Manus Marriage
Encyclopedia
Manus is Ancient Roman marriage, of which there were two forms: cum manu and sine manu. In a cum manu marriage the wife was placed under the legal control of the husband. In a sine manu marriage the wife was still under the legal control of her father. In both cases, the marriage could only take place with the approval of the patres familias
if both the husband and wife were alieni iuris
. However, the creation and termination of the marriage somewhat depended on the type of marriage. Initially cum manu was the only form of marriage but in time the cum manu union faded and only sine manu marriage was widely practiced.
. She stood under the control of the husband’s potestas
or that of his father, and was thus no longer under the control of her father. This change of status was referred to as capitis deminutio minima
, and the wife received the title of materfamilias, meaning “woman of the household” - a title reserved only for woman in a cum manu union. Legally the wife was "adopted"
by her husband and assumed the status of a daughter in the family. This granted her the same entitlements as the other children family over matters of intestate succession. Therefore, the wife no longer inherited
from her father but from her husband. However, the husband held a limited power over her in comparison to his children. For example, the husband did not have the legal right of life and death the way he would his daughter, or that of noxal surrender
and sale
. The wife in a cum manu marriage held no proprietary capacity meaning she could not own any property
. Everything acquired prior to cum manu was thus transferred into the husbands property or his paterfamilias
. During Cicero's
time property such as dowry
was recognized as distinguishable and therefore recoverable. Liabilities the wife may have acquired before marriage were erased. A widowed or divorced woman would become sui iuris
. For a widowed wife two significant benefits came from cum manu marriage: the husband could grant the wife the ability to select her tutor
and she was able to create a will. Cum manu (i.e the woman enters into manus) was procured by one of three ways: Confarreatio
, Coemptio and Usus.
was one way of obtaining cum manu marriage, -limited to the practice of patricians. This is a particular kind of sacrifice
made to Jupiter
. During this ritual
the bridegroom and bride shared a bread made of farreus known as emmer grain
, hence confarreatio translates to “sharing of emmer bread.” This process required the presence of ten witnesses and the recital
of ceremonial sacred
verses
. High priests such as the priests of Jupiter
, Mars
, and Quirinus
were required to be born from confarreatio union and were otherwise unqualified to obtain priesthood. As confarreatio slowly fell from favor it became difficult to find candidates for priesthood. In order to revive confarreatio marriages, the practice endured some amendments. Consequently, the flamen Dialis’s
wife only fell under the control of her husband during rituals, and was otherwise as autonomous as other women. Cum manu was no longer acquired by the employment of confarretio and became restricted to patricians pursuing in priestly positions.
notional sale of the woman to the husband. Coemptio occurred at any time throughout marriage. This was a process of mancipation. The transaction occurred with a scales
-holder and in the presence of at least five witnesses, all of whom were adult male Roman citizens. Coemptio could occur not only with a husband but also with an outsider. However, this process is deemed for the “sake of trust” not for the “sake of marriage.” Coemptio was only a convenient legal practice. If a wife became cum manu through the process of coemptio divorced, then she became emancipated. By the 2nd century AD, a wife was able to compel her husband to emancipate her, a right not shared by her children. Coemptio is presumably a rare practice even during the 2nd century BC under Gaius
. In addition, it is possibly the remains of earlier practices of notional sale.
of the husband and wife for the duration of a year. After a year passed the wife was transferred into the ownership of her partner, she was considered taken by the decree
of yearly possession. This process required no ceremonial practices. If the woman was not willing to come into ownership
of her husband, manus by usus was easily preventable. As conditioned in the Twelve Tables
if the wife absented herself for the total of three days and three nights before the end of the year, each year, the marriage was not cum manu, and she was not under the ownership of her husband. If a woman married cum manu through the process of usus divorced then, she became emancipated. Subsequently, the law of usus was dissolved by legal enactments
presumably because it fell out of use.
. A sine manu marriage did not change the legal status of the bride after the marriage, in regards to property rights. In other words, the bride
is not under control of the husband. This form of marriage held no ceremonial formalities led by a public official. Ultimately it involved a husband and wife living together under the intention of a marriage, in conjunction with the legal capacity of marriage under the Roman law
. Although no official ceremony was held, it was customary for the bride to be escorted to her bridegrooms house. The children of this union were legally members of the husband’s agnatic kin
. They held no legal connection with the mother’s paterfamilias
, and could not make claims on her intestate
. It was only when the woman’s father died that she became sui iuris
. This union allowed the wife to become independent sooner than cum manu, under the assumption that the fathers are likely to have died before a husband. Primarily this served the natal family, allowing her property to stay in the father’s possession.
Various factors may have led to the extinction of cum manu and the predominance of sine manu during the Roman Republic. Women faced with the loss of property when entering a cum manu marriage began to only consent
to sine manu unions.
Pater familias
The pater familias, also written as paterfamilias was the head of a Roman family. The term is Latin for "father of the family" or the "owner of the family estate". The form is irregular and archaic in Latin, preserving the old genitive ending in -as...
if both the husband and wife were alieni iuris
Status in Roman legal system
In Roman law, status describes a person's legal status. The individual could be a Roman citizen , unlike foreigners; or he could be free , unlike slaves; or he could have a certain position in a Roman family either as head of the family , or as a lower member .- Status...
. However, the creation and termination of the marriage somewhat depended on the type of marriage. Initially cum manu was the only form of marriage but in time the cum manu union faded and only sine manu marriage was widely practiced.
Cum Manu
In a cum manu union the wife legally and ritually became a member of her husband's familyFamily
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
. She stood under the control of the husband’s potestas
Potestas
Potestas is a Latin word meaning power or faculty. It is an important concept in Roman Law.-Origin of the concept:The idea of potestas originally referred to the power, through coercion, of a Roman magistrate to promulgate edicts, give action to litigants, etc. This power, in Roman political and...
or that of his father, and was thus no longer under the control of her father. This change of status was referred to as capitis deminutio minima
Capitus Diminutio
Capitis deminutio is a term used in Roman trials referring to the extinguishing, either in whole or in part, of a person's former legal capacity....
, and the wife received the title of materfamilias, meaning “woman of the household” - a title reserved only for woman in a cum manu union. Legally the wife was "adopted"
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
by her husband and assumed the status of a daughter in the family. This granted her the same entitlements as the other children family over matters of intestate succession. Therefore, the wife no longer inherited
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
from her father but from her husband. However, the husband held a limited power over her in comparison to his children. For example, the husband did not have the legal right of life and death the way he would his daughter, or that of noxal surrender
Noxal surrender
Noxal surrender was a provision of Roman law in the case a delict was brought against a paterfamilias for a wrong committed by a son or slave. The defendant had the option in that instance of surrendering the dependant rather than paying the full damages....
and sale
Sales
A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....
. The wife in a cum manu marriage held no proprietary capacity meaning she could not own any property
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
. Everything acquired prior to cum manu was thus transferred into the husbands property or his paterfamilias
Pater familias
The pater familias, also written as paterfamilias was the head of a Roman family. The term is Latin for "father of the family" or the "owner of the family estate". The form is irregular and archaic in Latin, preserving the old genitive ending in -as...
. During Cicero's
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
time property such as dowry
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
was recognized as distinguishable and therefore recoverable. Liabilities the wife may have acquired before marriage were erased. A widowed or divorced woman would become sui iuris
Sui iuris
Sui iuris, commonly also spelled sui juris, is a Latin phrase that literally means “of one’s own laws”.-Secular law:In civil law the phrase sui juris indicates legal competence, the capacity to manage one’s own affairs...
. For a widowed wife two significant benefits came from cum manu marriage: the husband could grant the wife the ability to select her tutor
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
and she was able to create a will. Cum manu (i.e the woman enters into manus) was procured by one of three ways: Confarreatio
Confarreatio
In ancient Rome, confarreatio was a traditional patrician form of marriage. The ceremony involved the bride and bridegroom sharing a cake of spelt, in Latin far or panis farreus, hence the rite's name. The Flamen Dialis and Pontifex Maximus presided over the wedding, and ten witnesses had to be...
, Coemptio and Usus.
Confarreatio
The ritual of confarreatioConfarreatio
In ancient Rome, confarreatio was a traditional patrician form of marriage. The ceremony involved the bride and bridegroom sharing a cake of spelt, in Latin far or panis farreus, hence the rite's name. The Flamen Dialis and Pontifex Maximus presided over the wedding, and ten witnesses had to be...
was one way of obtaining cum manu marriage, -limited to the practice of patricians. This is a particular kind of sacrifice
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...
made to Jupiter
Jupiter (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Jupiter or Jove is the king of the gods, and the god of the sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon....
. During this ritual
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
the bridegroom and bride shared a bread made of farreus known as emmer grain
Emmer
Emmer wheat , also known as farro especially in Italy, is a low yielding, awned wheat. It was one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East...
, hence confarreatio translates to “sharing of emmer bread.” This process required the presence of ten witnesses and the recital
Recital
A recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....
of ceremonial sacred
Sacred
Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred...
verses
Verse (poetry)
A verse is formally a single line in a metrical composition, e.g. poetry. However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza....
. High priests such as the priests of Jupiter
Jupiter (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Jupiter or Jove is the king of the gods, and the god of the sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon....
, Mars
Mars (mythology)
Mars was the Roman god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter, and he was the most prominent of the military gods worshipped by the Roman legions...
, and Quirinus
Quirinus
In Roman mythology, Quirinus was an early god of the Roman state. In Augustan Rome, Quirinus was also an epithet of Janus, as Janus Quirinus. His name is derived from Quiris meaning "spear."-History:...
were required to be born from confarreatio union and were otherwise unqualified to obtain priesthood. As confarreatio slowly fell from favor it became difficult to find candidates for priesthood. In order to revive confarreatio marriages, the practice endured some amendments. Consequently, the flamen Dialis’s
Flamen Dialis
In ancient Roman religion, the Flamen Dialis was the high priest of Jupiter. There were 15 flamines, of which three were flamines maiores, serving the three gods of the Archaic Triad...
wife only fell under the control of her husband during rituals, and was otherwise as autonomous as other women. Cum manu was no longer acquired by the employment of confarretio and became restricted to patricians pursuing in priestly positions.
Coemptio
The matrimonial process of coemptio was in essence a fictitiousLegal fiction
A legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts which is then used in order to apply a legal rule which was not necessarily designed to be used in that way...
notional sale of the woman to the husband. Coemptio occurred at any time throughout marriage. This was a process of mancipation. The transaction occurred with a scales
Weighing scale
A weighing scale is a measuring instrument for determining the weight or mass of an object. A spring scale measures weight by the distance a spring deflects under its load...
-holder and in the presence of at least five witnesses, all of whom were adult male Roman citizens. Coemptio could occur not only with a husband but also with an outsider. However, this process is deemed for the “sake of trust” not for the “sake of marriage.” Coemptio was only a convenient legal practice. If a wife became cum manu through the process of coemptio divorced, then she became emancipated. By the 2nd century AD, a wife was able to compel her husband to emancipate her, a right not shared by her children. Coemptio is presumably a rare practice even during the 2nd century BC under Gaius
Gaius Gracchus
Gaius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populari politician in the 2nd century BC and brother of the ill-fated reformer Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus...
. In addition, it is possibly the remains of earlier practices of notional sale.
Usus
A cum manu acquired by usus was simply the cohabitationCohabitation
Cohabitation usually refers to an arrangement whereby two people decide to live together on a long-term or permanent basis in an emotionally and/or sexually intimate relationship. The term is most frequently applied to couples who are not married...
of the husband and wife for the duration of a year. After a year passed the wife was transferred into the ownership of her partner, she was considered taken by the decree
Decree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
of yearly possession. This process required no ceremonial practices. If the woman was not willing to come into ownership
Ownership
Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be an object, land/real estate or intellectual property. Ownership involves multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different parties. The concept of ownership has...
of her husband, manus by usus was easily preventable. As conditioned in the Twelve Tables
Twelve Tables
The Law of the Twelve Tables was the ancient legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Law of the Twelve Tables formed the centrepiece of the constitution of the Roman Republic and the core of the mos maiorum...
if the wife absented herself for the total of three days and three nights before the end of the year, each year, the marriage was not cum manu, and she was not under the ownership of her husband. If a woman married cum manu through the process of usus divorced then, she became emancipated. Subsequently, the law of usus was dissolved by legal enactments
Coming into force
Coming into force or entry into force refers to the process by which legislation, regulations, treaties and other legal instruments come to have legal force and effect...
presumably because it fell out of use.
Sine Manu
In a sine manu union the wife legally and ritually remained a member of her father's family, standing under the control of her father's potestasPotestas
Potestas is a Latin word meaning power or faculty. It is an important concept in Roman Law.-Origin of the concept:The idea of potestas originally referred to the power, through coercion, of a Roman magistrate to promulgate edicts, give action to litigants, etc. This power, in Roman political and...
. A sine manu marriage did not change the legal status of the bride after the marriage, in regards to property rights. In other words, the bride
Bride
A bride is a woman about to be married or newlywed.The word may come from the Proto-Germanic verb root *brū-, meaning 'to cook, brew, or make a broth' which was the role of the daughter-in-law in primitive families...
is not under control of the husband. This form of marriage held no ceremonial formalities led by a public official. Ultimately it involved a husband and wife living together under the intention of a marriage, in conjunction with the legal capacity of marriage under the Roman law
Roman law
Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...
. Although no official ceremony was held, it was customary for the bride to be escorted to her bridegrooms house. The children of this union were legally members of the husband’s agnatic kin
Kin
-Places:* Kin, Okinawa, a town in Okinawa, Japan* Kin, Pakistan, a village along the Indus in Pakistan* Kin, Mogok, a village in Mogok Township, Burma * Kin, Ye, a village in Ye Township, Burma...
. They held no legal connection with the mother’s paterfamilias
Pater familias
The pater familias, also written as paterfamilias was the head of a Roman family. The term is Latin for "father of the family" or the "owner of the family estate". The form is irregular and archaic in Latin, preserving the old genitive ending in -as...
, and could not make claims on her intestate
Intestacy
Intestacy is the condition of the estate of a person who dies owning property greater than the sum of their enforceable debts and funeral expenses without having made a valid will or other binding declaration; alternatively where such a will or declaration has been made, but only applies to part of...
. It was only when the woman’s father died that she became sui iuris
Sui iuris
Sui iuris, commonly also spelled sui juris, is a Latin phrase that literally means “of one’s own laws”.-Secular law:In civil law the phrase sui juris indicates legal competence, the capacity to manage one’s own affairs...
. This union allowed the wife to become independent sooner than cum manu, under the assumption that the fathers are likely to have died before a husband. Primarily this served the natal family, allowing her property to stay in the father’s possession.
Various factors may have led to the extinction of cum manu and the predominance of sine manu during the Roman Republic. Women faced with the loss of property when entering a cum manu marriage began to only consent
Consent
Consent refers to the provision of approval or agreement, particularly and especially after thoughtful consideration.- Types of consent :*Implied consent is a controversial form of consent which is not expressly granted by a person, but rather inferred from a person's actions and the facts and...
to sine manu unions.