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the Roman ladies preferred, of course, this new marriage to 

 the old form, which subjected them to such a slavery ; 

 and as the ladies, if not afterwards, exercise, at least as 

 brides, a paramount influence over the gentlemen, the 

 free marriage gained, by degrees, ground even with mar- 

 riages amongst Roman citizens, the more so, as the hus- 

 band too had the advantage of easily getting rid of a 

 wife of whom he had got tired. If we are on the one 

 side astonished, that after the old religious ceremonies 

 had disappeared, no new forms were fixed by law for an 

 institution which was of such wide civil consequences, 

 we must not forget that there were in Rome already, and 

 much more in the wide-spread Roman provinces, many 

 customs which were preserved down to the latest times 

 of the Roman empire, and that the law, whenever a 

 question about a marriage was mooted, acknowledged 

 these customs as manifestations of the maritalis affectio. 

 As there existed in Rome, besides the matrvinomum, the 

 concubinatus and the contubernium, two institutions lega- 

 lized by the state, which might have been confounded, 

 but which had far different civil effects, for instance, for 

 the rang of the children and the condition of inheritance, 

 it was necessary to fix a principle by which the legitimate 

 marriage was recognised. This principle was not an ex- 

 ternal judicial form, but an internal, moral condition. 

 Ulpian says, " non enim coitus matrimonium facit, sed 

 maritalis affectio. Wlienever this maritalis affectio was 

 manifested, as we mentioned already before, and by Avhat 

 ceremonious forms or customs it was manifested, accord- 

 ing to the conscience or will of the contracting parties, 

 the Roman law acknowledged matrimony. The legal 

 prejudice was so much in favour of the matrimonium that, 

 whenever two persons of different sex lived together, 

 who were both not slaves, the law presumed the maritalis 

 affectio, and treated the alliance as a legal matrimony 

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