THE WORLD OF MARRIAGE

The marriage ceremony: dextrarum iunctio

Marriage was the prize for which the culture prepared every daughter of citizen parents from birth; it was the rite of maturation for a young female, enabling her as bride, wife, and mother to contribute to the state by producing new citizens. Early on Rome, whose founding myths preserved the stories of the birth out of wedlock of its first king Romulus and the Sabine marriage of its first matronae, set legal protections around Roman citizen marriage for the citizen body (see XII Tables, Table XI), colonies, and allies, for whom ius conubium was a privilege of association granted by treaty. Marriage was not possible for slaves, who were the property of their masters and so could not produce citizens (cf. this freed family). There were several forms of legal marriage, but by the late Republic the most popular was without manus, which offered advantages to women. In this World the absence of women's voices is felt most keenly, for marriage was a central moment in a woman's life, usually negotiated by the parents of the couple, and equaled only by the birth of her children, while for her husband it was yet another arena in which he gave service to the state and perhaps advanced his social and economic status. These arrangements of convenience did not, however, preclude a loving and respectful relationship, as the marriage of Caesar's daughter Julia to Pompey the Great evidences. The marriage ceremony itself was elective and primarily a social occasion whose elaboration depended on the rank and resources of the participating families and whose core was the dextrarum iunctio and the witnessed signing of the marriage contract, which, for the elite, set terms of agreement on the dowry, divorce, and widowhood. While marriage was intended to be a lifelong bond and often was, divorce (divortium) was an option for both parties, involving the return of a woman to her birth family with her dowry but without her children, who remained with their father. This World is conveyed in great part by mute statuary and conventional sentiments on tombstones, in encomia which honor women who conformed to expectations, and in comedy and satire which mock the stereotype of the wife. For details of the marriage forms and ceremony, see matrimonium; see also the Companion bibliography and Images of Marriage below.

IMAGES of MARRIAGE

Cameo Relief in layered Onyx, depicting the wedding of Eros and Psyche. Roman. Detail of the couple. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts.

Couple depicted on a marble sarcophagus in a central rondel, holding an instrument and surrounded by winged boy figures and images of floral and faunal fertility (see below the couple a recumbent female--goddess Italia?-- with cornucopia and twins). 2nd-3rd century CE. Ostia Museum.

Married Couple facing each other on a terra-cotta roundel. Inscription: IN SE SENESCATES (=senescatis) "May you grow old together." Roman, c. 330-60 CE. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts.

Relief of a couple in the marriage pose ( dextrarum iunctio, clasped right hands) on a marble tombstone in the shape of a niche; in between two putti hold garlands above their heads; the bearded husband holds a scroll while his wife holds a pomegranate (?); their boy child clings to his mother's leg. 2nd-3rd century CE. Ostia Museum.

Marble Funerary Relief of Aurelius Hermia and his wife Aurelia Philematio, one of earliest to commemorate legitimate marriage between freedpeople; they are portrayed as Roman citizens (see text in WRW, pp. 46-47). From tomb on Via Nomentana, c. 80 BCE. London, British Museum.

Sarcophagus Relief in marble of a married couple exchanging vows with a nude child between them holding the wedding torch; wife and husband are sculpted on the corners. c. 240 CE. Munich, Glyptothek.

Tombstone of a Married Couple: marble, high relief. From Via Statilia. 2nd quarter of 1st Century BCE. Rome: Museo Montemartini.

Cinerary urn in marble for Helius Afinianus, dedicated by his wife. He is dressed in a toga, holding a scroll; she wears a stola and palla. They stand in front of open doors, holding hands before an altar in the marriage pose dextrarum iunctio. Inscription: D[is] M[anibus] HELIO AFIN[iano] PUB[lico] AUG[usto] SEXTIA PSYCHE CONIUGI B[ene] M[erenti] [fecit]. Rome, 2nd century CE. Berlin, Pergamon Museum.

Funeral Carpentum: Etruscan alabaster cinerary urn with relief on front of a couple reclining in a covered wagon (carpentum) on their way to the underworld, surrounded by mourners. From Volterra, 100-50 BCE. London, British Museum.

Sarcophagus Lid of Proconnesian marble in high relief of a Roman marriage ceremony in which the couple clasp right hands (dextrarum iunctio), a symbol of the marriage contract which the groom holds in his left hand; the pronuba stands between and behind them; a young man (?offspring) stands beside them. 160-80 CE (partly restored in the 18th century). London, British Museum.Full view.

Marble Tombstone: portraits of a couple in their later years (top) and earlier at their marriage (below) in the dextrarum iunctio pose; dedicated by their child(ren). Inscriptions between their portraits: (left) TVRPILLAE M[arci] F[iliae] / TERTIAE / MATRI (right) C[aio] ACVTIO / C[aii] F[ilio] / PATRI. From Aquileia. Mid 1st century CE. Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.

Terracotta Covered Urn painted with a scene of wedding preparations. Made for a tomb. Pictured are four women: mother at left (?), pronuba at right (?), musician with drum and veiled bride in center. Detail. Centuripe, 3-2 century BCE. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Couple on a marble grave plaque intended for an outdoor monument which would have contained their names. Probably freedpersons with Augustan hairstyles. Roman, 13 BCE-5 CE. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Veiled woman rests her hand on the arm of a bearded man holding a scroll; their busts are placed on a seashell in the central medallion of a marble sarcophagus relief; around them are scenes from the Old Testament and the New. From the cemetary of St. Calixtus, 325-350 CE. Rome, Vatican Museum (Christian).

Marriage ceremony in the center panel of a veined marble sarcophagus relief. Wife and husband stand joining hands (damaged) before Juno Pronuba, with Psyche & Eros (lost) below them Long wave patterns separate the central pagan reliefs from scenes on the left and right from the Old Testament and the New. Imperial/christian period. Rome, Vatican Museum (Christian).

Portrait Cameo of Claudia Octavia (c. 40-62 CE), daughter of the emperor Claudius, and Nero, perhaps in commemoration of their wedding (note the well-defined straps of Octavia's stola, the dress of a married woman). Roman, Julio-Claudian. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts.

Plotina and Trajan: facing portraits of the deceased imperial couple on an aureus, commemorating their divinity (stars above their heads); inscribed DIVIS PARENTIBVS ("for his deified parents"); issued by the adopted Hadrian late in his reign or soon after his death (138 CE). Rome, Palazzo Massimo.

Laudatio Turiae: fragment of the opening lines of a long inscription containing a funerary eulogy by a husband in praise of his wife (possibly named Turia), who saved his life during the proscriptions (see text in WRW, pp. 42-45). Roman, 8-2 BCE. Rome, Terme Diocleziano.

Bride: reconstruction of the clothing worn by a young girl at her wedding. She wears a corona of flowers, a saffron flammeum, yellow socci, a white tunica recta, bound with a cingulum tied in a nodus Herculaneus. Pliny says the bride's hairnet (not visible) was egg-yolk colored and dyed with luteum ( it yields a deep yellow dye) and that the flammeum was also dyed with luteum; however, a scholiast on Juvenal likens the flammeum to the blush of a bride. From an image supplied by Judith Sebesta of a student in a course (late 1990's).

Widow: reconstruction of the clothing worn by the vidua: a black tunic, bound with a cingulum tied in a nodus Herculaneus, beneath the recinium (a square veil with a purple stripe along one edge, worn by women in times of mourning; men wear the pulla, a dark-colored toga). From an image supplied and modeled by Judith Sebesta (late 1990's).

All images are courtesy of the VRoma Project's Image Archive.