Family And Marriage In Antiquity - Law And Custom

The family is an institution with a complex, open and dynamic content, it represents the nucleus of the formation and development of the individual and is the result of a millennial evolution in which it has undergone multiple transformations under the influence of religious, moral, economic, social or political factors. The evolution of the ancient family through the transformation of its matriarchal character - where gender equality was specific - into patriarchal has decisively and definitively influenced the position of the two sexes in the family and in society in general, increasing gender inequality leading to strengthening the authority of the father (manus). The marriage in the ancient world, regardless of religion, people or geographical area and regardless of its form, mono or polygamous, was generated by customary or legally established religious rules and norms, the purpose of marital union being procreation, the birth of healthy male children, sound in mind and body to be able to carry on the family name and to arrange its religious ceremony. Marriage laws throughout the ancient world forbade marital union between a free person and a slave, and the children born of such a bond acquired the status of slaves. The marriage could be contracted (after the conclusion of an engagement) in different forms: either by the payment of a sum of money made by the groom to the father of the fiancée (recorded at the Persians, the Romans – the coemptio marriage -, or by longer cohabitation, usus-at the Romans, the nubile age for marriage being generally very low (12 and 14 years respectively for boys at the Romans, even 8 years for girls in India, 15 years in Egypt, 14-15 years for girls and 17 years for boys, respectively in Greece). As for the traditional religious ceremony, similarities are identified in the ancient world, some of which go as far as identity, the marriage usually lasting three days, with rigorous ritual procedures: witnesses, the bride's cleansing bath, the utterance of solemn words, wedding gifts, banquetsv etc.