Dissolution of Free Marriage

The free marriage, being founded upon mere consent, without formal celebration, might be dissolved by an informal withdrawal of consent. The dissolution of the marriage (divortiiim) might be effected by the mutual consent of both parties, or by the will of one party alone. And the wife had the same power to dissolve marriage as the husband. All that was necessary to dissolve the marriage was the intent, which, however, was required to be expressed in the form of a notification {repudimn) by one spouse to the other. (Sohm, 476n. ) By the earlier law no particular mode of notifica- tion was required.

It might be oral or written, and given personally or by messenger or letter. Thus a husband might divorce his wife by simply telling her that the marriage was at an end. Or he might take the keys from the wife, put her out of his house, give her back her dowry, and the marriage was dissolved. Cicero divorced his wife Terentia by letter.

By the lex Julia de Adulteriis (B. C. 18) a written bill of divorce (libellus repudii) was required to be given in the presence of seven witnesses, Roman citizens above the -age of puberty. The bill should properly be delivered to the other party, but this was not essential. It was possible for one spouse to divorce the other without the latter's knowledge. The bill of divorce was publicly registered.

The rules of divorce applicable to free marriages were in time extended to marriages with manus. The wife, in manu, could not, indeed, directly divorce her husband, but , by her rcpiidiuin she could require him to procure a formal divorce.

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Effects of Marriage with Manus

By the strict marriage the wife passed into the marital power of her husband {in manum viri). The manus or marital power may be regarded as a particular form of the patria potestas. An uxor in manu was a member of her husband's household. Although called a materfamilias, this term did not have a meaning corresponding to the term paterfamilias. The wife was not the head of the family. She stood legally in the position of a daughter {in loco filiafamilias) of her husband. If she had children she was regarded as a sister of her own children. The relation of husband and wife, both as regards the wife's person and her property, was governed by the same rules of law as governed the relation of father and child. The law of husband and wife may, therefore, be considered as merely a particular branch of the law of parent and child. The husband had, in general, the same power over the person of his wife in manu as the father had over his child. Anciently, it may be suppo...
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Slavery by Birth

The children of a female slave became the slaves of her master. The status of the father as free or slave was immaterial. The general rule governing the determination of the status of a child, whether as free or slave, or as citizen or alien, was as follows : Children born in lawful wedlock had the status of the father at the moment of conception, children born out of wedlock had the status of the mother at the moment of birth. Hence if the father of a child of a lawful marriage was free at the moment of conception, the child was free although the father should subsequently lose his freedom. As to children born out of wedlock, the general rule, as above stated, was that it was the status of the mother at the moment of birth that determined the status of the child. If the mother was free at the moment of conception but a slave at the moment of birth, the child was a slave, and conversely. This was the earlier law, but the rule was modified in the interest of liber...
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Mandate (Mandatum)

Mandate (mandatum) was a contract by which one person mandatarius agreed to do something gratuitously at the request of another mandator , who, on his part, agreed to save him harmless from all loss in so doing. The mandator was said to give the mandatory a mandate, or commission to do the act in question. The term mandatum is sometimes translated "agency", but this translation is misleading. The mandatory is not properly described as an agent. Mandate was the only gratuitous consensual contract; the others, sale, hiring, and partnership, all being founded upon a consideration. Like the others, it was a bona fidei negotium , and bound the parties to do all that was required by good faith. It was of the essence of the contract of mandate that the mandatory should act gratuitously. But while this was true in a strict legal sense, it was allowed to agree upon a sum to be paid as a honorium , or salary, which might be recovered only by a special action and not b...
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