In the fourth and fifth centuries, Roman marriage law takes on quite a different appearance from the “classical” law of the first three centuries.
The late antique laws are leges generales, often in the form of edicts, setting forth imperial policy to be applied universally.
Unlike juristic texts, late Roman laws come from the emperors' consistory directly; unlike the imperial rescripts of the second and third centuries, late Roman laws are intended to apply to all subjects and, though they may be in response to inquiries and cases presented to the emperor by his subordinates, they are not individual responses [see further Introduction, Part I.B].Yet the changes in format and tone of late antique legislation should not obscure some basic continuities in Roman marriage law. Marriage in late antiquity continued to be a transaction conducted between families, and the purpose of marriage continued to be the production of legitimate children to whom family wealth and status could be transmitted. The same concerns are evident as in classical law: observation of the proper preliminaries in making a marriage: the need for paternal consent; regulation of the transfer of property that comes with the joining of two people in marriage; and, especially, the prohibition and penalization of unions that run counter to moral and social propriety because of kinship or status disparity [on which see Chapter 3]. There are new developments, however: the centuries-old legislation of Augustus penalizing the unmarried and childless is rescinded by Constantine, betrothal agreements become legally binding, prenuptial gifts from bridegroom to bride and sureties to guarantee that the marriage takes place become subject to regulation, and the range of prohibited unions widens considerably.