd ,.-x,s5 ,z-xs~.,s.,. -. ~. -. @aa~r
and this, in the opinion of Roman nat
nralists, was due to the superior purity
Iof the latter.
It was remarked by Aristotle, that
the superiority of the Greeks to the
barbarians, was shown, among other
things, In fact that the Greeks did not,
like other nations, regard their wives
as slaves, but treated them as help
mates and companions. A Roman
writer has appealed, on the whole
with greater justice 10 the treatment of
wives by his fellow-countrymen, as q
proof of the superiority of Roman to
Greek civilization. He has observed
that, while the Greeks kept their wives
, lin special quarter In the interior of
their houses, and never permitted
them to sit at banquets, except with
their relatives, no Roman ever hesita-
ted to lead his wife with him to the
feast, or to place the mother of the
. family at the head of his table
Whether, in the period when wives
were completely subject to the rule of
. their husbands, much domestic oppres-
! sion occurred, it is now impossible to
say. A temple dedicated to a goddess
named Viriplace, whose mission it was
) to appease husbands, was worshiped
J by Roman women on the Palatine, and
strange and improbable, if not in
o credible story, is related by Livy, of
: the discovery, during the Republic. of
vast conspiracy of Roman wives to
8 poison their husbands. On the whole,
. however, it is probable that the Roman
! matron was, from the earliest period,
{ a name of honor; that the beautiful
" sentence of jurisconsult of the enl-
= Ipire, who defined marriage as a life
,fllong fellowship of all divine and hu-
: man rights, expressed most faithfully
the feelings of the people, and that
q female virtue shone IN every age con-
j spicuously in Roman biographies