Separation in ancient Roman Family
The word “divorce” always has been a difficult word for me to speak out loud. The divorce itself was often treated as a sin in the society I was raised in. As I read through Susan Treggiari’s “Roman Marriage,” I started to wonder how the divorce was perceived in the ancient Roman society and where those divorced women stood on the issue. It is apparent the different social roles in ancient society had influenced them since this is the time period where it was considered normal for men to have all the powers and women to stay in and take care of the household. Consequently, this difference in sex roles also applied to how divorce was handled.
Romans used to use the term “repudiare of a sponsa” in order to refer …show more content…
Indeed, these rules are quite solid considering the time it was declared. For the starter, the marriage to a different woman without properly notifying the end of the marriage to the first wife, the marriage he had with the second wife is invalid unless he clarified his relation to the second wife in order to prevent the male citizens from being irresponsible to his spouse. Moreover, the freedwoman could not divorce her husband against his will. Additionally, Augustan legislation prohibited the freedwoman remarrying to someone else without her patron’s consent. In order to marry to a different person, she had to get the consent from her former patron, who will most likely refuse to give such consent. If the husband decides to give her the consent, her divorce with him becomes valid and so does her new marriage (Treggiari, 450.) Lastly, the Julian law describes the relationship between adultery and divorce. It states if the divorce notification was improperly sent, making the woman as still married to the first guy, and someone else marries her; he will be not considered as adulterer due to the lack of intentional motives (Treggiari,
The word “divorce” always has been a difficult word for me to speak out loud. The divorce itself was often treated as a sin in the society I was raised in. As I read through Susan Treggiari’s “Roman Marriage,” I started to wonder how the divorce was perceived in the ancient Roman society and where those divorced women stood on the issue. It is apparent the different social roles in ancient society had influenced them since this is the time period where it was considered normal for men to have all the powers and women to stay in and take care of the household. Consequently, this difference in sex roles also applied to how divorce was handled.
Romans used to use the term “repudiare of a sponsa” in order to refer …show more content…
Indeed, these rules are quite solid considering the time it was declared. For the starter, the marriage to a different woman without properly notifying the end of the marriage to the first wife, the marriage he had with the second wife is invalid unless he clarified his relation to the second wife in order to prevent the male citizens from being irresponsible to his spouse. Moreover, the freedwoman could not divorce her husband against his will. Additionally, Augustan legislation prohibited the freedwoman remarrying to someone else without her patron’s consent. In order to marry to a different person, she had to get the consent from her former patron, who will most likely refuse to give such consent. If the husband decides to give her the consent, her divorce with him becomes valid and so does her new marriage (Treggiari, 450.) Lastly, the Julian law describes the relationship between adultery and divorce. It states if the divorce notification was improperly sent, making the woman as still married to the first guy, and someone else marries her; he will be not considered as adulterer due to the lack of intentional motives (Treggiari,