Gifts between Husband and Wife - Dos

As a contribution on the part of the wife towards the expenses of the joint household, it was customary to make over to the husband some property known as the dos, or dowry. The custom of giving dos, though well established before the close of the Republic, seems to have grown up after the Twelve Tables. The dos may have been a sort of compensation to the husband for his failure to receive the wife's property by the marriage after the decline of the mamis.

The property might be given by the wife's father, or other male ascendant, in fulfillment of a legal duty on his part to provide it (dos profectitia), for a daughter or granddaughter had a learal right to require her father or grandfather, as the case might be, to provide a dos as a last act of maintainance ; or it might be given by any other person, as by the wife herself, or by anyone else other than her father or other male ascend- ant {dos adventitia). The dos might be actually given to the husband or merely promised, such promise being enforceable.

The husband was not the absolute owner of the dotal property; he was rather practically a trustee, having the right to the use and income or produce of the property, but being bound to restore the corpus thereof upon the dissolution of the marriage. If the property consisted of res fungibles, such as money, food, etc., which were consumed in the use, he was obliged to restore them in kind.

Before Justinian the husband was allowed in certain cases to retain the dotal property in case he survived his wife, but Justinian enacted that in all cases the dos should go to the heirs of the wife, unless the person giving it had specially stipulated that it should revert to him or his heirs.

The husband's right to the dotal property was at first more extensive than here stated, but by successive stages his ownership was reduced so that practically all that remained to him was the usufruct and control of the property during the coverture.

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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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