Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

family (and of marriage in particular) changed. It was affected by several factors. One of the most dramatic of these was the rise of Christianity. The final section will look at the legal con sequences of that transformation. (Some major aspects of the family and of family law have already been treated in Chapter 15 on inheritance, especially the rules of intestate succession. I will not repeat that material here.)

Marriage and Divorce

There were a number of requirements for marriage under Roman law. The parties had to be of opposite sexes and other wise unmarried. They had to be Roman citizens, or have been granted the right of intermarriage ( conubium ) individually or as a member of a politically favored non-Roman community. (Roman law did not claim that noncitizens were unmarried; it just left that judgment to others.) They could not be close biological relatives; the formal definition in most cases was that they had to be at least five degrees (see Chapter 15) apart. And some closer step-relatives and in-laws were also prevented from marrying. They had to be of minimum reproductive age. Originally, this seems to have been regarded as a question of fact, to be determined on a case-by-case basis. Over time, the law shifted to a more standardized requirement of age twelve for girls and fourteen for boys. (Except for girls of the elite classes, the typical age of actual marriage appears to have been considerably higher than the legal minimum, though would-be

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