Chapter Summary
Roman law recognised two forms of marriage, one of which was more common in early law and the other of which became the dominant form by the classical period. The older form, manus marriage, imposed manus on the wife, a potestas-like relationship by which she entered the power of her husband or of his paterfamilias.
The alternative was a free marriage, without manus, in which the wife did not lose her previous family relationships and did not enter her husband's power. This form was notable for its minimal legal consequences as far as the relationship between the spouses was concerned. It had in common with manus marriage, however, that the children of the marriage were the legitimate children of their father, subject to his potestas or to that of his paterfamilias.Further Reading
G.1.108-15b
J.1.10
D.23-5
C.5.1-24, 26
B W Frier and T AJ McGinn, A Casebook on Roman Family Law (Oxford University Press 2004) chapter II
D Nörr, ‘The Matrimonial Legislation of Augustus: An Early Instance of Social Engineering' (1981) 16 Irish Jurist (NS) 350
104 Emperor AD 518-27.
105 J.2.7.3. For this reason, Justinian changed the name from the original donatio ante nuptias (‘gift before marriage'). S Treggiari, Roman Marriage: lusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian (Oxford University Press 1991)
A Watson, The Law of Persons in the Later Roman Republic (Oxford University Press 1967) chapters 1-7