THE POSITION OF WOMEN 81 



In Imperial Rome, laws were passed giving special 

 privileges to patrician fathers of more than three 

 children, and it is a pathetic comment on the futility 

 of such enactments that we find the younger Pliny, 

 childless after two marriages, congratulating himself 

 on receiving these privileges, as a mark of the 

 Emperor's good-will. At one time the mothers of 

 several children were to be allowed control of some 

 part of their dowry at which the fathers became re- 

 calcitrant ; young patrician widows were to be com- 

 pelled to remarry within a limited space of time ; again, 

 bachelors above a certain age were forbidden entrance 

 to the public games a restriction which, until re- 

 moved, led to the contraction of a number of formal 

 marriages with women of the courtesan class, but to 

 no increase in the birth-rate. At another time, public 

 complaint was made of the scarcity of children among 

 the families of the knights, the military class of the 

 Roman Empire, who retaliated by pointing out that 

 during their prolonged absences on foreign service, the 

 privileges accorded to their families had been abrogated 

 and their patrimony had been taxed to such an extent 

 that they were no longer able to maintain even their 

 one or two children in circumstances suitable to their 

 social standing. The symptoms connected with the 

 decline of the birth-rate were freely discussed and 

 deplored ; the causes of the decline were never examined 

 into, with a view to reconstituting the environment of 

 seclusion, security and comfort possibly of privilege 

 in which the elements recognized to be of the 

 greatest value to the State could be persuaded to breed 



freely. To re-establish a distinct race and a natural 



6 



