138 



But amongst the many forms, in entering married life, 

 which have existed in the Roman empire down to the 

 latest times, we recognise especially the following. 



The conjugal affection which arises between two per- 

 sons of different sex, manifests itself first in the consense 

 of the parties to live as husband and wife. " Sponsalia, 

 stent nuptice, consensu contrahentium jiunt,''' was the rule 

 pronounced by Julian, and adopted by Justinian in the 

 Pandects. This consense was generally first declared by 

 the betrothal, Sjionsalia, which were still in use* in that 

 part of Italy, which is called Latium, as Aulus Gellius 

 quotes from a work of Servius Sulpicius de dotibus. In 

 these Sponsalihus the sponsus promised that he would 

 marry the woman, and the father, or whoever had the 

 power over the woman, promised that he would give 

 the sponsa in marriage ; and a fine could be imposed by 

 the judge upon him who broke ofi" the engagement with- 

 out justa causa. This fine was abolished in later years, 

 till an arrha, a kind of earnest money, was given at the 

 sponsalihus, which the party lost that broke off the 

 engagement. 



Another way of recognising a legitimate marriage was 

 offered by the transactions of the dos, which preceded 

 the marriage. 



In some instances we find that a declaration of the con- 

 tracting parties before witnesses, that the union upon which 

 they entered was a real matrimony, and not a concuhinatus, 

 was necessary. So the lex Delia Sentia orders, that if a 

 liberated slave, who cannot get the civitas on account of 

 not being thirty years of age, marries a civis Romana or a 

 Latina, declares this marriage before seven Roman 

 citizens who are of age, and gets then a child, and this 

 child is a year old, he can demand from the Prastor to 



* About 90 before Christ. 



