Wedding (roman antiquity)
A traditional Roman wedding rite extended over three days: the evening before, the actual day of the wedding and the after-party. Certainly not all elements of the rite were observed at all times and in every social class and an elaborate wedding rite was only possible for formally closed forms of marriage. The celebration was irrelevant to the legal validity of the marriage.
The eve
The bride had received a ring from the groom at the engagement , which she wore ever since on the ring finger of her left hand. On the eve of the wedding, she was dressed in a white tunica recta , often a yellow- red palla galbeata and a yellow veil, the flammeum . Her hair was divided into six braids with a lance , which had been used as early as possible during the war, the hasta coelibaris , wrapped with a woolen thread ( vitta ) and pinned into a braided topknot ( tutulus ). The girl sacrificed the bride's children's clothes and her children's toys to Lares and Vesta .
The wedding day
The day started in the morning with an inspection of the entrails in the house of the bride's parents ( auspicia ). If the result was favorable ( fausta auspicia ), the marriage contract ( tabulae nuptiales ) was read out to witnesses. An old woman who had to live in her first marriage joined the right hands of the bride and groom ( dextrarum iunctio ) as a pronuba (at the same time she was considered a representative of Juno ). The bride spoke the formula UBI TU GAIUS EGO GAIA .
Sacrifices and invocations of established deities followed ( Tellus and Ceres , Picumnus and Pilumnus and Iuno). On the wedding day, the bride wore the costume that had been put on her the night before. Now the wedding feast followed. The bride was then led to her husband's house with torches, behind the bride spindle and robes were carried. During the procession, “ Talassio ” was called (meaning unclear; Livius ' report that during the robbery of the Sabine women the bride was brought to a certain Talassius with the acclamation “Talassio” (“for Talassius”), is probably to be regarded as an aiological story ), suggestive Verses of mockery were sung and the bridegroom, at the request of the boys, scattered nuts. At the house, the bride greased the doorposts and wrapped them with woolen bandages. Then the groom carried her over the threshold (if he stumbled while doing this, it was considered a bad omen ) and officially welcomed her in the atrium with water and fire as a new member of the family. The bride distributed a symbolic dowry to the husband, the lar of the house and the lar of the next crossroads.
The after-party
After the wedding night there were new sacrifices and an after-party among relatives.
Age
Roman girls were considered marriageable from 12 years of age and boys from 14 years of age, but many did not marry until later. Augustus passed the lex Papia Poppaea , a law that punished women aged 20 and men aged 25 if they were still unmarried. As a rule, marriages were arranged, especially among the upper class.
literature
in chronological order in descending order
- Ingemar König : Vita romana. From daily life in ancient Rome. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-534-17950-1 , pp. 29–42.
- Peter Connolly , Hazel Dodge: The Ancient City, Life in Athens & Rome. Könemann, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-8290-1104-0 .
- Horst Blanck : Introduction to the private life of the Greeks and Romans. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1976, ISBN 3-534-06066-0 .
- Alexander Adam: Roman Antiquities: or, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Romans. 6th edition. Blackie & Son, Glasgow 1835, pp. 399-408, online .