Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Women and Property

his repayment of the dowry might be put on an accelerated schedule.) “Fault” is not well defined by our sources, but seems to center on moral and especially on sexual impropriety. Note that any extramarital sex by the wife was adultery, permitting (and later requiring) her husband to divorce her. The husband committed an offense only by having sex with “respectable” women; the next-door neighbor was forbidden, but the (slave) maid or a prostitute was acceptable. The rules just stated were the standards assumed by the law, but most of them could be adjusted by the mutual agree ment of the parties at the time the marriage was contracted.

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